Walking the Thames Path

Today I joined a Meet Up group (Young London to be precise) to go for a lovely Sunday afternoon stroll along the Thames Path from Richmond to Hampton Court. My housemate has had great success from joining a Meet Up badminton group and she suggested I sign up for group too. I quickly obliged, attracted by the idea of 'young' meet up groups - hoping for like-minded, jolly individuals. I arrived at the planned meeting point, Richmond Station, slightly nervous - what if I couldn't find the group? what if they had already left? I shouldn't have been nervous: the group was instantly recognisable; twenty-something twenty-somethings standing in a circle shaking hands and chatting. Lovely. In my very girl's school manner, I walked straight to a girl and introduced myself. Soon another girl joined, then another, then a guy and then, wow, we were a whole group! What really struck me was the international nature of the group - I met (in no particular order) people from: Spain, Italy, Estonia, Kashmir, Greece, Japan, Australia, and, of course, a few from England. All the men I met were in IT, with the women having more interesting jobs in design, media, teaching and admin. I also met a girl who went to the same university as me;I have an amazing (though I say so myself) ability to recognise faces and I must have seen her, at a bar or something, or the union, seven years ago and I must have subconsciously put two and two together. Anyway, back to the walk. We headed off through Richmond (a really wonderful place with fantastic shops - I would like to live there in the future!) and then straight onto the Thames Path. The pace was good - not too fast and not too slow and, inevitably, the group split into a faster party and a slower party. I was surprised to find myself in the faster party, which made my happy. The rest of the afternoon was made up of walking and chatting, with the odd stop at benches, just to regroup and (if I'm honest) choose someone else to chat too. Meeting the others was good fun and the majority are definitely not the type I would meet when out and about, so that was nice. I split from the group when we got to Kingston because I wasn't wearing the right attire for the heat and, frankly, I was getting a little uncomfortable. I walked to Kingston centre and managed to get a bus home, which was great. I will be back on Meet Up to choose my next adventure and I can't wait!

Route: Richmond to Hampton Court (via Kingston)
Miles: Approx. 7 miles (4 and a half to Kingston)
Information on the route: http://www.thames-path.org.uk/thames_richmond_hampton_court.html