Walk this way

It’s the season for charity walks, and every year my friend and aqua teacher Jenny leads a walk for Breakthrough Breast Cancer.

It is tradition that her walk brings out the first of the Spring sunshine – and I come back with a rosy glow on my cheeks and a tingle on my arms.

This year the walk took place a few weeks later than usual – but we still doubted that the weather would turn around in time, when, last week, we were still wearing gloves and scarves.

But would you believe it – Sunday was superbly gorgeous and we covered five sunny miles doing a circuitous route along the river from Petersham to Isleworth and then round the Richmond Old Deer Park and back along the river to Petersham.

Although I say “we”, three of us – me, my dog Joe, and my friend Philippa – managed to do a slightly different route, after slowing down early on when Joe got a bit too hot in the sunshine (yes that’s how lovely it was) and then getting so caught up in a conversation that we found ourselves at Eel Pie Island where we realised that 1) our next bridge was Kew – and that wasn’t part of the route; 2) we’d lost sight of the people ahead of us; and 3) by this time there was nobody behind us either.

We scurried back to a foot bridge over Richmond lock, crossed to the Deer Park and then, seeing no sign of our group there either, decided nobody would really notice if we missed out the park and crawled back to Petersham having a coffee at the Tide Tables Cafe en route... But, as we approached the final leg, I heard Jenny right behind me: "KAREN! IS THAT YOU?!!"
The leader of the group had caught up with the stragglers...
Joe may have been wagging his tail but mine was firmly between my legs - and the rosy glow on my cheeks was not entirely due to the sunshine.