Sat 19th May - Windsor to Maidenhead

The hotel was full last night as there were a lot of people in Windsor for today's royal celebration by the armed forces. Everyone needed to be in place early and we also needed to make sure we got an early start. So it wasn't too much of a surprise that most of us guests were waiting in the lounge just before 8am for the door to the dining room to open. The hotel staff though seemed a little surprised that everyone had arrived for breakfast at the same time but they did a sterling job feeding everyone quickly.  We saw some proud ex-servicemen heading off to the celebration, resplendent in their blazers and with their campaign medals on their chests, as we left the hotel and headed out of Windsor towards the river. Most people (and most cars) were heading  into town in the opposite direction. The first part of today's walk was idyllic as we made our way through wildflower meadows towards Eton Wick. We thought we were in for another glorious day's walking but we were soon to be proved wrong.  Dorney Court is just along the path from Windsor and is a venue for the Olympics. Because of that a 9' high security fences have been erected around the Dorney venue and the Thames Path has been closed for around 3 miles with a diversion along a nearby national cycle route. We should have known better but we took the advice of a local who claimed the fence had not been completed there was a way to bypass the fence and still get along the Thames Path. We managed to find our way back to the original Thames Path by walking through a car park and beside a boathouse. I suppose the complete lack of anyone coming in the opposite direction should have been a bit of a giveaway but for those 3 miles all seemed well. But when we got to the far end at Summerleaze Bridge we were met by another 9' foot fence. There was no way round the fence but Maidenhead was only 2 miles away. A**e! :) So we had to make our way back all the way to where we should have taken the diversion. There were some police patrolling nearby and we had met a local warden who said he thought then path blocked at Summerleaze was wrong. The police said they had received a number of complaints but the path should have been blocked at the Windsor end and they would need to speak to the Dorney people -again! By this time we felt we had done enough miles of the path even if some had been over ground we had already covered. So we decided to call it a day and got a taxi into Maidenhead where we had our slightly delayed lunch in a park by the river. The local geese were keen to help us eat our lunch but they were out of luck!! Hopefully we will have better luck tomorrow and no diversions - if we do, we won't be taking the advice of any locals :)