Teacups and Sauces: Lunch is just around the corner..

Cake display in the Teahouse

My flatmate wanted me to do the Oxfam 100km Trailwalkers walk with her. Teams of four have 30 hours to walk 100km across the South Downs. It sounded like a challenge, slightly intriguing, would be a great accomplishment but also tedious. Walking through the night with the unpredictably of weather that is the UK put a dampener on the walk for me. None the less, we thought we would do a trial walk..not 100km but a more reasonable distance we could manage on a Saturday morning. Where could we walk to?

I believe in reward for effort. Whilst I do love walking, I am more akin to strolls, walks in the park on sunny days, through quaint cafe-lined streets and in and out of shops. If I am going to do a long walk and these do not fit the bill, at the least I would expect a nice lunch at the end.

Petersham Nurseries is a place I had been wanting to try for awhile and served as a perfect destination for our walk. Walk-It mapped it as approximately 19km which sounded long enough to test us a little but not too long that we would collapse in exhaustion and not be able to enjoy lunch. The nursery has a cafe, which is the fancier restaurant, which was awarded a michelin star (Head Chef is Australian Skye Gyngell) alongside a shop selling shabby chic like dining and gardening accessories. The nursery also is home to a cute little teahouse, dirt floors, plants, rustic garden furniture in a conservatory. Just my cup of tea. So, destination sorted.

The walk took us three hours through the beautiful streets of West and South London, fresh pollution and roaring traffic of the Great West Road with wild winds and the light pitter patter of rain on our non water or wind-proof clothing. Are we there yet? However, we hit Chiswick and the scenery changed - runners everywhere enjoying the scenery and the waterfront properties along Chiswick Mall which reminded me of going down the coast from Sydney for a weekend. This wasn't so bad. We were doing good time too, but we hastened our pace for fear the rain would change to more than a pitter or a patter.

Walking down Star and Garter Hill and finally seeing the sign for the nursery was welcoming. It wasn't that we were tired or didn't enjoy the walk - I must admit overall it was a very enjoyable way to start the morning. It was more the fact that with lack of interesting scenery coupled with looming grey clouds, it was good to know that the end was near and attainable.

The teahouse and nursery itself? We picked up our trays and got our beef stew, vegetable lasagne, chicken salad, cake and coffee from the little rustic teahouse and rested our cold bodies and enjoyed. It was just what we needed...simple, hearty and warming.

As for the 100km walk...let's save that for another rainy day..

Petersham Nurseries
Church Lane
Off Petersham Road
Richmond
Surrey
TW10 7AG