Basingstoke canal

A day out with the bicycles saw us cycle to Clapham Junction and hop on a train to Brookwood. From there, we followed the towpath of the Basingstoke Canal and the River Wey to Kingston. It was a beautiful ride - lots of green, dragonflies, flowering water lillies, ducks, squirrels and narrowboats. At the Brookwood end of the canal, the waterway was quite empty of water and looked derelict in parts. We read that local people had been working to restore the canal and we evidence of their work as we passed new locks and canal banks. At Woking, we stopped at The Lightbox - an art gallery beside the canal. It had an exhibition of children's book illustrators, which was really great, and an exhibition of Lord Snowdon's photographs of artists from the 1960s, 70s and 80s, which was fascinating both for the era and for seeing people who are now famous when they weren't quite so, such as Antony Gormley. I can highly recommend the cream tea at the cafe there.

Then it was onwards under the graffiti'd bridge carrying the M25 to Weybridge, Hampton Court and a pint at a riverside pub before reaching Kingston and the train home.

We discovered BBC1's "The Deep" - I can't wait until the next episode.