Introduction
On Boxing Day, my parents and I went for a walk around one of the reservoirs in Staines (the town where they live).
On the way
We crossed the railway bridge and walked down Leacroft.
Passing underneath the bypass, we emerged onto Shortwood Common.
Then across London Road.
Reservoirs
Passing what used to be Shortwood school, we joined Stanwell Moor Road, which runs between two reservoirs.
After some distance we found the footpath leading up to the top of the Staines Reservoirs. There's a pair of reservoirs, north and south; the path runs eastward between.
In the middle, a clutch of birdwatchers looked out with large tripod-mounted telescopes. Lacking that magnification, we didn't see anything except coots.
Now in Stanwell, we took a foothpath north and around the edge of the reservoir.
Staines Moor
Beyond the northern edges of both reservoirs we reached Staines Moor, which is probably the best thing about Staines. It's ancient common land, and reliably bleak. It also features two-hundred-year-old anthills.
Outro
We left the moor, passing under the bypass again.
Then along a footpath that crosses a narrow aqueduct on a tiny bridge which Dad says he once saw a heron fly under; it must have held its wings pretty damn still. After that, a foot crossing over the railway line leads to a riverbank path behind the Two Rivers shopping centre (an ugly out-of-town swathe of car parking which mysteriously got sited directly in town).
That's it! Then back home.