Day 22 - Piccadilly Line (Part Three)

Yesterday was always going to be tough. If only for the 12 mile walk from Acton Town to Heathrow airport, but then for the crushing possibility that some, if not most of the airport might be inaccessible by foot. The final result was somewhere in the middle, not as good as it could have been but also not as bad...

Accompanied by Jonathon Caunt (as per usual) and Felicity Ward (a newcomer to the world of walking between tube stations) we set off from Acton Town just after lunch. The early parts of the walk were fairly pleasant, but after passing Boston Manor a long dull road stretched out before us and the only thing that kept Flick going was the promise of ice cream at Osterley. Osterley came and went without any sign of an ice cream vendor, but Hounslow was more useful in that sense. A quick stop off at ASDA yielded two magnums each, Lucozade for myself and Pimms for JC and Flick.

The heat was baking, and the road seemed endless, although as we got closer to the airport the planes flying over our heads became lower and larger, and at least that gave us a sense that we were getting somewhere. Finally reaching Heathrow's perimeter road, we wandered along for what seemed like hours before reaching Hatton Cross, and some way beyond it the Heathrow Hilton. They had kindly allowed us to use their walkway into Terminal 4, although in honesty it would have been easy for us to have just wandered through. But manners cost nothing...

Once in Terminal 4 we quickly found the underground, and then tried to plan our next move, originally to Terminals 1/2/3. Given conflicting and fairly hopeless advice, we resorted back to JC's iPhone, and decided to change tack and head for T5 instead. Here, Flick gave in to heat, tiredness and boredom and went off in an ultimately failing search for a McDonalds in Terminal 4, before heading off back to London. Abandoned, we pushed on through the heat, around the entirety of Heathrow's perimeter, finding a road into the Terminal, and again finding the Tube station. Hopes were high at this point, but alas they were about to be shattered...

On the way out, we stopped at the info desk to ask if it was possible to walk to Terminals 1/2/3. A BAA employee informed us that no, it was not, as the only access involved a tunnel from which pedestrians were banned. Tempting as it was to try to flout this rule, it might well have ended up in another 90 minute walk in the baking sun which would prove fruitless, followed by legal action. As frustrating as it was, it just wasn't possible to walk any further, and so JC and I wearily climbed onto a tube and, making sure to pass through T1/2/3 and therefore complete that part of the line by tube, headed back into London.

It was a real shame not to be able to go any further than we did, but it was still a massive achievement to visit Terminals 4 and 5. Had it been possible to do more, we would certainly have done so, but alas it was not. In any case, that part of the Piccadilly Line is now complete, leaving only the Uxbridge branch to be finished over the weekend. Another day closer to walking the tube, only 8 more days of effort to go.

Cheers