The Jolly Gardener

A Trip to Kew

The last time we went to Kew we travelled there via Thames river bus, badly misjudging the time the journey would take and arrived an hour before closing. So this time we made sure we were there at opening time by going in the camper and staying the night before in Denham which is 20 miles away.

We managed to get our friends on the road by 7.30 am and despite searching for the car park (if only my man had listened to me instead of that awful woman on the satnav) we had time to make our picnic and have coffee and biscuits before setting off like intrepid explorers across the 121 hectares of parkland. It isn’t cheap (£13) but you don’t begrudge the amount when you realise that Kew holds the greatest concentration of botanical knowledge in the world and its scientists work on a global scale in the fight to maintain biodiversity. It is bone chilling to learn that 13 million hectares of forest are cut down every day in the world!
People speak of the peace and tranquillity of the place but we very soon realised that it sits right under the flight path of Heathrow airport and the sound of planes taking off and landing rather spoils the ambiance. But hey ho, we love planes so a lot of our photos have them in the background.

We ate our picnic early on, (our excuse being that we felt sorry for the friend carrying the rucksack) and we trudged around, losing each other regularly until we had the good idea of getting on the little road train. It cost £4 each and travels around the park stopping at 8 places. The driver, who looked a bit like scary Freddie Kruger (Nightmare on Elm Street) gave a running commentary on route. He didn’t bother to turn off his mike when he groused at people for getting on between stops or leaning out of the carriage windows so we sat extremely still and behaved ourselves.

At the time of the great storm in 1987 Kew lost a 1/10th of their 10,000 trees. I can’t begin to imagine the devastation but they say they have turned a disaster into something positive, learning a lot on the way; you can’t see any sign of it now.

We visited all the glass houses; the most recent one is the Princess of Wales Conservatory which recreates ten climatic zones under one roof. There is a butterfly collection in one of the zones which is amazing.

We stayed until closing and had yet another picnic in the car park before setting off back to the caravan park, exhausted but full of wonder and planning our next visit when we hope to get to the aerial walkway and also to see the lakes. There is plenty for all the family, including a play area, good eating places and shops, but plan your route and stay together!