Saturday was the last London Loop day - and somewhat fittingly it was just the four original walkers who were walking. Come full circle - so to speak!
We'd been worried during the week as yet again the weather was bad, then I was struck with a cold. I took a day off on Thursday, worked Friday, cancelled a Friday night out as I knew I wouldn't be able to both go out and walk on Saturday, and then we all had a crack of dawn start to get to Harold Wood to begin the final 13 miles...
It was actually a much nicer walk than we had been expecting. Aside from one unpleasant road stretch, most of it was good. A bit whiffy at times as we walked past the landfill (where most of London's rubbish ends up). And we ended up on a long stretch along the Thames - from where we could see Erith - where we had started walking back on 14 September 2008.
For our final walk we didn't see any scary dogs, or crazy horses - but did meet some racing greyhounds - include one called Ardbeg Kate who I was going to put a bet on, but was too poorly the next day. (Ardbeg is my fave whisky - it seemed like a sign!). We also walked past concrete barges that were used during the D-Day landings - just hanging around in the mud now - and the Tilda rice factory. No doubt we've all eaten rice that had been through there!
But it was cold! Winter has now turned up here, so it was definitely the coldest walk we'd done for a while. There was even an ok pub at the end so we had a bottle of bubbles to celebrate our achievement at the end :-).
Next up for Nicola, Jackie and me is the Capital Ring...
Showing posts with label London loop walks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label London loop walks. Show all posts
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Saturday, November 21, 2009
More loopy Loop
Another two sections completed (20 and 21). Only one more walking day left and we're done...
This walk was a bit of a worry - England has been lashed by wind and rain all week, but amazingly we had very little rain, and what we did have came at the end. Yet again we've managed to walk on a decent weather day. In fact for an hour or so before lunch it was positively lovely - very warm and sunny.
But crazy sections! The instructions did not match the map at all, and the little loop signs also seemed to bear no resemblance to either the map or the instructions at all. Needless to say we got lost, but Mhairi and Nicola managed to navigate us back to where we should be. All very odd - and somewhat frustrating. Luckily it wasn't raining - I think we probably all would have had sense of humour failures had we been trying to work it out in the rain!
But we did stumble upon a random collection of wooden sculptures which seemed to have an animal/nature theme. No explanation as to who had made them, or why they had been made, but they were really clever. And in the afternoon, to make a change from big scary dogs, we were 'chased' by a posse of horses. Who galloped (and I mean galloped!) from one side of the field to the other as soon as they saw us. All very odd, and just slightly un-nerving - I quite like horses, but not when there are lots of them bearing down on us at speed!
It will be quite odd when this is all over and done with...
This walk was a bit of a worry - England has been lashed by wind and rain all week, but amazingly we had very little rain, and what we did have came at the end. Yet again we've managed to walk on a decent weather day. In fact for an hour or so before lunch it was positively lovely - very warm and sunny.
But crazy sections! The instructions did not match the map at all, and the little loop signs also seemed to bear no resemblance to either the map or the instructions at all. Needless to say we got lost, but Mhairi and Nicola managed to navigate us back to where we should be. All very odd - and somewhat frustrating. Luckily it wasn't raining - I think we probably all would have had sense of humour failures had we been trying to work it out in the rain!
But we did stumble upon a random collection of wooden sculptures which seemed to have an animal/nature theme. No explanation as to who had made them, or why they had been made, but they were really clever. And in the afternoon, to make a change from big scary dogs, we were 'chased' by a posse of horses. Who galloped (and I mean galloped!) from one side of the field to the other as soon as they saw us. All very odd, and just slightly un-nerving - I quite like horses, but not when there are lots of them bearing down on us at speed!
It will be quite odd when this is all over and done with...
Wooden sculpture
Wooden sculpture
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.
This one had a sort of Praying Mantis theme going on - Lindsey would have loved it!
Saturday, November 07, 2009
View out over Lea Valley Reservoirs
View out over Lea Valley Reservoirs
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.
London Loop, Section 18 Enfield Lock to Chingford
The Loop is almost complete....
Another two sections (18 and 19) of the London Loop completed today - after this there are only two more Loop days left (although five sections) as we rush to get it completed before Mhairi's exit from the UK.
Some lovely views on these sections - which was nice as the start at Enfield Lock was pretty horrible. We've been through some beautiful parts of London doing this, but some of them don't half start at dodgy places!
Some lovely views on these sections - which was nice as the start at Enfield Lock was pretty horrible. We've been through some beautiful parts of London doing this, but some of them don't half start at dodgy places!
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Looping along...
So Saturday we did section 17 of the London Loop - rapidly heading towards the end of it! Only three more walks to finish the rest of the sections - all before Mhairi leaves.
Lovely walk - the colours at the moment are gorgeous. Very autumnal, and this one was really quite rural. Small group tho - Nicola missed her first walk due to flu (but I know she'll make it up!), and Sarah had to walk. But we had a nice stroll and a nice pub lunch - not quite as nice as the lunch at Chris's pub, but still pretty good!
Lovely walk - the colours at the moment are gorgeous. Very autumnal, and this one was really quite rural. Small group tho - Nicola missed her first walk due to flu (but I know she'll make it up!), and Sarah had to walk. But we had a nice stroll and a nice pub lunch - not quite as nice as the lunch at Chris's pub, but still pretty good!
Saturday, September 05, 2009
More Looping
Another two sections of the London Loop completed - this time from Moor Park to Elstree. 12.1 miles so not a bad distance, and given the different walking speeds in the group we didn't finish at too bad a time.
We are now right up in North London so for most of us it is a schlep back across London to get home, but for Mhairi (our resident of North London) she is starting to enjoy not having too bad a trip home - she's had a long time of waiting for us to get to her part of town!
We had a lovely picnic spot on this walk, with great views out over London. Amazing to see the planes landing at Heathrow on the other side of London and think that it was only a few walks ago that we were walking under the flight path. Really did make me think that we are actually completing a circuit of London!
Despite knowing that the first section of this walk was badly signposted, I still managed to get us a bit lost - annoying when it was a long walk anyhow. And when we didn't need the signposts, there were loads of them! Or two at once pointing in different directions...
We are now right up in North London so for most of us it is a schlep back across London to get home, but for Mhairi (our resident of North London) she is starting to enjoy not having too bad a trip home - she's had a long time of waiting for us to get to her part of town!
We had a lovely picnic spot on this walk, with great views out over London. Amazing to see the planes landing at Heathrow on the other side of London and think that it was only a few walks ago that we were walking under the flight path. Really did make me think that we are actually completing a circuit of London!
Despite knowing that the first section of this walk was badly signposted, I still managed to get us a bit lost - annoying when it was a long walk anyhow. And when we didn't need the signposts, there were loads of them! Or two at once pointing in different directions...
Grassland
Grassland
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.
This was really quite pretty - but a bit scary to see autumnal colours appearing...
Sunday, August 09, 2009
A walk of two halves...
Two more sections of the London Loop completed... the first half was lovely - lots of it alongside the Grand Union Canal - easy walking, nice sunny Sunday morning, good pace. Second half was completely different - overgrown with stinging nettles (Mhairi and I were walking in a corn field at one point to avoid them as we both had long shorts on), and a very indistinct path which was also well overgrown with brambles and other prickly plants. So it was a real battle and my shins are very scratched and nettle stung.
More grist to my mill about walking on a Sunday - it just never goes right. Something always goes amiss... Plus I had to set my alarm for 7am, which on a Sunday is just plain WRONG.
More grist to my mill about walking on a Sunday - it just never goes right. Something always goes amiss... Plus I had to set my alarm for 7am, which on a Sunday is just plain WRONG.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
A bit more of the Loop...
No rest for the wicked - Saturday morning I was up and out early to meet the Loop walkers to do another section. This section was from Hayes & Harlington to Uxbridge and as a lot of it was along the canal it was pretty good. We had a great picnic for lunch as well - courtesy of most of the others in terms of the home made food tho!
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Very hot London Loop sections
Completed another two sections of the London Loop - Kingston to Hatton Cross (8.5 miles) and Hatton Cross to Hayes & Harlington (3.8 miles). A total of 12.3 miles, but it took us AGES... I've blogged before about our different walking speeds, but yesterday felt very long to me. A lot of that was the heat - we're in the middle of a wee heatwave here, so it was very hot walking, but even so I still feel like it took too long...
The start of the first section was lovely - through Bushy Park, which despite the fact that its on my doorstep, I've never been to before. En-route to the park we saw a very amusing sign at a pub, which I've posted below - made us all smile! After we left Bushy Park and got closer to Hatton Cross we were also getting closer to Heathrow, so the plane noise got louder and louder... We had a 'plane spotters' picnic as it felt like they were literally taking off just next to us, so for the particularly loud ones we'd all look up to try and identify it from the tail fin. The conversation ebbed and flowed depending on when a plane was taking off... It was a real relief to start to head away - I don't know how people manage to live so close without going insane - a couple of hours of it was doing my head in...
The start of the first section was lovely - through Bushy Park, which despite the fact that its on my doorstep, I've never been to before. En-route to the park we saw a very amusing sign at a pub, which I've posted below - made us all smile! After we left Bushy Park and got closer to Hatton Cross we were also getting closer to Heathrow, so the plane noise got louder and louder... We had a 'plane spotters' picnic as it felt like they were literally taking off just next to us, so for the particularly loud ones we'd all look up to try and identify it from the tail fin. The conversation ebbed and flowed depending on when a plane was taking off... It was a real relief to start to head away - I don't know how people manage to live so close without going insane - a couple of hours of it was doing my head in...
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