Walking to West Hampstead (8 Jan 25)

As long as I have sufficient time and the weather is not too unbearable,  I like to walk to the monthly British Czech and Slovak Association Get To Know You Social at Bohemia House ("serving the Czech and Slovak community since 1946") in West Hampstead. The factors driving my choice of route are the time available, location of Pokemon Go target gyms and finding roads I have not walked along before.

This time I had six hours available (I would have preferred more!) which had to include some sort of a break for lunch.

I started with a well walked path to Richmond, Isleworth and Brentford before following the canal north then west.

The time limited how far west I could go, it was walking in the wrong direction, and I turned off the canal at Glade Lane Canalside Park and headed through a part of Southall I had not walked before.

Previously I had walked thought the commercial centre of Southall which was far more interesting that the suburban area I went through this time.

I turned east to walk through parts of Ealing that I had hardly touched before. The map below is part of my CityStrides LifeMap with this walk highlighted. There is a very obvious barren area in the centre of the map around Park Royal. This proved to be a very industrial area and I will not be rushing back, despite the numerous unwalked roads there.

The aim of seeing new interesting things was not really achieved, though anything new always has some interest even if it is an industrial estate, and there were a few nice new places on this walk, such as the west to east crossing of Brent Rive Park.

The substantive aims of the walk were definitely met, I arrived in West Hampstead almost spot on 6pm having covered a decent 30km in a little under six hours.