I walked to Hounslow

I am trying to keep to the rules of Lockdown 3 and if that means only one exercise walk a day then it has to be a long one, and this was a long one - 33 km in almost seven hours.

There was a plan, of sorts, but the final route and duration was due to a combination of last minute decisions and mistakes.

The first part of the journey did go according to the original plan. I have a standard route that takes me through Bushy Park to Hampton where I got my first coffee and cake of the day from regular haunt Paws for Coffee.

From there I went through Fulwell to join River Crane.

I followed London Loop as far as Hounslow Heath but instead of turning in there I avoided the mud and kept on the main road, that's the straight line on the left.

At that point it was a question over which bridge to aim for, Richmond or Kew, and I ambitiously chose Kew. Almost immediately I went wrong and took the U shaped loop in the middle. I realised my mistake quickly and from the base of the U I followed the Duke of Northumberland's River to the Thames, a route I had taken and enjoyed before.

It felt like I was home then, among familiar streets, though there was still a ling way to go as I continued north-east towards Kew Bridge and a second coffee at the Costa there (Brentford seems to be devoid of bijou coffee shops).

From Kew Bridge it was an almost straight line south home and while my weariness suggested that a 65 bus was a good plan I felt good enough to walk all the way and to complete the circular route.

The walk was a successful mix of pretty known places and interesting new ones, such as this mosque in Hounslow.

The minimal plan worked this time so I will try it again on my next long walk, I just hope that I find some interesting cafes along the way.

Daredevil by Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark is brilliant

I have read comics for most of the last fifty plus years or so but that does not mean all Marvel or DC comics for all of that time and there are some notable gaps, particularly when a young family put other demands on my time and pocket. 

Even so, I thought that I had Daredevil sorted as I was there for the legendary Frank Miller run which started in 1981. By the way, Frank Miller and I were born on the same day.

I was also there for the excellent Mark Waid and Chris Samnee run in 2014. More recently, prompted by reviews and sale offers, I filled in one of my gaps with the first volume of the Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev 2001 run. That was good but not good enough to tempt me to get the other volumes.

Then another sale brought me to Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark's take on Daredevil from 2006, which followed directly on from the Bendis run, and everything changed.

The Brubaker/Lark Daredevil is now my favourite Daredevil and one of my absolute favourite comics of all time. It really is that good.

Daredevil sits on the edge of the Marvel Universe and this is not a superhero comic, despite the presence of several caped heroes and villains. It is a story about Matt Murdoch and how he tries to regain some sort of life after being sent to prison and with several enemies conspiring against him.

It's a story that grips and twists like a good thriller, which is the domain that Brubaker now mostly writes in. There is action, quite a lot of it, but the fighting does not dominate the story, it is there because there and many things that Murdock needs to fight. Don't forget that his father was a boxer.

The story spreads over three collected volumes covering 39 issues (82 to 119 and 500). That's a lot of pages and I loved every one of them. The story swept majestically through some grand story lines and kept the relentless pace up with lots of little things along the way.

I had not come across Michael Lark's work before and it was a revelation! I could have picked almost any panel from any page as they are all as good as this one.

The detail of the background in wonderful and the grace of the movement of Iron Fist and Daredevil is gorgeous. There are a lot of scenes like this in the book and they are a thing of beauty. They also help to make Hells Kitchen one of the main characters in the story, which it should be as that is Daredevil's only natural territory.

The story goes international for a time and the scenes of, for example. a small town in Portugal are achingly good both in architectural accuracy and in the sunny mood of the place.

I cannot overstate how good this book is.

Lockdown 3: Day 1: 37 kilometres

My daily step count dropped dramatically during Lockdown 1, from around 25k to 20k, due to the one period of exercise a day rule and with this rule returning for Lockdown 3 I am going to have to get into the habit of making some long walks to keep my average anywhere near the 30k I have been managing recently. So today I went to Hayes and back.

I had done several sections of this route several times before, including a walk to Hayes and most of the way back before catching a bus last week, so I had a vague idea of how long it would take and so I did not do my usual distance calculation o Google Maps. In the end that was OK but I did end up walking for longer than I expected, almost seven hours when I was hoping for between five and six.

I could blame the considerable mud for my slow pace of around 11 minutes a kilometre instead of just under 10 but the main error was my lack of planning.

The route I chose was pretty simple, join Grand Union Canal at Brentford, follow it to Hayes and return via River Crane.

Both legs included sections of established walks including London Loop, London Capital Ring, Grand Union Canal Walk, Hillingdon Trail and River Crane Walk, so it was well signposted almost all the way and the tricky bits I had walked before so I was confident of the route.

I was also confident that I could get an early coffee and cake at the cafe in Syon Park after about an hour and a quarter but that was closed and I was pretty sure that the next cafe was Costa in Hayes, which it was so I had a very late coffee instead.

Following the canal to Hayes was easy enough, there was a towpath all the way (unlike Regents Canal which goes underground through Islington), if uneventful. Rural canals can be quite barren of features and the only really interesting section of this part of the walk was the series of locks at Hanwell, known collectively as Hanwell Lock Flight. 

One of these is charmingly named Asylum Lock because it is next the former St Bernard's Hospital, also known as Hanwell Insane Asylum and the Hanwell Pauper and Lunatic Asylum. The old hospital wall and buildings add nicely to the industrial feel of that section.

Hayes was the half-way point, mentally if not physically and finally gave me the chance to get a coffee and cake, even if it was from a Costa.

I knew that the return leg would be more tricky as I had only ever walked it the other way round and had several problems in doing so. My fears were unfounded and I found my way home without a hitch.

The first section of the walk, following River Crane from North Hyde to Hounslow Heath was the best part of the walk. It was the wildest and the quietest. What's not to like?

The worst part of the walk was also in this section. River Crane flows easily under Piccadilly Line and Great South-West Road (A30) but pedestrians are meant to walk a few hundred metres one way to a crossing and then all the way back again. That was my plan too until the lack of traffic tempted me to walk across the dual carriage way and to climb across the barrier in the middle. There really ought to be a request pedestrian crossing at that point.

Hounslow Heath was the muddiest part of the walk and my pace dropped to about 12 minutes per kilometre. That is still 5 km/hr which I am very happy with on a walk as long as this one.

It was just after 4pm when I got home and that was the ideal time for a cup of tea and some more cake. I deserved it.

I averaged 27,919 steps a day in 2020

When I last posted my annual walking data I said that I averaged 18,047 steps a day in 2017.

Clearly I am walking a lot more now than I did then and a lot of that is due to my retirement in early 2019 which changed both when and where I walk.

The end of commuting and, for most of the year, pubs to go to has taken the regularity from my schedule and now I do an irregular mix of local and more distant walks, sometimes with a friend (when that is allowed).

To get to 30k steps I have to do at least one reasonably long walk, i.e. over two hours, a day and that will either be a local walk to somewhere like Mortlake or Hampton or a more distant walk to somewhere like Hayes. Thanks to lockdown I am used to doing these after 9pm when it's very quiet on the streets.

Earlier in the year I did more walking away from home to places like West Hampstead and Woolwich but covid caution then kept me off tubes and I now do all my walking close to home in Ham, Richmond. While I have lots of options here, thanks to several rivers and large parks, I am very much looking forward to being able to explore further afield again.

The impact of Covid can be seen in the monthly totals with the lockdown months, March and April, being much lower than the rest of the year. Then I was following the rules and only leaving the house twice a day, once for shopping and once for exercising. Now I can leave the house for as much exercise as I want and I am taking advantage of that. In the last two months of the year I averaged 31k steps a day.

I have no plans or predictions for 2021 other than to keep walking somewhere.