London Loop Revisited (Sections 22 and 23)

On Monday 14 September 26 my colleague and I walked London Loop Sections 22: Harold Wood to Upminster Bridge (7km) and 23: Upminster Bridge to Rainham (7km).

For the most part this was following Ingerbourne on tarmac paths through a succession of parks and nature reserves. With a lot of greenery and a proper surface to walk on this was a really enjoyable walk made at a decent pace, around 5.5km/hr.

Being an easy route to follow we took almost exactly the same route as we had done previously. 

The first small divergence (at the top) was when I deliberately went off-route to add a road to my CityStrides Like Map.

The divergence in the middle, by Upminster, was because we had missed the correct turning the first time when following written instructions.

I am not sure how the divergence right at the end happened, we may have taken the easiest route to the station previously or there may have been a change to the route, GoJauntly took us on way, which worked, but we saw no London Loop signs that way.

Unlike the previous day where we failed to find even a cafe, this time we had a big cooked breakfast in Upminster. That is always a good thing to do.

London Loop Revisited (Sections 20 and 21)

I walked the London Loop a few years ago with my usual walking companion when not only did I not write anything about it at the time I also forgot to record some of the the walks leaving gaps in my CityStrides Life Map. For that, and the sheer pleasure of the walks, we are doing the London Loop aagin.

On Monday 7 September 26 we walked Sections 20: Chigwell to Havering-atte Bower (10 km) and  21: Havering-atte-Bower to Harold Wood (7km).

These are sections I had mapped before and I find the differences interesting. Most of these are due to mistakes made on the first walk when trying to follow written instructions we managed to go astray almost every day. This time I was following the route on GoJauntly so mistakes were fewer.

There may also have been some changes to the route, and possibly errors in the map. One of the triangles near Chigwell was where we had walked around two sides of a field previously while this time we walked diagonally across it.

The bug divergence in the centre was where we had gone wrong the first time (all the paths in woodlands look the same) and had found ourselves the wrong side of a fence and unable to rejoin the route easily.

Our original plan was to end the walk at Havering-atte Bower but when we discovered that the next bus to Ronford was in 117 minutes we descided to walk on to Harold Wood and the Lizzy Line.

30km to Uxbridge

I had walked to Uxbridge before and had also done the local sections of London Loop but I had not walked with the Ramblers before, despite being a member for a few years, and I took the opportunity of the 20th anniversary celebrations of the Loop to do all three.

The Ramblers part of the walk was all of section 10 and most of section 11 which went from Hatton Cross to West Drayton. I supplemented that by walking from home to Hatton Cross, which is sort of section 9 of the Loop, and then continued on to Uxbridge completing section 11.

I made no attempt to follow the Loop to Hatton Cross and my route was determined more by having to get there by 11am and the location of some target Pokemon Go gyms. That meant more main roads that the Loop but it also took me through Hanworth Park and let me get a coffee and another excellent cake from the deservedly packed Lisboa Loja cafe in Feltham.

I arrived at Hatton Cross at 10:58 feeling suitably smug at my timing and pleased to have taken a key target gym in Hampton and two more in Hanworth Park. The day had started well.

The walk to West Drayton went much as expected and was mostly a route I had taken several times before.

There are always options on routes like these and after crossing Bath Road in Cranford I headed confidently to Avenue Park only for everyone else to go to Cranford Park. I conceded defeat and joined them.

We joined the canal soon after and I was expecting us to follow it all the way to West Drayton so the detour via Stockley Park was unexpected though understandable.

It is both a strength and a weakness of London Loop that it often takes a longer route to include parks when the direct route is already pretty. That was the case here in leaving, and then rejoining, the canal and also in section 9 where it goes through Hampstead Heath when the path along River Crane is both shorter and, in my opinion, prettier (though, to be fair, it can be closed due to flooding). The conflicting requirements of walking for pleasure (prettiest route) and for travel (shortest route), and attempts to mix the two, make designing walking routes difficult with no right answers. I think that is the main reason that I prefer to walk alone or with a friend, we get to choose the route at each point rather than somebody else.

The Ramblers abandoned me in West Drayton where the effects of the sun drove me into a pub for a beer. As advised, the pub by the station was pretty dire - the London Pride was off and the substitute bottle of Tribute was (just) out of date. The crisps were ok but basic.

Short beer break over I continued uneventfully along the canal to Uxbridge. I probably should have checked the status of public transport before making these plans as my expected route was unavailable due to no District Line trains running to Richmond but two Piccadilly Line trains to Acton Town then South Ealing and a 65 bus did the trick, eventually.

With a couple of short breaks the 30km walk took something under seven hours. That is what I call a good walk.