The rolling London walking thread (Saturday October 15th, Otford to Eynsford)

Provides possibilities too

Chiselhurst or Crystal Palace to the Thames Barrier, Thamesmead or Eltham

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/streets/walking/walkdetails.asp?id=132

Also the Wandle has the Wandle trail.

http://www.wandletrail.org/

Funny cause I was so going to start this thread this morning myself.

I am going to do this walk...

damn, there's actually nothing on the website about it, but it's Lambeth Friends of the Earth sponsored walk around the Plague Pits Parks of Lambeth.

Saturday, 23rd April, 1-5pm, starts outside the Brixton Public library. Any takers? I know Emsk was keen, but though I would suggest it to other walkers. (This does not interfere with any other planned walks.)

((In fact I vote again even more strongly for the Wandle Walk becuase it's local for me!))

Partly because ultimately, it is something that is *participatory* and DIY in a way that music and art and other former RNR's just *aren't* any more.

I'm fascinated and intrigued because it combines many of my (often more academic and dry) interests - such as architecture, city planning, sociology, history, trainspotting/appreciating feats of engineering - in a way that is dynamic, participatory and ultimately creative.

Plus, walking is good exercise, gets that old serotonin flowing.

Unforeseen good side effects of massive walking exercise... despite eating all the birthday cake, I have managed to lose five lbs after the Lee or Lea walk!

Guess there are no takers? Bowling and Walking ILX0rs not much overlap, I guess. I don't really feel up to partying or bowling or suchlike, but I was hoping for a good walk. Ah well, I can always do it by myself, or try to round up some IRL people to go with me.

Sigh.

Bit nicer than the Paddington to Southall derelictathon, I should think.

Also, Thames River path, Marlow to Henley or Reading might fit the bill. Or the other way to Maidenhead, handier for trains. I might even join this, to laugh at your city slicker ways if nothing else.~

I ended up not walking at all on Sunday, instead I applied my manic energy and anger management to my back garden and hacked away at weeds and thornbushes with a rusty breadknife until I found a GIANT LANDSCAPED PATIO and a BBQ underneath all the crap and rubbish in the back garden! It's really pretty and lovely now. All I need is climbing roses.

Anyway, yes. Lambeth Plague Pit walk is next Saturday, 23rd April, 1 to 5pm. If the weather holds, I thought it would be nice to go back to mine and have a FIRE and eat things in the garden. Anyone who participates in the walk (or maybe even lazy bastards) is welcome to come and grill veggie burgers.

ALSO! Mark H suggested we do an Oxford country walk, which I think would be amazing. Especially if we can walk along the River Thames or Isis and then take a boat back.

I prefer things to be not derelict, because it means they still serve a useful purpose other than being gazed upon in admiration by 0.005% of the population.

I will get back in the knife drawer.

Admiring picturesque dereliction can feel a little Romantic. So it depends whether you like that or not.

I don't know where SOAS is.

My place of work is about ten minutes away, in a Princess Louiserly direction.

The other way along the Ravensbourne I might be up for. Going south, school sponsored walk route. Park at the end, lovely.

Never been to Acton, then?

i might be up for some of this walking, incidentally.

Give me a week or so and i should have my shiny new second hand bike.

from the window of the bus at least, the terrain from here to oxford looks gentle and forgiving, so i think it's a winnable challenge to follow it up with a big walk immediately... though there's always the option of stopping in the pub til the walkers finish then joining in again for a lazy punt.

it's also good to start (like the the london to x rides) towards the edge of London, although this is not too much of an issue, is only a few more miles but less good for cycling in a group.

Oxford people may be able to fill in with good country pubs near Oxford.

I guess more ambitiously, there are some nice pubs in the Cotswold, and lots of tiny villages..

I'll be up for a Oxford walk, but only from the end of June.
maybe this should be in a different thread.

I don't think I'm in good enough shape to cycle to Oxford. I was gasping even by the end of the Hawksmoor bikeride.

But I *do* want to walk in and around Oxford. Especially if country pubs and punting is involved.

(I think my mouse is posessed!)

I like the idea that we should do this regularly, so we have a chance to do all this walking instead of just talking about it. We seem to have good luck with Sundays. I propose the Second Sunday of every month, because that's the pattern that has worked for the past three walks.

Which means our next Big Walk should be the 8th May (or the 15th since the first Sunday is the 1st May?)

Are we hearing lots of mumbling for Oxford? My South London desires may well be satisfied by the official Lambeth Walk on Saturday. (ANyone else up for this? Even if I offer BBQ?)

Anyway I can't go on walkabouts until the end of June, because I'm going to tie myself to this chair to make myself revise for my exams.

http://www.sustrans.co.uk/

It's rout 4 then route five or through metroland, princess risborough and Thame.

Next walk! 8th May! Where are we going, people?

I'm goign to have to be a fairly last minute yay or nay on anyoutings at the moment. So pick a route and nearer the time I'll say, but in theory I'm up for anything.

bike wise I still don't have one yet but have every intention of having one real soon

I am suggesting a different activity - i.e. a continuation of the Sunday afternoon walks that we have been doing. In London, on the 8th May. We have enough walks to go round!

(I'm quite excited by the possibility of kate burning things outside on a sunny day)

Sorry, Ems, I think we are getting confused cross messages.

I want to do one of the London walks that Ed suggested above at our typical walking time of the second Sunday of the month - 8th May.

For Oxford stuff, it would probably be better to wait until A) Ed gets his bike if it is to be biking outing, and B) bloody students are done with their studenting.

in for this, bring it on.

"For Oxford stuff, it would probably be better to wait until A) Ed gets his bike if it is to be biking outing, and B) bloody students are done with their studenting."

k. i might do the bike bit in may with david and ed (if you're happy enough to do a ride that long on it by then, ed) 'cause i wanna do it at least a few weeks before the london to brighton. i will take the bike off the thread now.

(Oh no, I hate this, when we're sitting in the pub, it's obvious that I'm joke shouting but not so on the interweb.)

I know there are other ILX bike types (Mark C and SGS?) who might be up for it, but I don't know if they read the walking thread.

no no it were obvious! clearly not so that i was being mock-cowed in taking it off though, gah.

weather.co.uk sez it will be doing light rain this sat :( hey, did yr garden not have some sort of roofed/framed/arbour type thing? or am i imagining?

There is a gazebo thing - I suppose I could take the tarp off the DIY/art project and stretch it across it and we could shelter from light rain.

(If only we had a moderator on this thread to change the title every time we do a walk.)

Dude, I was born and grew up in Acton, and lived there for 18 years. I love the place, it's like my spiritual home.

lazy Oxford walk
Current plan, slightly less lazy: to go up to Wolvercote on t'bus, lunch at the Trout, then walk along the Thames (or Isis) towpath downstream, stopping off for a pint at the Perch in Binsey, then continuing through town and out t'other side to finish at Iffley Lock and the Isis Tavern. I have no idea how long this'll take, but will be able to Report Back after Saturday!

I'm going to tie myself to this chair

Are you now, Jellybean? ;). I have no problem with waiting until the end of June for the Isis walk...are you still in touch with the Lo-Fi Space Cadet? I think she might be up for it too.

But if punting is involved, then it'll restrict us to town.

Agreed. I think punting's an activity for a different day. I can safely say there are no pirates here, they're all in the Fens.

Chichester is the one we want to do on the 15th, right? Even I'm getting confused now.

Sorry you won't make the Saturday walk, MarkH, but scouting out an Oxford walk for later in the summer would be excellent. Do report back on the possibilities.

Oxford walk is easy-peasy. I say we start by getting a bus from the city centre to Wolvercote, lunch at the Trout and then walk downstream to the Isis Tavern at Iffley Lock. Question is, where to stop off en route. The Perch at Binsey is a bit close to the Trout - I walked it in half an hour, tho I was walking briskly so maybe we should stop off at the Head of the River. Great thing is, we can get a boat back from Iffley Lock towards town, as these guys run scheduled services. I will of course post a separate thread about this...enough hijacking the London one already!

We went all around the back of Brixton, looking at little parks I (or even Simon who lives around the corner) would never have known were there! Myatt's Fields and the Dan Leno Garden (a real Smell Garden for handicapped people) and the Kennington Walled Garden and the City Farm and loads of others I can't remember right now.

The rest of the party went on to ride the London Eye, but I am terrified of the London Eye (Dr. Who didn't help that) so I got the bus home to start the fire and let people in the house for Dr. Who.

All my weeds and cuttings were burned, all the veggie burgers were eaten, and it was proven by MATHEMATICS to have been a good party because N - 1 = X where X is the number of guests at the party and N is the number of empty bottles of wine in the recycling the next morning. Hurrah!

We were all very nearly posessed by Plague Victims and made to injure ourselves horrible (Johnney smacked himself in the head with a 2 x 4 while breaking up firewood and Chissy punched herself in the face by accident and I ripped my hand open on the thorn bush) but we managed to burn the pestilence away and have a good time.

Cannot wait for Chichester and the Oxford walks now!

Count me in!

(By the way Kate, I owe Simon a tenner. Can you give it to him and I owe you, since I'm more likely to see you before I see him?)

Kate and I were strictly non-itemed - have you lot been running a book or something?

I will give Simon a tenner. I owe someone else money but I can't remember who! Was it at the walk or was it at Capitol K? Oh! It's Miss AMP, of course.

I was too busy being matchmaker and PLAYING WITH THE FIRE!!! to get off with anybody. Sorry to disappoint you, Mark.

X-post ... Chichester Walk is Sunday 15th May.

Oxford bike ride and walk and punt triathalon will be on a Saturday in mid June. Sorted?

I've read that Kate Fox book. I seem to remember it says that English people have to frame all social encounters in the form of games or at least build incredibly elaborate rules around them.

Woo for Sussex representation!

It's a cool book - it tells you what's going on in a nice chatty way. SOmetimes it gets a bit "lower-middle classes talk like this, upper middle classes talk tlike this," but you have to excuse it since it all seems to plausible.

But yeh, 15th of May in chichester. This is a cool GO ORGANISE thread, but I'll need reminding nearer the time, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Man, I need to read this book. Privacy and facilitators, that rings so many bells. In America, I always thought I was just weird, and doctors told me I was possibly autistic once they figured out what that was. But being object-oriented rather than people-oriented is not a sin. Honestly.

there are other options too. You don't even need to enter London

haha i love that two-thirds of the allotted time for the "walk" is sitting-in-the-pub time.

Honney, you'll be fine (ha ha, that was a typo but I will leave it) - the Oxford bus comes in at Victoria anyway. If it makes things easier, you can crash at mine again. (Though we may have to do something about the matress from hell in the guest room.)

2/3 of the time for ferries and pubs? That sounds just about right to me! Hurrah!

(I'm in. Obviously.)

And yes, 2/3 pub time is the answer.

And the 15th is my payday! Double woo hoo!

Kate
Johnny B
Emsk (+2?)
Suzy
Ed

Salmon? That doesn't sound right. I need Porkpie to put me right.

This is this weekend, guys. Yay. My house is full of other people's families because my housemate is getting married so you may end up on the floor of my room, Johnney. I promise to keep my hands to myself. ;-)

Archel, does that hotmail address work? I'll send you my mobile number. Hope you can meet us!

Meet at 10ish Victoria station Brighton side?

I think I might buy a map.

Archel, if we can we'll be getting off at Fishborne, which is one stop beyond Chichester. I'll try and work it out, but call kate anyway.

Of course we were the unruly bunch of youths swigging booze from bottles on the train on the way home. Some even in hoodies.

Next walk early june, closer in and probably along a canal?

we climbed TREES!

thank you all for another luvly day.

canal sounds great. near water water water any kinda water is always good, but - is everyone absolutely fundamentally opposed to doing something with a hill in it? i mean, not everest, not even box hill, just something with a bit of variation, something that stretches yr calves a bit... perhaps not until autumn when it gets a bit cooler and we've done a regular once a month walk for practice for them what feels a bit iffy about up-and-downs? anyone?

Sadly, I won't be home in time to watch it :-(

Section 4 Upper Beeding to Rodmell

This section is where the open chalk landscape becomes really impressive. The route travels high above the underhill villages of Fulking and Poynings. If you are willing to drop down the hill these villages offer some excellent pubs that make the climb back up worthwhile.

The Trail passes the Devil's Dyke [no sniggering at the back Kate], a spectacular dry valley carved out by spring meltwaters in the Ice Age. There are views south towards Brighton as the path runs along the crest of the chalk ridge past cornfields and cattle grazed grassland before dropping down to the A23 at Pyecombe.

Just east of the A23 are the two windmills known as Jack and Jill. From here the path follows the scarp, passing Ditchling Beacon. This hillfort was still in military use as late as Elizabethan times, when a beacon was lit to warn of the approaching Spanish Armada. Today it is a popular beauty spot, with an Ice Cream van and a regular summer bus service to Brighton.

A little after Ditchling Beacon the path turns south, crossing the main A27 coast road before rejoining the chalk scarp. The route drops into the Ouse Valley at Rodmell, the home of Virginia Woolf.

I don't know why I bother, I really don't. . .

But canals are good - and walking along them even cooler. Don't forget the OxWalk tho - that'll involve rivers and punting and all sorts of nonsense.

(I don't know why I didn't just turn around and say that, but still. It's more fun to talk to people who sitting next to you on the web and all.)

ANyway, a fun day was had by all, sunburned and sloshed with over-cheap booze. And the most amusing map EVAH.

Will upload photos (all two of them!) soon.

Next time can we pick a pub that has actual vegetarian grub or is that asking too much? Sigh. Though beggars can't be choosers.

I am so glad that I bought the little guide about the Saxon/Norman church to take home, so I can read it again and again.

And we have *GOT* to get our own dog.

Ems in tree:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/slightlyfoxed/tree.jpg

Rather seaweedy bit of estuary:
ihttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/slightlyfoxed/harbour.jpg

Meet at Kew Bridge along the Thames to the mouth of the Brent and up the Thames Branch of the Grand Union to Southall. We could do a pre-meet for some and visit the Syon butterfly house, Kew Bridge steam museum or the site Battle of Brentford. It's quite a short one

Willsden or Harlsden to Southall.

West Drayton to Southall.

The Upper Brent from Alperton.

Decisions people.

Sunday 12th would be ideal.

Whatever day is cool with me.

(Sorry, I am not actually feeling self pity, I'm just sulking cause I didn't get a job I wanted. Bah humbug.)

Sorry, I misread this. Sorry.

I am ROASTING a FOWL this Sunday, so no Brockley for me. Enjoy though.

But not too early, mind you.

I was too hungover and depressed to make it to the nature walk last Sunday so I don't want a repeat of that.

(We can't even call you a Lazy Person as you will have been on a massive bikeride.)

I shall probably take the opportunity to visit the Kew Bridge steam museum before we meet up.

Argh, Ed you posted these plans after I'd told everyone else that we were walking along the PADDINGTON branch, like we discussed all along.

With meeting at Little Venice. (Closest tubes Paddington, Royal Oak or Warwick Avenue)

(I really *don't* want to meet at Kew Bridge, not least because buying a travelcard rather than a bus pass would mean I would have no money left for dinner. And if I went by bus to Kew Bridge, I'd spend my whole bloody morning on a bus. And quite frankly, I'd rather meet someone more bus-accessible and spend the morning walking, rather than sitting on a bus.)

OK 11:00 Paddington? Picking up stragglers somewhere at points west later on?

xpost

This is Little Venice.

I think the red line is a footpath, so let's meet at the bend. If there's no obvious place, then the corner of Westbourne Terrace Road, and Blomfield Road.

11 o'clock sounds good. Don't think The Spy will be out of bed that early, but we can wave to him as we go past Notting Hell. If people want to join us along the walk anywhere, just ring me. Everyone on the walking group *should* have my phone number by now...

((Plus suggestion for next walk definitely Wandle, especially after reading about Merton Abbey in the Underground London book that The Spy got me!))

I haven't had time to send round the usual round robin email. I will text Mark S and let him know as well.

Which remind me, I had better text Mark S and Lee to warn them of the time change. (I already told both of them that it would be the Paddington branch.)

Ah well. Today I explored the Wandle. And you know what? The Wandle Festival is tomorrow - we could have visited the crypt of Merton Abbey and mucked about in the ruins, if we hadn't been going on the canal walk instead. :-(

But the Wandle walk looks fantastic - I only did a few miles of it, but there's the whole Morden Hall wildlife reserve and superpub complex. Plus a City Farm with pony rides!!! (OK, the pony they had was way too tiny for me to go on, but still. They had bigger horses who were engaged in riding lessons.)

have a nice walk all

No idea what the easiest way for train people is. I'd say just go to Paddington. Which reminds me I have to look up the busses when I stop rabbiting on about Dr. Who on that other thread.

but i will see you all soon i promise - meanwhile i need to regenerate recuperate horizontally somewhat

wd love to go wandling but bum, i have zero free weekends until the oxford walk. ooh, first w/e of july is a poss, imelda is back in town for graduation but i dunno what plans are, i am abdicating all responsibility for decision-making process except to request that it be cheap. perhaps she might fancy a wandle though.

Fantastic walk! Perfect day, good weather (except for the rather welcome cooling rain right at the end when we were completely knackered), and a lovely gang of people. We have decided that we might give out badges (the sew-on boyscout type) for everyone who makes certain walks... but then realised that no one except me has been on them all! Kudos to Ed, Suzy, Liz, Rob, Mark H, The Spy, and special props to Emsk for cycling all the way over to Southall for yummy curry after already surviving a 40 mile bike ride.

The canal! The boats! The cemetary! The North Pole (complete with Eurostar)! The gasometers! The decaying industrial landscape! The step-down transformers at the electricity substation (oh dear, Disinformation flashback there as we tried to hum around with the almost natural G of the national grid)! The golf-courses! The shag-swing! More sex than the Discovery Channel!

And the yummiest curry yet! Hurrah. Though I think it might take me several days to eat all the barfi.

We also discovered that unicycles can go backwards, and Massive Machines is hosted by blokey off Red Dwarf. I stand corrected.

Next mini-walk: The Wandle Wander. Shall we vote whether to have it on the 2nd or 3rd of July? And will be throwing bags of tea in the Wandle to celebrate? (No, NOT Teabagging, Magnus, Independence Day.)

WHere are we going?

Fancy a bike Ride [2nd July, Midhants Loop]

I was about to ask Ed something, then realised that he is fixing his bike in the room next door. Tee hee hee.

Which way round shall we go? Start downstream and walk upstream? Or start upstream and walk down? I kind of like having the busride at the end of the walk, not the beginning.

(I have to say that the busride through Ealing and Acton on Sunday was fantastic - I didn't realise Ealing was so... nice! Bit of posh, isn't it?)

We have decided to meet in Beddington Park - nearest train station - Hackbridge. (For some reason I think you can get there on the Thameslink circle, though otherwise it's the train from Victoria.)

At 2pm, so I have time to watch the Hollyoaks omnibus.

Meet by the bridge on the boating lake, which is a dammed-up bit of the River Wandle.

We will walk up the Wandle towards Tooting and end with supper at Kastoori on Tooting High Street - the best veggie Indian restaurant in South London!

I guess I could look it up myself, but I'll end up in Luton.

Take a Southern Line train to Dorking - that will go direct to Hackbridge in 22 minutes!

Here's one which will land you in Hackbridge with more than enough time to wander around and find the boatlake:

I hope...

triffic.

http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/user/XSLT_TRIP_REQUEST2?language=en

Type in "Victoria" and "Hackbridge" and put Sunday's date and 1pm as the time you want to leave, and it will supply the details.

Sheesh! We Londoners don't memorise all these things like the Sutton Loop, we just know where to look to find them.

Augh sorry silly non-tag-closing girl.

Anyone else up for this?

From there . . . where?

Or are we meeting at the station and wandering from there?

I hate not knowing where I'm going! Waaaaaah!

Indeed! Alas I will not be able to stop off at a pub on the way. damn sponsored runs. That pint afterwards will be sooo nice though!

However, today it seems to be fine.

So perhaps yours will wear off, too.

Good luck for your run, Pink!

Thanks K, have fun on your walk!

http://www.mv.helsinki.fi/aqkorhon/kk.html

You won't understand the text, but maybe the pics'll give you some inspiration on what to do on the walks.

(dunno if it's useful, but I don't get to display my knowledge of the trains that run near me terribly often)

Course, it sort of depends if you really wanna take a chance on Thameslink at the weekends (I'm quite glad I've not had to do that in the past five years).

A lovely walk indeed. A short but very boozy walk, with two of the loveliest pubs in South London (Morden Hall, which is very posh but they let us in wearing rambling clothes and all and allowed us to sit in the rose garden by the river, and even brought our chips out there, even though Johnney and I were soundly thrashed at Pooh Sticks by a nine year old) and the yummiest veggie food in all of South London (possibly even all of London since it actually got better than the last time I was there).

Hurrah! And lots of mills and weirs and strange circular cattle traps to keep the keep the cattle off the motorways.

Ah, the sea. We didn't even get our feet wet because all the paddling pools were dry. I suppose we could have waded round the nature preserve but the water looked deep and fast and there were signs everywhere saying "dangerous undertoad".

Quite Not Safe For Work

FAP with Forest Pines on August 14th (and possibly the 12th and 13th too)

There was even talk of a walk in Cambridge but unfortunately the date that we selected (25th September) I forgot that we had agreed to play a party. How about the 24th of September for Canary Wharf and the Isle of Docks? It's a Saturday, I know, but can we do it? maybe the first weekend of October otherwise.

i am considering something outside london on oct 1st/15th (free this sat too if anyone wants to sit in a field, but to attempt to actually rally teh rollers would be madness the day after poptimism).

Are we agreed on Canary Wharf on the 24th then? Shall we summon a moderator to change the title?

(As I'm going to be in Greenwich this weekend.)

x-post, duh.

Let's start in Greenwich so I can *finally* get to see the Nelson and Napoleon exhibit.

(It was originally supposed to be the 25th, as I suspect more people can make it.)

Let's just do it Sunday as that was the original plan, and if it's just you and I, then more fun for us.

Emsk, are you online?

Who's in? Bear in mind it's SUNDAY!!!

Shall we meet about 1-ish? Where in Greenwich? The Observatry? St. Alphages, for spooky Hawksmore-age? Who's in?

Suzy? Mark says yes? Rob?

(I apologise yet again for not turning up. If Kate is late, you know something is wrong. I woke up in a strange bedroom not really knowing where I was or how I got there and was very very relieved to find out it was Anna's flat, not somewhere completely random.)

How about the 16th October?

the belgian was looking through it and decided she wants to go to the seaside but the only walk both of us like the look of is the hardcore 9/10 winchelsea to hastings with a dip in the sea one, and that's not exactly a country pub with a short walk attached. perhaps we can substitute lake for sea?

I think I prefer rivers to the sea. I know this is wrong.

Inside the triangle of M20, M25 and M26 and just by Greatness and Pratt's Bottom.

Ed, my dad is well impressed that I'm going to see a folk band with a TUBA.

Oooh, can we come? We promise not to rip any droid's arms off if they beat us at chess.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/97388357@N00/?saved=1

so we don't all have to fite over one copy of the book

i found train times

and will post them when i am less chaotic

london bf 9.43 10.13 10.43
otford 10.37 11.07 11.37

eynsford 18.14 18.44 19.14 19.44
london bf 19.02 19.32 20.02 20.32

cheap dqy return to otford (they're on the same line; eynsford is closer to london) is £7.20pp, if i put 4 ppl in it comes out qs £28.80 but if i buy a network railcard it's £19 altogether. the interweb journey planner seems not to have got its head around groupsave yet. i will call them tomorrow when i get free calls and find out details. also the se trqins site hqs so,ething about the eagle heights birds of prey centre where they have displqys and stuff!

xpost

i am not drunk! it is 4.22pm! i resent thqt insinuation. i am on the belgiqn's stupid keyboard as it is the only computer our internet will talk to right now.

charlie - otford and eynsford are in kent. if you're working til 3 you will miss the walking part, or most of it, but if you feel like joining us in Ye Olde Kente Countrye Pubbe that should be doable... we could always add a little extra walk on for you.

:-(

dunno wot time i'm at poptimism, guess 9ish? could be persuaded to go later/earlier.

When's poptimism? And emsk, is this you?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dansette/44071120/

Ha ha, yes that is SO Emsk taking a nap on the dancefloor! No one believed me that "she does this, don't worry."

And this thread is for people *from* London to walk. Not necessarily in London. But places within easy reach of London. (Where they are sometmes joined by non-London people from places like Oxford and Brighton.)

and charlie we have done several in-london walks...

xpost delia was there? i don't remember that at all.

i know you've done london walks. i've just missed them all, is all. and i was hoping that there was to be another one, next saturday. but it's in kent. boo. wave to my sister if you're anywhere near 1ghth4m!

With an owl.

Pah, The Bunker wasn't as good as I'd remembered it, so annoying having 'German' characters speaking English. Wish I'd watched that top 100 documentaries programme instead.

Anyway anyway, I can't come as my folks are visiting Brighton on Saturday, but just as long as you know I would've loved to - even though I would certainly have got injured on such a dangerous mission.

More getting out of London please! And let's go back when the Roman Villa is open! Ooh, also, I should look up when Lullingstone Castle was built and when it was rennovated to settle the matter between the Typographical Librarian once and for all.

i learned:
kent is much more beautiful than i expected it to be
never trust a russian to wake you up
golfists really DO dress that peculiarly
furriners do not get the bacon/beercan endless hilarity
snails wander off alone to die like elephants do (we found a snail graveyard!)
it is ALWAYS worth the effort of dragging yr sorry carcass out of the city and into the sunshine

um

But blimey, what a lot of furriners. Swiss, French, Russian... I gave up trying to explain that I was really English and just nodded and said "yes, I'm from New York" after a while. And hoping that the Swiss weren't taking the piss out of me in German.

And also I forgot... HORSES!!! Next time can we find out where the Norses come from and add a pony trekking leg to the walk?

oh! i missed that bit somehow. the last i heard someone was calling it a birds' banquet and i think i may have tuned out and gone on a little thing in my own head.

and norses! yes! i wanted to set that sad one free, poor sod. but yes pony trekking please!

But I think you were... off with the fairies hippies when that was decided.

http://www.bookcottages.com/cottages/100-13684-the-water-tower.htm

Which looks lovely indeed but I don't see any pony trekking listed there! Though can we go and stay in a converted watertower by an Oast farm, please?

5th and 6th I am free.

The weekend after that I will be menstruating and unlikely to want to walk anywhere except to the cornershop for chocolate.

Oh boy oh boy, I want to buy this house, it is so cute.

Yo, this is Sunday. Who's in?

Thinking about doing something in the Thames valley out west, sort of Reading way? (No I have NO ulterior motives for that at all, oh no...) Any suggestions?

Is that where High Wyckham/Amersham is?

please may i come a-walking one time? can't do this sunday, but the 12th is a possible.

http://www.britishwalks.org/walks/2000/099.php

http://www.katrust.org/reading/reading2.html

walk 4: pangbourne (round walk) river thames and crays pond
13.5k/8.4m/4hrs/level 3
"delightful villages", a tollbridge, thames path national trail, coombe park, a wood, nature reserve, pub and a prep school (doesn't say if it's boys or girls, for those who like to ogle the young 'uns)
(this one sounds a bit dull to me)

walk 24: cookham (round walk) stanley spencer, bisham and the wind in the willows
15.8k/9.8m/4hrs50/level 3
s spencer's house, a wood, "the fourteenth-century bull inn in bisham" (oooh), a hamlet w/its own abbey (which is now a sp*rts centre bah). the KNIGHTS TEMPLARS, henry viii and elizabeth i all stayed here. up through woods to winter hill with views over thames and reservoirs. mole, ratty etc lived here. a place called cock marsh (fnarr), burial mounds, water voles, redshanks (?), mallards.

walk 33: mortimer to aldermaston, the roman town of calleva
13.1k/8.2m/4hrs/level 3
a waterlogged bit, AMPHITHEATRE AND 2.5K OF ROMAN WALLS surrounding the 107 acre site of roman town of calleva, 12th century church, woods of scots pine, commons of gorse and birch. weirs. trains back can be rare (what does THAT mean?)

walk 40 le croix de gerard to cookham
this one sounds dull and is only level 2

walk 51 henley to pangbourne
ooh i wanted to do this before! but it is lev 6 and you don't wanna do that, right?

I do quite fancy the Wind in the Willows one because I am sad and soppy.

Otherwise, we'll do WitW.

cookham 18.16 19.16 20.16
london 19.11 20.12 21.11

with a change at maidenhead each way.

1 person return ticket £8.60
4 ppl return tickets £34.40 (hmm)
4 ppl return ticket if one of us has a network card £22.80 (aha)

have just emailed first great western to ask about groupsave (tho i think that's only southern; this is first great western link)

Oh yeah... where does it leave from? Depends on what station it is.

(I can only get to Farringdon/Kings X, Victoria and London Bridge with any speed and ease.)

F*ckwittage definitely runs in that family. :-(

I just realised that we forgot to ask to get the title changed. Ah well, hopefully people will figure it out.

TGL finally wrote back to say that he was double booked. Bah.

I'll email mark and see what he's up to.

kate
ed
h
the belgian
the belgian's whippersnapper
me

However a curse upon the Bull Inn in Bisham and the hag who runs it for being frightfully rude to us, telling us to fuck our mothers for, well, not being their kind of people.

anyway. that unpleasantness aside, a lovely day despite the damp. i totally woke up and went buzzy when it got dark and we were tramping through fields along the river and all the lights were sparkling - i think i am gonna do a NIGHT WALK. in the summer prob, choose a walk, get the train, go to the pub, start the walk at chucking out time, wander through alien(-looking) lanes and with unfamiliar shadows, grab some breakfast if anywhere's open, first train back, sleeeeeeep...

Let us waste no more time thinking about the rudeness of those pub proprietors. The only thing they achieved was to cost themselves quite a lot of business which the lovely George and Dragon with its gorgeous fire and friendly staff were only gracious to take.

Hurrah for the Bisham woods! And hurrah for the abbey and its smoking monks. Hurrah for the Thames, hurrah for Victorian mansions on its banks disguised as castles (who would bother beseiging the ramparts when they could just smash their way in through the drawing room windows?) hurrah for turkeys (gobble gobble gobble) in their thousands, awaiting doom. Hurrah for sunsets over weirs and the twinkling of marina lights on an obsidian river.

Boo to the rain. And the rain. And the more rain though I must say that my tweed and my boiled wool beret held up excellently well. Hurrah to Napoleon of Scunthorpe and his magical brandy that assuaged my arthritis and kept us going. Hurrah to the conductor for not noticinng that we got on at the wrong stop and punching our tickets anyway wo we could plait our fur.

ah, the rain wasn't so bad. we all stayed pretty waterproof, i think?

1) The pretty LOTR wood with all the autumnal colours and mad inclines.
2) Farmer SHOOTING AT US! (not really)
3) Nice pub meal with tasty toffee pudding, which has encouraged me to make more steamed puddings, even if they do take 5 hours to make
4) FUZZY PLATT!

We need to tell T1me0ut that The Bull isn't walker friendly anymore tho - anyone got a good email addy so we can tell them?

Emsk, as nice as a nightwalk would be, I don't think I'd have the stamina - I'd fall over at about 2. And besides, without warning you'd just lie down in the middle of the field and sleep for 10 minutes, then jump up and give everyone jip for not being bouncy! And you only got ur second wind because of the Fox's Creams on the train back! ;)

Ha ha, the farmer, oh yes, GERRR AWFF MY LAND!!! No, not really. I wonder if he was related to the nasty pub proprietors.

http://www.walkingclub.org.uk/book_1/walk_24_updates.shtml

that lunch is no longer possible at the bull for walkers. that'll learn me to check next time. and johnny you lie, my second wind arrived abut an hour after leaving the lunch pub, once it got dark and we got into our stride... it was darker than london and i think that's what woke me up... same thing kept happening in cornwall last summer, heading back to the campsite along the cliffs at 1 in the morning after a big fire...

the bit where kate wanted us to slow down because of ankle pain and h wanted us to speed up because of pub desire was a bit stressful but it didn't last too long (which doesn'tmean h got her way, just that it wasn't very far)...

I still think we should write to the guide and tell them that the Bull were not only unfriendly but downright offensive and rude.

I will have to go to my doctor and see if there is anything that can be done about the arthritis in the rain problem - it seems to get worse every autumn, and I don't want it to ruin walks for me or for others when I physically cannot go as fast as others.

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/steamed-treacle-sponge-pudding,1044,RC.html

sure i can help you move, esp if i get pizza at the end :)

Yes, pizza and beer is the traditional payment for move helping, and shall be provided from yummy yummy Pizza GoGo. I'm wondering if I should bother getting a van as it really is just around the corner. It's closer than the Clerkenwell to Bloomsbury move which I did without a van - only a taxi at the end for the super-heavy Marshall Lead Amp. (As opposed to Lead AMP which I nearly typed, ha ha.)

But, erm, Yes. We should start earlier (and miss Countryfile, bah) so we get the most light - though I would like to go to Canary Wharf in the dark for maximum spooky glowing jellyfish/alien effect.

Yes, will welcome any moving help possible - especially if accompanied by carrot cake. (Even better might be bringing the recipe and we could annoint my new oven by baking in it!) When I get the exchange date, I will organise a moving party cum housewarming.

(Sorry to combine the two - will have another party when it is properly decorated but for my real housewarming, you don't get to come if you don't help me move.)

I think that is an excellent innovation for winter walks.

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