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.

(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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