Not much snow in Orpington at the moment, but get out into the “country”, there is at least some. The temperature in High Elms car park was -7.5C this morning – ideal for Rocco, less ideal for me!
Rocco enjoys his sticks:
And it’s nice watching the sun rise:
A frosty but nice walk this morning in High Elms and Farnborough Fields. With the low temperatures, Rocco seemed particurly energetic!
Good weather forecast today (made a change!) so it’s off on the train to London.
Yet again, we started from Battersea Park station and walked through the streets to Battersea Park, where Rocco was glad to be off the lead:
We soon reached the river and our continuation of the Thames Path:
By then, it was time for a coffee in the park:
Then the Peace Pagoda and a nice walk along the embankment to Albert Bridge:
Further west, there are many houseboats on the river:
And a nice church, making a change from the modern architecture:
Then under Battersea Railway Bridge, used by the Overground line from Clapham Junction to Willesden:
We then had our first major diversion away from the river viewing the delights of London Heliport:
But we were soon back by the river:
It seemed a shame not to stop at a riverside pub, “The Waterfront”:
Next was Wandsworth Bridge and Nickols Walk:
and time to stop for lunch:
A bridge crosses the River Wandle where it meets The Thames:
Then yet more houseboats:
and finally, some grass in Wandsworth Park:
We stopped for another beer at “The Boathouse”:
and then is was back to the hustle and bustle of Putney High Street – this reminded us how quiet most of the walk had been:
We caught a train to Waterloo, and unusually, arrived in the “international” platforms that were used by Eurostar before the move to St Pancras:
Finally, a fast train home. A lovely day out!
The rain eventually passed so I took the opportunity to take Rocco on a final walk through the Polstead footpaths this afternoon.
Dollops Wood was its usual lovely self:
The on to Polstead village and the pond:
And past the church on the hill:
And then reached the path along the River Box valley, with the classic trees along the riverbank:
We then crossed over the river and Rocco had a chance to have a swim. Then it was the climb back up the hill following a really nice footpath that I don’t think I’d used before:
The next footpath crossed a ploughed field, and unusually I had to use the compass on the phone to find the correct direction as no one had walked it since!
Then through the lovely woods above Scotland Place:
A lovely walk, mostly in the sunshine!
It’s been a while since we visited High Woods Country Park, so we took advantage of a break in the weather today.
The visitor centre isn’t as interesting as it used to be – really just a shop now.
We followed the 3 mile “Yellow Route” around the park; quite a nice mixture of woodland and open walking:
Rocco enjoyed his sticks of course.
A nice hot day today, so we’re off on the train to Hastings for some sea breeze:
And after a smooth journey, we got off at St Leonards Warrior Square Station and walked down to the seafront:
“Bottle Alley” (you can just see the entrance on the left of the photo above) provides a cool route to walk to the pier:
We didn’t stop at the pier this time as there wasn’t a lot of shade:
Instead we found the (largely) pedestrianised Old Town and stopped for a coffee:
The West Hill Lift often hasn’t been running when we’ve been there, but was today, so we took that up the hill (saved a hard walk uphill in the heat!):
Rocco finally had a chance to stretch his legs:
These steps lead past the pub, so we grabbed a couple of beers then wandered down to seafront for fish and chips:
As it was such a nice day, we decided to walk back to St Leonards Warrior Square Station instead of going through the busy town to Hastings Station:
While we were waiting for our train, a nice railway chap came over and asked where we were heading. He told us that there had been an incident at Stonegate (on the line to Orpington) and it was unlikely there would be any trains that way for a while. But a train going to Victoria was due soon, so we caught that instead.
This lead us on a rail tour stopping at Bexhill, Eastbourne, Lewes, Gatwick and East Croydon – an interesting route that we’ve not done before. A slow journey back, but our carraige had excellent air conditioning so we didn’t mind:
Unfortunately, when we got out at Victoria, it was really HOT. And then the joy of 40 minutes on an non-aircon train back to Orpington…
A nice day nevertheless.
It turned out that the incident was “animals on the railway at Stonegate” – it was 2030 before any direct trains ran between Hastings and Orpington!
Rather uninspiring weather today, so we just walked to the pub in the local village for a long lunch.
Excellent food – the best steak and tastiest tomatoes I’ve had for a long time!
Rocco was his usual well behaved self:
After lunch, the rain had eased off a bit, so we took the long way back through the fields:
Normal life resumes tomorrow…
Our second visit today was to Montacute House, just west of Yeovil.
We found a lovely, quiet, picnic area to eat our lunch:
The house is much more imposing than Lyte’s Cary:
We then went on an estate walk, this time climbing up a fairly steep path through woodland:
There was a break in the trees, with a convenient bench to admire the view back to the village:
The route then returned via a field of sheep (who were untroubled by Rocco):
A lovely day, and back “home” before the rain started.
Our first visit today was to Lyte’s Cary Manor, a small manor house and grounds near Ilchester:
We started off by taking one of the waymarked walks around the estate. There were many teasels by the path:
Further on, we crossed a river, so Rocco had to be on the lead:
And a geocache!
Unfortunately, the gardens were “assistance dogs only”, so we had to visit them, and the house, in shifts:
An interesting visit, marred slightly by one or two very loud little boys…
Next on the route was Sherborne Abbey. When we got nearby, there were big signs by the entrance gate stating “Consecrated Ground – No Dogs”. So off I went to explore the area while Tina looked inside. After a while, she beckoned me over and explained that not only did everyone ignore the No Dogs sign, they’d recently decided that dogs were welcome in the Abbey. So Rocco had the honour of being one of the first dogs allowed in…
The ceiling was particularly attractive:
And there was a lovely Lego model of the abbey, suitably illuminated:
After that, we found a local pub for lunch, then found somewhere for Rocco to let off a bit of steam:
During which, he disgraced himself by finding a river to paddle in…