I returned by train to Enfield Lock station to start the next section of the Loop. The route starts by following Turkey Brook again:

After nearly a mile, pretty Enfield Lock (on the River Lea) itself is reached:

The route then follows the ‘River Lea Navigation’:

and crosses the River Lea itself:

This leads to Sewardstone Marsh Nature Reserve:

and the path up the hill to Sewardstone itself:

The woods at the top were full of Wild Garlic:

and have good views over the Lea Valley and King George’s Reservoir (though I doubt that he actually built it himself):

This is a really nice section of the London Loop, hard to believe that East London is so close!

A section of road walking followed, then the entrance to Gilwell Park (home of the Scout Association) was reached:

I’ve camped here many times in years gone by – my main memory is of cooking breakfast in a tent when the canvas blew off and I of course continued, this time with extensive views of King George’s Reservoir!

The route then heads through Epping Forest to Chingford:

The large ‘tree’ in this photo is a disguised mobile phone mast on the edge of Chingford Plain:

Chingford Plain is the start of the section 19:

Eventually, the forest leads to the suburbia of Buckhurst Hill, albeit with a nice path:

The Central Line to Epping is then crossed:

Next is Roding Valley, with a nice lake and park:

and a good path along the River Roding:

All too soon, the M11 needs to be crossed:

and then it’s a long walk down a busy road to Chigwell Station and the train home:

9 miles of London Loop walking today and 2 Geocaches found.

London Loop Walk 20 and 21 – Chigwell to Harold Wood

For more information on the London Loop, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Outer_Orbital_Path and https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/walking/loop-walk

Finally, the winter is (almost) over, and it’s time to continue my London Loop walk.
The tube seems to take forever to get to Cockfosters, but in reality, it only took 1¼ hours from Orpington!

The London Loop route goes right past the station, so it’s just a case of crossing the station car park road and then it’s countryside!

This is part of Trent Country Park, a lovely and well maintained area that would be worth further exploration (apart from the journey there…).

At the edge of the park is the 20 metre tall Sassoon’s Obelisk erected in 1702.

The path then follows Salmon’s Brook through Enfield Chase, a 12th century royal hunting forest.

Climbing a small hill, Docklands is visible on the skyline in the distance:

A short bit of road and a longish farm track leads to the attractive Hilly Fields Park.

Crossing the next road leads to Forty Hall Park:

The next stretch crosses New River, which used to bring water into East London:

All tranquillity is lost at the Great Cambridge Road (A10), but at least there is a (tall) footbridge to cross it:

From here on, it’s back to suburbia at Turkey Street:

A short walk leads to Enfield Lock station, and the start of the journey home.

9½ miles of London Loop walking today and 3 Geocaches found.

London Loop Walk 18 and 19 – Enfield Lock to Chigwell

For more information on the London Loop, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Outer_Orbital_Path and https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/walking/loop-walk

Another reasonable day weather wise, so it’s out with the Oyster card again and off to North London. Unfortunately, Thameslink was having problems, so it took rather a long time to get to Elstree & Borehamwood Station and start the walk.

This section is noted for “a high proportion of road walking”, which is a shame as it also passes through some nice countryside. But first, 1½ miles of trudging along busy roads, though at least there was a pavement…

Then finally, into Scratchwood Nature Reserve. The name may seem familiar to older readers as the nearby services at the south end of the M1 used to be called “Scratchwood Services”. Now it’s the much less helpful “London Gateway Services”.

But all too soon, a ¾ mile detour was necessary to cross the A1 using a subway.

The subway was fairly pleasant inside (as subways go!). Maybe it’s too far from anyone that (mis)uses it?

Then back up the other side to reach the rather nice Moat Mount Open Space.

Yet more road walking leads to Totteridge Fields:

The path then follows Dollis Brook into Barnet:

You can just see the tube trains at High Barnet Underground Station (at the far end of the Northern Line) through the trees:

From here, a pleasant path leads to Hadley Green, with yet another London Loop information board:

The route then goes through the pretty village of Monken Hadley:

and across Monken Hadley Common:

A bridalway crosses the East Coast Main Line:

and continues across the common:

Then it’s back to suburbia for the walk to Cockfosters Underground Station, at the northern end of the Piccadilly Line.

11.5 miles of London Loop walking today and 2 Geocaches found.

London Loop Walk 17 – Cockfosters to Enfield Lock

For more information on the London Loop, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Outer_Orbital_Path and https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/walking/loop-walk

I thought I’d make the most of the remaining summer to do more of my London Loop walk.
The journey from Finchley Road to Moor Park was a bit tedious; I don’t know if there was a problem with the track or train, but I don’t think we exceeded 30mph at any point on the journey!
Moor Park station has got to be one of the best stations to start a walk from though; the path through the woods starts 10 yards from the station entrance!

The path then went across the first of many golf courses (now I know what North Londoners do all day…)

Then crossed a main road, through Hampermill Wood and a short bit of suburbia, then into Oxhey Woods Nature Reserve.

Farmland (well, Horseland to be accurate) was reached after a while. You can just see the arch of Wembley Stadium on the horizon.

The route then took a small detour to Pinnerwood House, which has a nice pond.

This is the end of Section 14.

Section 15

The next path had been very overgrown, but luckily a yellow coated team from Harrow Council were busy clearing it. Unfortunately, they’d not done the section further north, so I had the joy of pushing through what seemed like miles of stinging nettles.

The path then follows alongside the West Coast Main Line, and crosses it with a road bridge. Unfortunately, the fences and walls were all so high that I could only hear the trains, not see them!

After a fruitless search for a geocache, I pressed on and found a bench in a children’s playground to have lunch.

The path then crossed a second golf course; the notice board ordered walkers to follow the white posts, of which none are actually visible from the board. I eventually found and followed them until they stopped, where there was no exit whatsoever. A golfer attempted to misdirect me onto a footpath in the opposite direction, then explained you had to go through the (unsignposted) maintenance yard and a bit of road to pick up the path. Hmm…

The next section followed the ancient “Grim’s Dyke” with some nice woodland:

and on to a car park with some fabulous views of North London.

Walking through Harrow Weald Common was next.

A long section of concrete footpath navigated its way around Bentley Priory.

This lead to Stanmore Little Common, which has some nice ponds:

After so much nice walking, the route had to go downhill. Which indeed it did, leading to a bridge under the M1.

After this was probably the worst bit of the whole walk, following the fast and busy A411 for what seemed like ages to get to Aldenham Reservoir.

Then across a ploughed field and some nice meadows.

This was followed by a third golf course (a bit better signposted than some of the others), a small spinney and then into Elstree.

This soon led to Elstree and Borehamwood Station, where thanks to Thameslink, I managed to get home using just two trains and no Underground.

This was a varied walk, with very little of it through suburban streets. But there were a lot of busy roads to cross!

14.5 miles walking (but it seemed further), no Geocaches and no Coalposts today.

London Loop Walk 16 – Elstree to Cockfosters

For more information on the London Loop, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Outer_Orbital_Path and https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/walking/loop-walk

Another fine day today, so I left the dogs at home and embarked on the next two legs of the London Loop walk.
It’s a long tube journey back to Uxbridge; glad I’ve not got to do that again for a while. But the station is quite grand:

Most of Section 12 follows the Grand Union canal towpath:

At about 11 feet, Denham Deep Lock has the greatest drop of any lock on the Grand Union. The canal is on a short aqueduct over Fray’s River so it was built deep enough in order not to affect the water supplies which powered the mills further down the river:

More canal…

Broadwater is a vast lake just visible through the trees:

Black Jack’s Lock and Mill are very scenic:

More canal… (bet those houses are expensive!):

And finally, the end of Section 12 is reached, and into the countryside for Section 13:

Then into Bishop’s Wood Country Park, which starts off with a nice path, but soon I’m fighting through brambles:

A busy road needs to be crossed at Batchwood Heath:

but we’re soon back into countryside:

Then through the expansive, but quiet, Moor Park:

and into Sandy Lodge Golf Course:

The path runs beside the tube line I’ll use soon:

And finally, Moor Park station is reached:

and a long journey back home!

10.5 miles walking, 3 Geocaches and 2 Coalposts today.

London Loop Walk 14 and 15 – Moor Park to Elstree

For more information on the London Loop, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Outer_Orbital_Path and https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/walking/loop-walk

Slightly cooler today, so yet again I squeeze onto the 0939 (the first off-peak fast train) to Waterloo East. Tube to Paddington, and then a noisy diesel train to Hayes & Harlington station.

From there, it’s a short walk to the Grand Union canal towpath:

I followed this for a while, then headed off to Stockley Park, which despite being a new business park apparently cloned on the Milton Keynes model, actually has a lot of nice paths through woodland:

There is a viewpoint in the park – it’s not that high, but much higher than everything around, so you can see quite a way:

The bridge makes a nice crossing over the busy A408 that bisects the park:

Then back to nice paths and woodland:

Eventually this park will join back to the canal, but for now there is a bit of street walking through a noisy industrial estate at Yiewsley:

Back on the canal, the Western Main line is nearby:

I then headed off down the Slough Arm by the marina at Little Britain:

A bit further down, a lovely quiet path follows the River Colne through woodland, despite the M25 being under a mile away!

Further on, the path still follows the river, but with an industrial estate on the other side, which wasn’t quite as nice:

Then a bit more street walking back again to the Grand Union canal at Uxbridge:

Then it’s just a short walk through the High Street to Uxbridge Underground Station.

Incidentally, since the advent of the craze for Pokemon Go, I now get strange looks if I look at the map on my smartphone whilst walking. Oh well…

9.6 miles walking, 4 Geocaches and 3 Coalposts today.

London Loop Walk 12 and 13 – Uxbridge to Moor Park

For more information on the London Loop, see //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Outer_Orbital_Path and //tfl.gov.uk/modes/walking/loop-walk

Another fine day, so it’s back on the trains for the next section of my London Loop walk. First a train to Waterloo East, then the all stations train from Waterloo to Hampton Wick:

From the station, it was a short walk through the town to the London Loop route through Bushy Park. I don’t think I’d ever been there before; it’s a very large and varied collection of both ‘wild’ and ‘cultivated’ park, with many streams, rivers and lakes criss-crossing it. And deer, though I didn’t see any.

3 Miles and a chat with a couple of dog walkers later, the northern boundary of the park was reached, and suburban streets beckoned. The route follows the boundary of Fulwell Golf Course, but this was totally shielded by a row of trees!

After another bit along a busy road, the route finally reaches Crane Park, which follows the River Crane. It was nice to get back to countryside!

The Shot Tower is a listed building and the remaining skeleton of an ancient gunpowder mill which was built in 1766:

Unfortunately, after a while, the river is inaccessible, so more road and a nice track across Hounslow Heath:

This eventually leads back to the River Crane in Donkey Wood:

with a nice boardwalk made from recycled plastic:

Eventually, the busy A30 was reached. The end of Section 9 is down this road at Hatton Cross tube station, but I couldn’t face the thought of the long journey back on the tube, so pressed on.

The route is now very close to Heathrow Airport:

After a while, it was back to countryside in River Crane Park, but with a very flooded path:

Getting around this bit was interesting…
The peace and quiet was shattered every few minutes as a plane came into land at Heathrow:

Then another short bit of suburbia at Cranford, still with the ever present planes:

then through Cranford Countryside Park to some nicely preserved stable blocks:

The route then crosses the M4, thankfully with an underpass:

After a bit more road walking, I reached the Grand Union Canal, very near to Bull’s Bridge, were a branch went to Paddington:

Section 10 ends here, so it was a short walk to Hayes & Harlington station, where I caught a little diesel train (not this one!) back to London and home.

A total of 16 miles and one geocache today. It surprised me how much countryside and open space there was, despite it being such a busy area of London.

London Loop Walk 11 – Hayes and Harlington to Uxbridge

For more information on the London Loop, see //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Outer_Orbital_Path and //tfl.gov.uk/modes/walking/loop-walk

A good (and dry!) weather forecast today (as it turned out, a bit too warm), so a good day to do the next section of my London Loop Walk.
The trains in the London Loop 8 area go from Waterloo, which isn’t always that accessible at weekends due to engineering work, so it was worth braving crowded trains to do this section during the week. Outbound was easy, a train to Waterloo East, then another from Waterloo Main Line back to Ewell West.

From the station, it was a short walk to the London Loop at Bourne Hall Park, with yet another London Loop information board:

This section follows the Hogsmill River from its source at Ewell down to the Thames. There used to be many mills along this river, this is one of the few remaining:

The path goes under a railway line; this is an interesting dual use of the tunnel, with the river under the path:

Then out into green fields and paths, though it’s much more urban than some of the countryside in the earlier sections:

Then the Tolworth Road needed to be crossed using a diversion to the nearest pedestrian crossing lights:

After that, I started to wonder if I was following the correct route; this is the most overgrown path I’ve found so far:

But eventually things opened out at Old Malden Park:

The next challenge was crossing the Kingston Bypass (A3). This involved a zig-zag to a subway:

The next section was nice countryside at Elmbridge Meadows. A good spot for lunch, except that it seemed like every hungry dog in the area chose that moment to admire my sandwich…

Then back to suburbia at Berrylands, and the local sewage works:

Then all too soon, I was approaching Kingston:

And then the River Thames itself:

This was the end of this section, so I walked over Kingston Bridge and caught the train back from Hampton Wick.

Total distance today was 9.5 miles, but it felt more because it was so warm!

London Loop Walk 9 and 10 – Kingston to Hayes and Harlington

For more information on the London Loop, see //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Outer_Orbital_Path and //tfl.gov.uk/modes/walking/loop-walk

Today’s walk started with a train from Orpington to Beckenham Junction, a tram to East Croydon, and another train to Upper Warlingham. But the timings all lined up, taking a little over an hour for the whole journey.

Upper Warlingham station is about 200 yards from Whyteleafe station (where I finished the last section), but on a different line. There was a bit of a walk through suburban streets to get back to where I finished last time, made worse by a bus passing, which had I known it went that way, I would have caught!

London Loop Section 5

This photo shows the other side of the valley (which I walked down at the end of the last section) with an obvious quarry that I’d totally missed when walking close to it…

Back on the loop itself, it was a steep climb up some steps to Kenley Common, yet another City of London open space:

The path goes past Kenley Airfield and Observatory:

The on to Coulsdon Common, with a neat drinking fountain with dog bowls below (shame the pub in the background wasn’t open):

The path then leads to Happy Valley, famed for Yellow Rattle, which were out in profusion:

Yellow Rattle are quite rare, though there are some at High Elms:

Then across a road to Farthing Downs (another City of London open space), with good views all the way to London:

The path then drops down back to the town; the traffic noise was quite a contrast to the peace of the last hour or so. The London Loop uses the footbridge at Coulsdon South station to cross the tracks, where section 5 officially finishes.

London Loop Section 6

Unfortunately, the first mile of this is through the streets of Coulsdon, but it least some of them had a grass border:

Then back to country, along some quite narrow paths. A London-Brighton 100Km run was in progress today, so there were quite a few runners squeezing past!

Then across Carshalton Road Pastures:

and Mayfield Lavender Fields, full of people!

and into Oaks Park, a nice spot to stop for lunch:

Another London Loop display board:

Then it was a long straight bridleway alongside Highdown Prison to Banstead Downs:

Progress was paused shortly after this photo was taken while a summer shower passed – luckily I was in the woods at the time, so I didn’t get too wet.

Section 6 ends at Banstead Station, but as the train service from there is only hourly on Saturdays, I decided to press on.

London Loop Section 7

Again, the start of this section is a mile of walking through the private estates and posh houses of Ewell:

But finally, it’s back to the countryside at Nonsuch Park:

Then a short walk through the town (past all the posh schools) to Ewell West station:

The journey home involved a train to Clapham Junction, another to Victoria and a third to Orpington…
A total of 15 miles walked today, and just one geocache found. A good day!

London Loop Walk 8 – Ewell to Kingston

For more information on the London Loop, see //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Outer_Orbital_Path and //tfl.gov.uk/modes/walking/loop-walk

It’s been a while since my last London Loop Walk, so with reasonable weather forecast, today was the day to do the next section.
I used the bus to get to the start of the section at Coney Hall – this was much easier than the much longer train journey to Hayes.

The first bit was through Coney Hall Recreation Ground, a pleasant but unexceptional dog walking area:

Then a nice path past Wickham Church:

Across the busy A2022, then through playing fields into the woods at Spring Park and Threehalfpenny Wood:

Then it was a bit of trudge down a busy road until some more woodland at Addington Hill:

The path climbed up to the “summit”:

With good views over London (click for a larger image):

Then back down the other side, and across the tram tracks at Coombe Lane Station:

Heathfield House is a very pretty late 18th Century house and gardens, now used as a training centre:

Next was Bramley Bank, a Nature Reserve:

After walking through Forestdale, open country beckoned at Selsdon Wood:

Then the final leg to Hamsey Green:

This is the official end of the section, but it was easier for me to do a bit of Section 5 and get the train back home from Whyteleafe.

A total of 12 miles today.

London Loop Walk 5, 6 and 7 – Whyteleafe to Ewell

For more information on the London Loop, see //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Outer_Orbital_Path and //tfl.gov.uk/modes/walking/loop-walk