London Loop Section 24, Rainham to Purfleet.

15th September, 13:42 hours.

I finished my picnic lunch on the sheltered bench outside Rainham station and prepared for the final push along Section 24 to Purfleet. When I say prepared I mean tried to arrange my socks so that they didn't rub on my toes. I first crossed the Tilbury Loop railway line via the level crossing and then over the High Speed 1 line to the channel tunnel on a tall footbridge. Didn’t manage to time it for a photo of a Eurostar train but here’s the view looking towards the continent.

Walking down the long ramp the other side I was hanging onto my hat in the blustery conditions, the yellow wind warning still very much in force. At the foot of the ramp I took the footpath along the north west edge of Rainham Marshes, then under the A13, crossing the slip roads using the light controlled crossings with very long wait times even when no traffic was coming, and back onto the narrow footpath around the edge of the marshes.

I was momentarily thrown here as the route marked on Open Street Map follows Ferry Lane around the west side of the K9 Industrial Estate but this is wrong and I was on the correct path eventually crossing Coldharbour Lane and between the two industrial parks to reach the Thames at the point where there used to be a ferry across to Erith, founded in 1199 AD. If there was still a ferry it would link Section 24 here to the start of the LOOP, Section 1 across the water in Erith.

I followed the path south towards the Tilda Rice factory, at a slightly lower level than the top of the river wall thus affording a bit of shelter from the wind but not from the first of the afternoon’s brief rain showers. The other side of the Tilda factory the path ran along the river bank and was much more exposed to the wind which was gusting strongly enough to make it hard to walk in a straight line. Not far along from the factory there are a number of World War 2 concrete barges, originally used to support the D-Day landings in Normandy they were placed here to shore up the Thames estuary flood defences after the damage caused by the storm and floods of 1953.

Close to the barges a sculpture stands in the river, this is The Diver by John Kaufman The sculpture consists of galvanised steel bands on a steel frame and is a monument to Kaufman’s grandfather and to all the people of the area who worked in difficult and dangerous conditions. I’m sorry but I couldn’t help thinking of The WickerMan

From here the LOOP follows the river bank while on the landward side is the fence and high grass slope of the giant Rainham Landfill, in use for over a century and currently run by Veolia. At least the wind was coming from off the river so if it smells I couldn’t tell you. Along the fence are a number of painted wooden “grave markers” with humorous “obituaries” on them.

I passed the large jetty where clay to cap the landfill is brought in and reached Coldharbour Point where the Thames turned directly east so that from here on I’d have views down the river all the way to the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge and the docks at Purfleet.

At Coldharbour Point is located Momentum, a modern business and logistics park, surrounded on the landward side by the landfill and with the south side close to the river bank but with a high security fence and lots of CCTV. A number of pairs of wooden benches have been placed between the fence and the footpath, each bearing an engraved metal “No Smoking” sign. Just as well I gave up years ago although in that wind I doubt I’d have been able to roll a fag let alone get it to light! 😃

Instead I rested a while and finished the contents of my Thermos flask, there being no prohibition on Bovril. I carried on alongside the river with the occasional annoying shower that stopped as soon as you’d got your coat on 😒. I could almost see the end of my journey at Purfleet now.

Beyond the landfill I joined the path on top of the old river wall embankment that separates Aveley Bay on the river side from Rainham Marshes. I could have used the more sheltered path on the landward side but then I’d have missed the views. Including the Ro-Ro cargo ship Aveline passing quite close to the river bank on its way to Dagenham.

Another short sharp shower got me as I approached the RSPB “Education & Environment Centre” and then I crossed the Mardyke into Purfleet.

I walked through the riverside gardens past the Heritage and Military Centre located in a former Gunpowder Magazine to the point where a last LOOP sign directs you past the Royal Hotel to the London Road opposite the War Memorial.

Unfortunately the hotel was closed, covered in scaffolding and builders, so no chance of a celebratory pint. I already knew it would be shut thanks to Diamond Geezer.

Instead I headed along London Road against the flow of secondary school pupils, half of whom were looking at their phones rather than where they were going, to the end of Section 24 and the end of the LOOP at Purfleet railway station. Is there anything to mark the end? Is there buggery. Not a footpath sign, not a LOOP information board, nothing to take a photograph of to mark the achievement. Also the kiosk outside the station was shut and I was thirsty so I just got on the next train to Fenchurch Street and had a celebratory pint in The Ship in Jews Row instead 🍻

London Outer Orbital Path - ✅

A Flickr Album from Section 24 is here.

 

 

London Loop Section 23, Upminster Bridge to Rainham

15th September

I arrived at Upminster Bridge station on the District line at about ten past eleven in the morning which gave me plenty of time to complete sections 23 and 24 of the LOOP. First however a short diversion to Upminster Windmill, the actual mill this time rather than the pub as on my last visit at the end of Section 22.

Upminster Windmill was built for James Nokes, a local farmer, in 1803. It is a Grade II* listed building and in terms of quality, completeness and significance it is widely considered to be amongst the very best remaining English smock mills, so called because its shape is said to resemble the traditional clothing of agricultural workers. It is owned by the London Borough of Havering and managed by the Friends of Upminster Windmill. It works and they have open days but today the slats on the sails were fixed open and the stiff breeze was turning the fantail that keeps them pointed into the wind. Talking of wind today there was a Yellow Warning for high winds and it was certainly very gusty.

From the windmill I returned to the route of the LOOP along residential streets, occasionally holding onto my hat. Once through Hornchurch Stadium’s car park the way ahead shadowed the River Ingrebourne, as it would for much of the remaining walk. Passing through an open grass area and then crossing the river on a footbridge to a stretch of scrub, woodland and rough grass with the unseen river now behind trees on my left. Across Hacton Lane and around the children’s play area I followed the well surfaced path through Ingrebourne Valley Local Nature Reserve, through shallow puddles until the route turned away to the right over a little wooden bridge provided to allow dry progress when the River Ingrebourne frequently breaks its banks at this point. As it had indeed today.

Past another playground and a visitor centre and now I was entering Hornchurch Country Park, formerly RAF Hornchurch. Looking at the mostly wooded area that you pass through it’s hard to imagine that from 1928 until 1962 this was a military airfield, one that played a major part in the Battle of Britain being a Sector Airfield of RAF Fighter Command’s 11 Group, covering London and the south east of England and was attacked by the Luftwaffe on twenty occasions. It’s a lot quieter now but there are a number of leftovers dotted around from its wartime days, including several “pillbox” bunkers.

I passed Ingrebourne Marshes and climbed the slope up to where the control tower once stood, of which nothing remains but a good view to the south west.

The route carried on down the Ingrebourne Valley parallel to the river until turning west to skirt around Albyns Farm Lake and then south west again by Albyns Farm itself. This much restored and rebuilt medieval manor is surrounded by the sort of strikingly off-white high rendered wall that wouldn’t look out of place around a Spanish hacienda. Part way along which is a very large set of black wrought iron automatic gates with the name across them picked out in gold lettering and a CCTV entry system. It was probably the most Essex thing I saw all day (even if now technically in Greater London). I didn’t dare stand in front of the gates to take a photo though.

Onward through field and wood to cross Ingrebourne Hill where I made the short diversion to the hilltop viewpoint. The path up to the viewpoint has been laid out in a series of lazy back and forth loops by some planner and which therefore mostly has a desire path cutting across them directly to the top because no one has time for that nonsense. There’s a good view from the top, particularly of towers, cranes, and the odd wind turbine across Dagenham, Becontree, and Romford. I returned to the LOOP via the other zig-zag path (mostly, see above) and beside Lake Stilwell to join the Rainham Road and turn south towards the village of Rainham itself. I passed the telephone exchange and its adjacent Albion pub, crossed New Road near the roundabout and then along Bridge Road over the River Ingrebourne again before nipping into Tesco for a pee because every little helps 😀

Then I carried on along Bridge Road following signs to the railway station which is the end of Section 23. I found a bench beside the station that was out of the increasingly strong wind and took a break for half an hour to eat my picnic lunch, (ham and cheese sarnies, crisps, a flask of Bovril, and some grapes that were a bit past their best if you’re curious) and prepared to tackle Section 24 to Purfleet. That will be covered in the next blog though.

There’s the usual collection of photos from Section 23 in this FlickrAlbum.

 

 

 

London Loop Section 22, Harold Wood to Upminster Bridge

20th August, 14:30, outside Harold Wood Station

“It’s only four and a half miles” I reasoned, “It’ll be easier to get home from Upminster Bridge too.”

So I finished my ice lolly and set out in the sunshine to walk section 22 of the London Loop, turning left out side the station down the very suburban Oak Road, into Fitzilian Road, and right into the gravelly Archibald Road past the allotments to Squirrels Heath Road and across that to escape suburban streets at the end of Brinsmead Road into Harold Wood Park.

The Harold from which Harold Wood gets its name is Harold Godwinson, the last legitimate King of England, before the country was occupied in 1066 by the Norman usurper William the Bastard. We’ve been ruled by foreigners ever since 😉

Some of the local street names recall the connection to Saxon royalty, for instance Athelstan Road and Ethelburga Road.

In Harold Wood Park I crossed the River Ingrebourne, the 27 mile long tributary of the Thames whose course the Loop shadows for much of the rest of Section 22 and indeed onwards to the Thames at Rainham.

I walked along a broad well-surfaced path between the Ingrebourne and Pages Wood, a recreational area with many paths and a wooden sculpture trail. Where the path passed beneath the power lines I paused to forage for Blackberries, my sandwich box was now empty and it seemed a shame to be carrying an empty box when I could be carrying the makings of a crumble instead. Particularly when a passing dog walker advised me that there were some apple trees up ahead which would provide something to complement the blackberries. I picked up three windfalls on my way through 😀

Passing out of Pages Wood I came to Hall lane, a busy road which I had to follow to get across the A127 Southend Arterial Road, built in the 1920s to link Romford to Southend-on-Sea and once described by Clement Attlee as “one of the worst pieces of main road in West Essex” due to problems with the road surface after it was constructed. It doesn’t look so bad now but it’s not the nicest stretch of Loop to walk along, especially on a warm afternoon, so I was glad to reach the shaded service road section and then to leave it and turn West down River Drive.

At the end of River Drive the path leading into the dense woodland came as a relief from the sunshine. A winding path led through the trees, fortunately not overgrown and in August not muddy either though I expect in winter it would be quite trying.

All too soon came a bridge over the Ingrebourne and it was open fields with no shelter for most of the way on. I rested a short while at the bridge, the next mile or so was going to be a slog. The Ingrebourne ran to my left, out of sight mostly as I plodded round two sides of a large wheat field that had already been cut, harvested, and the straw baled and carted off leaving only a big expanse of stubble baking in the afternoon sun with just the occasional dog walker circumnavigating it.

Leaving the field through an alleyway at its south western corner it was now back to suburban streets crossing the Liberty Line Romford to Upminster railway bridge in Wingletye Lane then along Minster Way to the end of the section opposite Upminster Bridge Station.

Upminster Bridge is the location of a windmill, “considered to be one of the finer examples of a ‘smock’ mill remaining in England. The name comes from the supposed resemblance to the smock once worn by farmers. Upminster Mill was built in 1803 by James Noakes, a local farmer”, says the Loop guide.

I was too tired at this point to walk down to it though so the only windmill I saw was the The Windmill pub where I could have a sit down and a nice pint of Abbot Ale before getting on the District Line towards home. I’ll check out the other one next time.

London Loop Section 22 ✅

London Loop Section 22 Flickr Album

London Loop Section 21, Havering-Atte-Bower to Harold Wood

20th August

Two Tubes and a Purple Train followed by a bumpy bus ride from Romford deposited me at Havering-Atte-Bower around quarter to midday to start the next part of my London Loop walk. It was considerably cooler than the last time I was here, enough to require a second layer in fact, although that would be put away before too long.

A short walk north from the bus stop on the green brought me to a Loop sign pointing east down a narrow path between a garage and a wooden fence, which soon became a narrow path between a wire fence and a lot of brambles. This was when I remembered that I meant to bring a walking pole, very useful for fending off sharp vegetation but not if you’ve left it in the back of the car on the other side of London 🙄

Oh well, the path soon widened out anyway and then led along the edge of an open field. To the right appeared a white water tower built in the 1930s but made to resemble a Norman tower. I followed the path left around the top of the field past a sad looking horse (Why the long face?) and then through a gap in the hedge over a sketchy-looking wooden footbridge, through some brambles and up over the brow of a low hill in an open field.

Following the path across the field I came to the iron gateposts that were once the entrance to Pyrgo House. Just past here the footpath has been blocked, cordoned off with an electrified fence, the Public Footpath signs and Loop way-markers torn down and thrown in the hedge to provide a space for rich gits to play on their horses.

I followed the faint track alongside the electric fence up and around the horse ride to try and find the route of the Loop again. The route guide here is a bit vague, there are several paths. Once again the waymarker had been knocked down and moved so that it pointed the wrong way. Following the arrow alongside another fence with horses on the other side I came to a metal kissing gate, tied to this was another post with Loop and footpath markers which pointed in directions that made no sense and didn’t appear to be paths. After some messing about I realised that I was now some distance from the correct line of the Loop and had to just take a bearing across the field to regain it alongside Tench Pond Plantation. Come the revolution the bastards at (I think) Home Farm need to be first up against the wall 😦

By the sign imploring people to “please stop shooting our deer, we regard them as pets and our children play in these woods so it’s not safe” I turned North up the field edge then east through another field to reach Paternoster Row, a quiet lane leading past a number of bungalows to Widdrington Farm. Just before the farm I climbed over a high and quite wobbly stile to take Footpath 10. The route guide says this crosses Carter’s Brook but if so I never saw it. What I did see was my first deer of the day and even managed a slightly fuzzy long-distance photo of it.

Footpath 10 ended at Cummings Hall Lane along which I walked to Noak Hill Road by The Deer's Rest PH (too early to stop for beer) and past that turned into Tees Drive. This runs alongside the Carter’s Brook where it flows through the trees in a steep sided dell. Despite being next to the road with housing on the other side this strip of woodland was full of deer so I walked along the roadside, the trees were a bit low along the path anyway. I think that I spotted Bambi anyway, along with some of his friends.

From here I was following the Carter’s Brook, mostly unseen behind a broad strip of brambles and trees, first on the left then after crossing Whitchurch Road with it on the right along with more deer on the wide grass area between the river and the blocks of flats. Crossing Dagnam Park Drive I entered Central Park.

It’s nothing like the pictures I’ve seen of its New York namesake but it did provide a handy bench on which to pause for my picnic lunch. Although lunch was accompanied by loud rap music and the occasional waft of exotic roll-ups, so maybe the two Central Parks do have something in common after all.

In Central Park Carter’s Brook becomes Paines Brook and the Loop follows it South through a strip of green between the housing estates, eventually reaching the busy A12 Colchester Road dual carriageway. Fortunately it wasn’t so busy as to need the 1000 yard detour to the pedestrian crossing. Safely across I rejoined the path beside the Paines Brook through a field to Church Road, and then a short walk through residential streets to the end of the section at Harold Wood Station.

It was now quite warm so I treated myself to an ice lolly, sat on a bench across the road from the station entrance, and prepared to start Section 22.

London Loop Section 21 ✅

London Loop Section 21 Flickr Album.

London Loop Section 20, Chigwell to Havering-Atte-Bower

10th July

You’d have to be slightly unhinged to go hiking when the temperature was forecast to reach 29° C, wouldn’t you?

So a week after completing Section 19 I was back at Chigwell Station to carry on along Section 20. I wasn’t the only hiker out but they must have been going somewhere else since I didn’t see any of them on the trail.

I walked up High Road to rejoin the Loop at the junction with Chigwell Rise and carried on northward past St. Mary’s Church before turning right up an alleyway on a footpath signposted as Epping Forest Countrycare walk. This came out on Vicarage Lane, which I crossed and went through the gap opposite, climbed over two fallen trees and walked through a scruffy bit of woodland to find a Loop waymark and a realization that it would have been easier to have carried on up Vicarage Lane and turned left up a much clearer footpath. Here I turned left through a small open field then through a gap to follow the path along the edge of a field of wheat about ready to harvest.

OpenStreetMap showed the Loop going diagonally right through this crop but there definitely isn’t a footpath there so I’ve edited it to show the correct route as per the guide directions. Which say continue to a meeting of several paths near Old Farm then turn right down a track and then left onto a green lane. This led gently uphill around two sides of another field of ripe wheat to cross the Chigwell Brook. You wouldn’t know you were crossing a brook unless you checked the map though, it seems to be partly culverted and the ditch by the hedge was dry. At the end of a hedge I bore left to follow the footpath across the next field. Which had been ploughed up.

Too much trouble to run a tractor wheel across to make a path obviously. Just keep filling in the forms for the tax handouts and complaining about townies coming into the countryside. I made it across but it was treacherous to walk on and twice I almost turned an ankle. Also it was getting quite hot. On the far side I joined the path along the outside fence of the Chigwell Water Treatment Works. A path goes left off the drive to the water works, behind some unseen houses then left at what was a stile into a paddock, under some trees to a gate and through part of the garden of the house on the left then past another stile (the stile-free alternative route in the Loop guide seems currently to be unnecessary) to go between fence and trees to eventually reach Chapel Lane.

At the end of Chapel lane I paused to look at the Victorian chapel before crossing over Lambourne Road and turning left then right through the recreation ground to the edge of Chigwell Row Wood. The route turns right after a short distance into the wood over a small wooden bridge. Or in this case beside a small wooden bridge because a sizeable working party, complete with roadworks signs, were rebuilding it. Fortunately the ditch which it spans was completely dry. I met other members of the working party clearing undergrowth and tidying up as I made my way through the wood to emerge at the A1112 Romford Road dual-carriageway. There is no pedestrian crossing here, you just have to take your chances crossing first the northbound two lanes to the broad central reservation then the same for the southbound. Once across I found the squeeze stile and entered Hainault Forest Country Park. Follow the path through scrub. Bear right on reaching a more open area by an isolated oak tree. says the Loop guide. This might be easier to follow at a different time of year but with several overgrown paths leading into, if not necessarily out of, the scrub I couldn’t say for sure if I took the right one(s). The one I did take at least passed a fallen log under a fairly shady tree (did I mention it was hot?) and so there I stopped to eat my picnic lunch, accompanied by the calls of Chiffchaffs and Blue Tits.

After lunch I carried on through the wooded part of the country park until I reached the Boating Lake, which appeared to be free of boats but not of Canada Geese who all chose that moment to get out and walk across my path while giving me funny looks. Being in the middle of a flock of geese is a little intimidating.

The section through the country park is a bit short of Loop waymarks and having followed the track uphill along the edge of the woods and looking back for a distant view of that London in the heat haze.

I inevitably then took the wrong left turn through the woods, eventually doubling back at the top of the hill to find the entrance to the golf course on my left rather than right.

I crossed the fairway noticing a huge column of thick black smoke far to the south and followed the path along the length of the narrow strip of woodland called Mile Long Plantation. There are a few Loop markers through here along with yellow paint marks on the trees to mark the footpath - although there’s no consistency as to which side of the path the painted trees are which is erm, helpful. Before crossing the final fairway and leaving the golf course I had a rest on a bench beneath a tree. Diagonally across the next field and then by field edge paths I came out on a metalled track that led through Lower Park Farm and its barking dogs and left onto another farm track, crossing the River Rom and heading up a long slope.

The way ahead continued to rise steadily, turning left at Clockhouse Lane with more views of London and then into the woods of Havering Country Park. The way through the woods lies along Wellingtonia Avenue, with Giant Sequoia tress either side which were planted in the 19th century so not quite as giant as Giant Sequoias can get. Although it was partially shaded in the woods there wasn’t a breath of wind so the long slog up the slope was hard going in the afternoon heat. Eventually the path levelled out and left the country park, passing St. John the Evangelist church and somewhat bizarrely Den’s Nosh Burger Van (open Thurs - Sun 0930-1600) with its very welcome cold drinks fridge. I bought a bottle of Iced Tea and went and hid in the shade behind the bus stop while I waited for the 375 to Romford.

London Loop Section 20 tick.

If any of the embedded photos in this post fail to display it will be due to Flickr’s increasing unreliability. At the time of writing even I can’t see them. Apparently they are aware of the problem and have added my account to the list of those affected. Here’s a link to the FlickrAlbum for Section 20 but whether you’ll be able to see it is anyone’s guess.

Here's an alternative link to the album on Google Photos just in case Flickr remains broken.

London Loop Sections 18 & 19

 Enfield lock to Chingford and Chingford to Chigwell

3rd July

Hey, the temperature has dropped back below “bloody scorching” so time to do some more London Loop. I headed back to Enfield Lock station to start Section 18 to Chingford and if things went well, Section 19 to Chigwell. Things went well, although not in any way that I could have anticipated.

I left the station and walked back down Bradley Road, a little less litter-strewn today than last time, to begin Section 18 at the little bridge over the Turkey Brook. The water was hidden in a deep channel full of vegetation to begin with although further along this thinned out to reveal patches of not-very-inviting stream before the path bore away from the brook and up over the A1055 via a long footbridge. From the top of the bridge you are supposed to be able to see the Sewardstone Hills ahead but mostly there seems to be trees in the way. After crossing the bridge the path brought me to the actual Enfield Lock on the River Lee Navigation.

From here I walked along the towpath past Swan & Pike Pool and along by the River Lee itself with quite a few Coots and Canada Geese swimming in the flowing water. This year's Coot chicks are now almost as big as their parents but fuzzier.

Two further footbridges took me across first the River Lee and then the River Lee Flood Relief channel and at the same time out of Greater London and into Essex. In this picture London is on the left and Essex on the right.

Leaving the river(s) behind the route passed first through Sewardstone Marsh, although with the recent weather the paths were dry, then along a side street and across the A112 Sewardstone Road before striking diagonally across an empty car boot sale field and carrying on along a gravel track uphill to Sewardstone Park Cemetery and “Gardens of Firdaus”, an area set aside for burial of those of the Islamic faith. Passing through a strip of woodland I reached the top of the hill and turned back to look at the view over the King George V Reservoir.

Shortly after leaving Enfield Lock I’d notice and passed another Loop walker - we’re easy to spot, standing looking about and reading from a folded sheet of A4 paper trying to work out which way to go next - and she had been not far behind me for some time. Standing looking at the route instructions was what I was doing, trying to work out where the “faint path across the field” went and was it through the building site that wasn’t mentioned at all? Now there were two of us trying to work out where the “faint path across the field” went and was it through the building site that wasn’t mentioned at all? Having decided it was “that way” which turned out to be too far to the left we found ourselves at the edge of a woodland hunting for a disused stile and the entrance to a path through the woods. With two sets of eyes and helped by my having the route marked on Organic Maps on my phone we eventually regained the route, the faint path across the field we should have taken only being obvious from the bottom of the hill but not the top, and the disused stile entirely hidden in a bush. We carried on through the woods to Bury Road.

Now I normally walk alone but I’m not entirely antisocial and since we were both heading the same way we walked on together. Besides with two of us surely we could halve the chances of getting lost on a Loop section with rather sporadic way-marking. Since my new-found walking companion was very pleasant to be with there aren’t very  many photos to accompany my words in this blog - a lot of chatting ensued and snapping was rather forgotten 😀

We turned down the main drive to the Scout Association HQ at Gilwell, turning left at its large “Leopard Gates” through a long section of woodland first west then turning south, passing through a meadow, back into the woods to a turning east which is a lot clearer on the map than it is on the ground so we almost missed it, and then alongside a golf course, mostly heard rather than seen to Bury Road again. Crossing Bury Road we turned south through the woods parallel to the road and then through a car park to a three-way London Loop sign on a lamppost near the Holly Trail Cafe and that was Section 18 ✅

And it was only about twenty-past one.

Section 19 began by heading north east onto Chingford Plain for a short way then forking left up hill towards some trees, keeping an eye out for somewhere shady to sit for lunch. The area behind the Epping Forest Visitor Centre was filled with several hundred (so it seemed) uniformed schoolkids but we managed to bag a picnic table under the trees behind the Butler’s Retreat cafe and they didn’t come out and complain about us sitting there eating our picnic lunches and putting the world to rights. Suitably refuelled we set off again across and then east parallel to Ranger’s Road past some very old oak trees, with a little diversion around where some roadworks had closed the path. There were some young Duke of Edinburgh’s Scheme participants along here, heading in the opposite direction and a bit nonplussed by the barrier across their intended path so we pointed them in the direction of the diversion we’d just taken.

Crossing once again the border from London into Essex gently uphill along a broad open grassy strip with a near constant stream of DofE walkers going the other way we reached Epping New Road and waited for a gap in the traffic to cross it. And waited. And waited. If anywhere along this section needs a pedestrian crossing this is it. Eventually we made it across, through Powell’s Forest, and across High Road too, coming out into a residential street, North End, where the route instructions had us puzzled and the way-mark mentioned couldn’t be seen.

It had become a running joke between us that the way-mark you can’t find is probably quite obvious ten paces further on and so it proved again here although when it’s high on a lamppost and only visible from alongside rather than as you approach it, it doesn’t help. The next turn took us between some houses and felt as if you were about to walk into someone’s back garden but there was in fact a footpath entry hidden in the corner which lead between the gardens, one of which contained a remarkably large Willow tree. We went along the edge of the trees by an open area, did some more head scratching as to which of the paths across the open field was the right one, picked the wrong one and as a result I now realise looking at the map more closely did two sides of a small triangle before dropping down into the Roding Valley to cross over the Central Line via a high metal footbridge.

A short walk along Thaxted Road and its classics suburban semis brought us to the turn right onto the Green Walk between the residential roads and past Roding Valley Cricket Club to the un-named lake which is a flooded gravel pit, used to supply the building of the M11 motorway. Here we paused to admire the view of the scattered clouds and blue sky reflected in the water. I actually remembered to take a photo.

Skirting the southern side of the lake we crossed the River Roding and followed it for a short distance in the welcome shade of the riverside trees before looping around the back of the sports centre to reach Roding Lane. The last stretch was roadside, over the top of the M11 and down Chigwell Rise to the end of Section 19 at the mini roundabout where it meets High Road. Turning right towards Chigwell Station I was a bit disappointed to find the pub was closed for refurbishment because some liquid refreshment would have been welcome right at that point - the forecast overcast skies had not materialised.

At least we hadn't got lost despite the missing way-marks 😀 

Section 19 ✅ 

At the station having worked out which direction each of us needed to go in we said our goodbyes, agreeing that it had been a fine afternoon’s walk improved by the company. We parted expressing the thought that maybe we’d see each other out on the Loop again and headed to our respective platforms.

And all the way home I kicked myself for not seizing the opportunity to give her my number to make that more likely 🙄

Such is life.