efog-blog

Recent outings and activities...

Cedar Park and River Lea Walk

Saturday 12th August saw nine of us - Louise, Madeline, Fozi, Ken, Cathy, Richard, Elaine, Dave and myself - meeting at Cheshunt Station for a leisurely 5½ mile walk. The walk was originally going to be partially along the new river, but unfortunately the footpaths were closed for works so we had to change plans (you wouldn’t believe the problems it caused me the previous week trying to recce a suitable route!)

We headed from the station towards the High Street, before heading off the main road to a track adjacent to a sports ground and turning south to emerge opposite Cedars Park, which is the former site of Theobalds Palace. The Palace itself was destroyed in the Civil War, but parts of it remain and it’s a nice tranquil park.

After having a wander around the park we exited and headed east toward Theobald’s Grove Station, and continued eastbound, crossing the railway line to enter the Lea Valley Park and headed to the White Water Rafting Centre for lunch, having watched the canoeists and rafters braving the wild water rapids. It looks like fun.

Suitably refreshed, we continued to the somewhat calmer waters of the River Lea Navigation and headed south to a lock before turning back alongside the River Lea, northwards. We followed the river for a couple of miles with the Gunpowder Mills over the river to our right, before turning left and crossing over the Lea Navigation to exit the park, then back to Cheshunt Station to return home.

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Trev. 10th September 2023

Snaresbrook to Chingford

Twelve of us met at the clubhouse in Snaresbrook on a sunny Saturday 29th of July. Setting off, we passed Eagle Pond and noticed the large number of swans. Avian Flu does not seem to have had much impact here! A stop at Birch Well, an important source of water in the early 19th century, and then on past Hollow Pond.

snaresbrook Birch well art The Birch Well, SnaresbrookCrossing the busy Woodford New Road we walked up through Canada Plain, meeting other walkers going the opposite way and, like ourselves, enjoying the weather.

There is a steep ascent on the way to the bridge over Forest Road and it was here that Fred showed his true colours, slipping on the surface and taking firm hold of Laurel as he struggled to remain upright.

Walking on the bridge over the North Circular Road only emphasises what a scar on the landscape it is and how much it has affected the forest. Couldn’t they have done a Bell Common here and put it underground?

Into Walthamstow Forest (the “waste”) roughly following the “Old Woodford Road” we crossed Oak Hill and headed up to the Bridle Path and into The Sale. A previous walk along here had come across a swing hanging from a tree and sure enough, there was a swing this time. Regrettably none of us were flexible enough to get our legs over the rather high bar and so a photo opportunity was missed.

We had been warned by Kathy that Humphrey’s café in Highams Park was shut because builders were in and we therefore stopped at the southern end of Highams Lake. There were only a couple of benches but a high wall provided amusement as some of us struggled to climb it. Kathy joining us meant that we were now 13 and sure enough, immediately after we set off again, Fred fell over, cutting his head. The group had already split up and an activity that Efoggers will recognise was taking place, namely shouting loudly to try and find the missing members. Eventually we all joined up again and Fred’s wound was dealt with.

Across Chingford Lane we now started to follow the route of the River Ching, changed from the name River Bourne in the 19th century to take the name of the surrounding are. It is normally the other way round. People were getting tired now and we left Fred at Whitehall Road to take a bus home while the rest of us climbed past Whitehall Plain to Rangers Road and our finish at The View visitor centre.

Brian U. 5th August 2023

London Bridge to Wapping

In lieu of the original Sunday walk on the Programme, a group of us met at Tower Bridge Station on Saturday 8th July and – led by Richard – we followed a meandering route (taken from ‘Hidden London’ which details some of the history of different areas) along the Thames towards Wapping, taking us past St Katherine’s Dock and Dickens' pub, which is next to Telford’s Footbridge.

From the Thames there were good views of old/new London – St Paul's Cathedral, Tower Bridge, The Shard, etc.

Unfortunately it started to rain, so when it got a bit heavy at 12ish, we took refuge and had an early lunch in the historic old pub, The Town of Ramsgate. It was still raining as we exited the pub, so we cut short the walk and made straight for Wapping Station. The whole walk was 2.5 miles.

Richard. 5th August 2023

thames general view art The Shard and Tower Bridge thames tower bridge art Tower Bridge

Evening circular walk - Eagle and Hollow Ponds

At 7.30pm on Thursday 1st June, which was a very warm summer's evening, 12 little EFOGees set off for a walk. 12 little EFOGees also returned. Just not all together.

Our route was from ROVSCO Hall, around the Snaresbrook section of Epping Forest, finishing at the pub close to where we started.

Eagle Pond is currently home to at least 50 swans and many of them swam alongside us, as we walked up Snaresbrook Road, presumably hoping for food. As we turned in to the forest, some of the group witnessed nature's less attractive side as a few swans attacked a lone duckling in the pond's shallows until its parent arrived to rescue it. Earlier in the day, when I'd recced the route, the entire path in this area was full of swans and I'd had to detour into the bushes to get past, so this is clearly an area that the swans deem to be "their's". As we walked through in the evening, the ground was covered in small white feathers and we wondered if there were enough to make a pillow.

Turning on to Leyton Flats, Mat pointed out the seemingly odd twists in the branches of multiple trees and explained that these were manually encouraged as, when chopped down, the right-angled planks of wood could be easily fitted in to corners on ships with no need for joins.

Reaching a pool, largely hidden by reeds, we then followed the undulating paths that encircle Hollow Ponds, walking all the way round. Possibly too occupied looking towards the many flag irises in the water, one of our group walked into a broken tree branch that was jutting out just at head height. Whilst his scalp was being attended to, we realised that some of our walkers weren't with us. Richard and Trevor set off to retrace our steps but, unable to find them, returned to join the main group. As we were doing a well-walked circuit, that the group knows well (and don't actually need a walk leader for), we weren't concerned and assumed we'd meet them coming the other way round. We were almost at the entrance to Whipps Cross Hospital but, having determined that medical assistance wasn't required for a graze, we carried on. Crossing in front of the Boat House, we continued on the path that hugs the water's edge, avoiding the road and also remaining in the shade, until we reached the wide open space of Leyton Flats from where we headed north-east to a small pool, that leads off the bigger water of Hollow Ponds, and then followed the path to the right taking us back out on to Snaresbrook Road.

As we approached The Eagle Pub for a well-deserved, cooling drink, our missing walkers emerged from the right. It's widely joked that a walk leader can lose 10% of their group but I'm not sure that 25% is acceptable so it was relief to see them. And we did all arrive at the pub at the same time. It was an eventful evening, but perhaps I'll stick to running evening quizzes in future.

Jill S. 19th June 2023

Walking the River Lea Navigation

On Tuesday 13th June a group of four stalwarts (Jill S, Brian & Kathy and Richard) set off from Waltham Cross Station in the heat, along the A121, towards Waltham Abbey before turning off along the Lea Navigation foot/tow path. We encountered a few midges early on, but undaunted we carried on first to the Greyhound Pub where we stopped for some liquid refreshment.

Emerging back into the sun, we progressed to Enfield Lock and just beyond it the Swan & Pike Pool. We didn’t see any swans or pike, but did watch a family of coots on their nest.

efog lea sunken boat 230613 Carrying on down the towpath we saw other young coots, cygnets and ducklings as well as a varying assortment of boats and barges. There were three Brent Alpha lifeboats (2 with no windows, 1 undergoing a conversion to add windows), a narrow boat ‘Black Bart’ named after a late 17th/early 18th Century Welsh pirate (Robert Bartholomew, the scourge of the Caribbean) amongst other boats.

We stopped for lunch at The Navigation Inn by Ponders End Lock. It’s a former waterworks building converted previously into a pub/night club, but now a Harvester and conveniently situated around the half-way point of our walk.

We then carried on to Stonebridge Lock where we saw coots had built a nest on a sunken boat just near the lock. It was then an easy walk on to Tottenham Hale and the train back home.

Total distance was about 9 miles.

Richard. 17th June 2023

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