EFOG Trip to Exmouth - 28th September to 2nd October

Getting to Exmouth was easy for those who drove and dreadful for most of those who took the train (due to an incident on the line near Exeter).  The tentative plan for an afternoon walk along the seafront went out the window as the group WhatsApp pinged repeatedly with different progress and location updates. Madeleine finally arrived at the Royal Beacon Hotel just in time to go out for dinner.   Lovely meal at The Queen Vic though (Pie and a Pint Night, for those that fancied a pie and a pint) and good to catch up with Sue & Jim, who moved down here a few years ago, too. 

On Tuesday morning, after a good breakfast, Sue and Jim met us outside the hotel and led us into town to get the bus to Otterton Mill. Very scenic journey through country lanes and villages, good coffee at the cafe and the chance to wander around the working watermill / buy freshly made scones and pastries before setting off for our walk to Budleigh Salterton.  Following the River Otter - Trevor spotted a kingfisher - all the way to the beach close to the Otter Estuary Nature Reserve, we then had a short walk alongside the shingle and colourful beach huts, passing sandstone cliffs, to the High Street.  We split up for lunch in town - pasties & buns from Sue's favourite bakery vs a sit down meal in a cafe cum antiques shop - then followed the trail along the route of the disused London and South Western Railway line, all the way back to Exmouth (it was deemed too windy to risk the cliffs path, so we missed seeing the Naturist Beach). At Phear Park, Jim told us about the D-Day Memorial before we continued on to our hotel  - a very pleasant 9 mile walk in total.  Half the group went to Namaste Himalaya for some very tasty Nepalese curry whilst the other half headed to Prezzo.

Wednesday morning was set aside for sightseeing. Most of the group did a boat ride up the River Exe (very excited to see a seal), Louise, Cathy & Richard went to A La Ronde and I went to Powderham Castle (with Sue acting as an excellent guide to supplement what the volunteers in various rooms told us).  Re-grouping early in the afternoon, we all did the walk originally planned for Monday afternoon - along the seafront, up to the Geoneedle (made from different rocks taken from the Jurassic coast) at Orcombe Point, followed the South West Coast Path over the cliffs to the caravan park (and towards the sound of rifles in use at the nearby MOD live firing range) then descended to Sandy Bay and walked back along the beach.The sandstone cliffs and rocks along here are beautiful, the sun shone, the water (for those that paddled) was cold and it was a glorious 5 mile walk.  Sue and Jim's precise timing (and shepherding us along) meant we were back on the Exmouth promenade before the tide cut us off and necessitated an RNLI rescue.  For dinner, Marian, Jinan and Louise went to Sapori, a highly-recommended Italian restaurant, with Sue and Jim.  Myself, Trevor, Cathy, Richard, Madeleine and Lynne were booked on to the pub quiz at The Grove and had opted to eat at the pub before it started. One round asked each team to depict a film using Play-doh, with the results to be judged by the other teams.Being my favourite colour, I'd gravitated towards a pot of cerise coloured gunge; Trevor quickly realised he couldn't model a Pink Panther so it morphed into the makings of ET, which then became dinosaurs, alluding to Jurassic Park.The stegosaurus (I think) and T-rex were great, the film was correctly identifiedby everyone who came to our table and that gained us plenty of points.  Bonbon tasting - guess the flavour - was less successful, but well done to Trevor for taking most of the sugar hit.  General knowledge not really needed and there were some dubious questions and some very dubious (wrong) answers, but it was a fun evening and we finished mid table. 

On Thursday, Sue led us down to and around the marina, then up the Exe Estuary Trail.  Marian left us, enroute, so she could visit A La Ronde, whilst the rest of us enjoyed a lovely walk via Lympstone village and passed the Royal Marine's Commando Training Centre to the RSPB hide at Bowling Green Marsh nature reserve. The knowledgeable volunteers helpfully pointed out the different birds to us novices and we were lucky to see spoonbills amongst many varieties of geese and duck. After an hour of peering through binoculars and scopes, we continued on to Topsham via the Goat Walk with its views of the estuary.

 

After having generously filled sandwiches at the delightful Kiln cafe, we took the bus back to Exmouth having completed an 8.5 mile walk.  Jinan and Louise decided to go to Namaste for dinner, but the rest of us ordered fish and chips from Proper Fish and Chips (as recommended by S&J). The hotel kindly let us use the dining room, complete with plates and cutlery, and even rustled up salt, vinegar and ketchup for us. There was a slight hiccup as Lynne's chips didn't get put in the bag, despite having been verbally mentioned when she'd gone in to collect the order, but we had more than enough between us to spare a few.  Refunds can only be made in person so Sue handed over the relevant cash and she & Jim went to the chippy the next day to get a refund - actually taken as a bag of chips!  The remainder of the evening was spent in the hotel bar before we peeled off to go to bed / pack. 

A final group breakfast on Friday and we went our separate ways. I was driving to Windsor for the weekend, Richard & Cathy were going to stop at a stately home on their way back and everyone else hoped the trains were running OK.  It was a lovely week, we had fantastic weather (despite the forecast ahead of our visit) and it was great to see Sue and Jim again.  The consensus was that we must repeat it. 

Jill S, 10th October 2026

Frieze Sculptures in Regent's Park

On Sunday 20th September, four of us met for tea / coffee at Pret's near Great Portland Street Station ahead of the planned 11.00am start time.  Peter and Annick joined us in the park.  It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, it was pleasantly warm and the blue sky enhanced some of our photos.  

The Frieze Sculptures - an annual event that is London's largest free display of outdoor art - are dotted around The English Garden in Regent's Park; this year there are 15 works of art on display.  

As always, we visited every piece : an impressively tall black palm tree made from scrap steel and tyres discarded by the roadside, giant metallic claws forming an arch on the grass, angel wings surrounded by (and connected by hoses to) 4 pieces that looked like sci-fi toilets but were somehow linked to racing cars, a loincloth-wearing warrior figure with shells for nipples and a face on one side that looked like a child's drawing and a face on the other side engraved onto a piece of sheet metal, a blue door lying on the ground adjacent to a staircase going down into the soil, a beautiful oval honeycomb formed of cut-out metal pieces bolted together which apparently draws on cosmic geometry, hollow bronze arms (well, that's what they looked like to me) holding a lovely piece of white quartz, flat metal sheets carved with Indian figures and images which was beautiful - the more you looked at it, the more figures, heads and images you saw - an arched, weathered corrugated iron 'worm' emerging from and going back into the ground (which Trevor gamely managed to mimic) and three tall 3D printed columns of differing styles with one looking very Aztec and another having shiny stones glued on to it.  We also followed the instructions on the plinths, embedded in the ground, of three linked pieces and posed as 'Possibilities for a Sculpture', so all six of us can claim to be walking pieces of art now.  

We spent about an hour and a half looking at all the sculptures, critiquing and admiring the different pieces. Similar to last year, the descriptions were mostly intelligible, with no long, multi-syllable words requiring a Google search to understand, although I'm not convinced "humanity's yearning for wholeness and the power - and the fragility - of collective ideals" applies to us all.  

Continuing with a walk through the rose garden and around the boating lake, most of us went to the Wetherspoons pub by Baker Street Station for a leisurely lunch before heading to the tube station. 

Jill S, 20th September 2026

 

Eye by Conrad ShawcrossMetanoia by Ivana Bašić'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

   

 

The Sun Bathes Its Friends and Neighbours by Tarini SethiMace by Matyáš Chochola

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Wyrm by Catriona RobertsonThe Sun Bathes Its Friends and Neighbours by Tarini Sethi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

Photos by Jill S. and Madeleine

Chipping Ongar to Greensted Church 

After a long spell of dry weather, it was with some surprise that we had a wet day for our 5 mile walk, though the forecast thunderstorms didn’t materialise.

Eight of us met near Chipping Ongar Library on 29th August, having travelled in two cars. We headed left out of the car park and followed the High Road down to the Two Brewers junction, then turned right up Greensted Road where just before the school there is a footpath which runs alongside the school. Following this we arrived at a field. The directions were to follow a path parallel to the telegraph poles across the field. On the recce a month or so previous this was a clear footpath, however the combination of recent ploughing and rain meant this wasn’t a viable option, but we were able to follow a path to the left of the field, then right between the field and a hedgerow to arrive at the required bridge. With several other fields having been ploughed the paths at the edges seemed somewhat narrower than I remembered and we also got our boots rather caked in mud at various times which made it heavy going. We spotted a red kite at one point and in the woods heard a robin.

The footpaths circled round to join up with the Essex Way to get to the beautiful log church of St Andrew in Greensted where we stopped for lunch and a browse inside the church.

We then carried on along the Essex Way back to Chipping Ongar where we found a nice café for a warming cuppa and a well earned slice of cake.

Despite the rain it was an enjoyable walk with good company.  Richard. 30th August 2026

An Evening at Kew Gardens

On Sunday 23rd August 2026 eight Efoggers met at Kew at the unusually late start time of 4pm, carrying on the proud EFOG tradition of finding a teashop near to the meeting place. In this case Starbucks was the lucky recipient of our tea and cake (and loo) orders.

We were visiting Kew Gardens, to have an evening wander and to see the Henry Moore sculptures which are spaced around the park.  I had heard the sculptures were big, so assumed they'd be easy to spot - but finding them all (I didn't) took some navigating - big thanks to the map readers!

The sculptures were impressive, and were shown to their best in the setting of Kew Gardens, which was almost peaceful if you managed to tune out the aeroplanes heading for Heathrow.

We were lucky with the weather, especially given the recent heatwaves  -  sunny but not too hot, and luckier still with the ease of the journeys there and back, especially as there the usual weekend closures going on.  Less lucky with the eateries, which were getting ready to close, but did have the  odd sandwich to be found - and all in all it was a very nice outing. 

Thank you to everyone who came  - I could get a taste for lazy mornings and late starts to EFOG events!

Louise,  31st August 2026 

The group by the Palm House, Kew Gardens'Large Reclining Figure', 1984, Henry Moore

'A Tree viewed through a Hole', 2026, EFOG Member'Not Quite as Large Reclining Figure', 2026, EFOG member

'Two Piece Recling Figure', 1960, Henry Moore'Double Oval', 1966, by Henry Moore

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos by Louise, Cathy and Trevor