Eastbrookend Country Park and The Chase Local Nature Reserve

Last Sunday, the 2nd August, Cathy, Richard, Trevor, Madeleine and myself revisited Eastbrookend Country Park and decided to discover a little bit more of the area next to it called The Chase Local Nature Reserve. We crossed over the car park by the Discovery Centre (RM7 0SS) to walk up The Chase, which by the map should lead to the reserve but as we could see water and a lake to our left hand side we decided to do a bit of an investigate and found there were two lakes surrounded by trees. This area was popular with the local fishermen who reminded me of the military in their green camouflage outfits. They seemed to take it very seriously, having set up their fishing tents, etc.

River Rom efog 200806 artThe River RomWe followed the path around, passing by some Egyptian geese on a tree stump. Further round we reached the River Rom, surrounded by trees and plants and lots of insects! The insects had a lovely feast on Cathy, Madeleine and Richard! I seemed to have escaped with no bites at all even though they started to land on me. We carried on following the river as it meandered around and eventually came out to a small lane, which if you turned left will take you down to Dagenham Road or by turming right, further into the park. We crossed over the lane into The Chase Local Nature Reserve, having been given information by a dog walker with an impressively long beard and powerful looking dog! We crossed over into the nature reserve and came across lots of mounds of horse manure and we were alerted by another dog walker that the horses were running around in the field and to be careful.

River Rom efog lunch 200806 artSocially Distanced LunchWe followed a path through the grounds, passing trees, and eventually came across a bird reserve that was fenced off and not open to the public. Shame, as there looked to be a few birds in the distance worth looking at. As a birdwatcher I’m ashamed to say I had not got my binoculars with me and was not able to see what the birds were. Who would know that there were such interesting places tucked away in the depths of Dagenham? Eventually we did see some horses which had hoods over their heads covering their eyes, being led by a lady and taken to a private paddock. Not sure why the horses had their eyes covered but didn’t like to ask. (Probably to protect them from the biting insects. Ed.)

Eventually we came back to Easterbrookend Park, where we sat on some wooden posts for a rest and a chat. There were a circle of these posts, evenly spaced around the mound of soil that we were on top of. Again, not really sure what these were for but it enabled us to socially distance. Maybe they were there from the previous pandemic who knows! It was a pleasant afternoon’s walk.

Ann W.    6th August 2020