London Loop Enfield Lock to Chigwell - 9 miles - Friday evening 30 May2014

I've decided to give the Thames River crossings a rest for a few weeks whilst I concentrate on completing the London Loop which I started some 5 years ago. Beverley has already dropped out finding the travelling too much for such short and boring walks. As it is I have about 30 miles to go, the section tonight, then next week Chigwell to Harold Wood about 10 miles and then the big one Harold Wood to Purfleet just over 13 miles. Whilst not really a long distance it is when you want to do it after work during the evening. I've gone for the next three weeks as the evenings will be the longest and then after that I will be on holiday and when I get back the days will be getting shorter, not by much I grant you to start off with. I expect I will split the last stage into two and combine it with a crossing of the Thames via the Dartford Tunnel.

It must be well over two and half years since I did my last section which was Enfield Lock to Cockfosters, that was on a really wet day and in the afternoon I went to Barnet see them thump AFC Wimbledon 4-0, so a bad day all ways round really!

Enfield Lock

So back to this evenings walk, I caught the 17:26 from Liverpool Street Station to Enfield Lock arriving at 18:00. I joined the Loop about 200 yards down the road from the station where the walk runs along side the Turkey Brook, a little stream hidden away in a deep cutting, however the first thing I saw was a Little Egret, I was so shocked it took me while to register and I was to slow to capture it on film, this was to happen again later in the walk whilst I was in Buckhurst Hill where half a dozen deer were across the road from some houses on the edge of Epping Forest, this time a little boy shouting scared them off!

Enfield Lock House

So what were the highlights of this walk, to start off there was the visit to Enfield Lock on the River Lee navigation, whilst not the most attractive of buildings, behind it was the former Royal Smallarms Factory where they use to make rifles (from 1854), of course this being Enfield and the River Lee you ended up with the Lee Enfield rifle, the stalwart of the British Army for years, and not forgetting countless CCF cadets of a certain age across the country who would have been familiar with the 303.

Then there was the marvellous view from the top of Stewardstone Hill looking across the William Girling and King George V reservoirs, a huge expanse of water which supplies a quarter of London's needs and apparently is home to 30,000 seagulls, who counted them then!

Reservoirs

Whilst not particularly interesting in itself I did walk through the National Scouting Headquarters at Girling Park, I only spied one person in uniform but I did hear a lot of screaming noises coming from behind a hedge, they must have been doing dib dib dobbing or play more likely playing football.

Queen Elizabeth Hunting Lodge

Chingford is place I've heard of but never been to as far as I can recall. In some ways it reminded me of Wimbledon Common, i.e. huge expanse of green and expensive houses but not quite as up market as Wimbledon Common I'm afraid. It does however boast the Queen Elizabeth Hunting Lodge which over looks the Chingford Plains and was used as a grandstand to watch the hunting in Elizabethan times. It was at this point that the sun came up and lit the building up nicely for me.

RodingValley Recreation Park Lake

Buckhurst Hill was another fairly attractive place in a Wimbledonesque way, some nice little cottages and of course the deer and the dear little shouting child.

Then down the hill into Roding Valley Recreation Park which has a huge lake which was lit up nicely in the evening sunlight. The lake was a gravel pit during the building of the M11 which I crossed before descending down into Chigwell to complete my walk.

Did I enjoy it? I prefer walking home in an urban environment. The LOOP attempts to be a country walk on the outskirts of London and in my opinion fails, unlike the Capital Ring which joins up the inner city with green spaces and is an excellent walk.  

Next week Chigwell to Harold Wood