This is part 4 of a series.
This walk is along the second long distance trail within the boundaries of London, sticking to the far outer areas within Zone 6. It is 150 miles long, thus the segments are longer then those of the Capital Ring. This walk was 11 1/2 miles but we spread it over three days. The first day we walked 7 miles, the second was 3.1 miles. Deb was not feeling up to the walk for Part 3 so I walked the final part solo, 4 1/2 miles. The walk begins at Moor Park Station and ends at Elstree and Borehamwood Station. Newer versions of the Loop guides shorten some of the segments, but we use an older book and keep to the original 15 long segments.
The day began with a comedy of errors. We messed up two of our trains so we ended up starting the walk about 75 minutes later than we should have. At East Croydon we jumped on a train as the doors were closing. I thought we had gone down the ramp to Platform 1, so any train we jumped on would have been fine. Alas, we had tramped down Platform 3 by mistake, so the train we jumped on was going in the opposite direction. We got on just as the doors closed. We sat down and heard over the speaker that we were merrily on our way to Gatwick Airport. It's only a 17 minute ride, but we had no ticket for this mistaken journey. We got off at Gatwick, crossed the platform and caught the train back to East Croydon and beyond, again with no ticket. Once back at East Croydon we were fine. Luckily no conductor asked for a ticket. So we lost about 35 minutes there.
Later in the morning we had to take the Metropolitan Line from Harrow on the Hill Station. We did, even going in the right direction. However, the train tracks split one station later, each ending at different destinations. Our bad luck held and we got on the wrong train. Noticing the mistake about three stations later, we got off, crossed the platform and headed back to Harrow on the Hill. We waited for the correct train, finally arriving at Moor Park Station. We had spent the entire morning on trains, instead of half a morning.
The walk began on a golf course and we had to cross open fairways to reach the woods. Oxley Woods is yet another major deep suburban park that goes on and on. The walk was about as far from rural as one can find within the boundary of London and we enjoyed it immensely. Here are a few photos of our walk.
Early 18th C. Pinnerwood House and its pond.
After the walk we were pretty tired, having had four rather strenuous days in a row. A Wetherspoons pub near Hatch End Station revived us for the journey home. We enjoyed Hobgoblin Gold from Wychwood Brewing (on cask, of course), an above average ale, and a very fine glass of Plum Porter from Titanic. We also discovered Maude Valerie White, a Victorian female songwriter; Barry Cryer, a comedian and comic writer (remind to tell you one of his jokes next time we meet); and Sir Ambrose Heal, who started a successful arts and crafts furniture company. The pub celebrated all three who were local to the area at one time.
We had to transfer trains at Clapham Junction, but we stayed in the area and visited two other pubs (at 5 pm!), just outside one of the busiest train stations in England. The Falcon was an old fashioned beauty, while The London and Southwestern was a Wethies. The Harvey's Best Bitter at the Falcon was top knotch, while the other pub featured an ale from Oakham, one of our favourite breweries.
Near Clapham Junction Station at 5 pm.
The next day was a serious pub crawl in Fleet Street, but I will deal with that in the next blog entry. Part 2 of this Loop segment was two days later. We began at Hatch End Station and walked just over 3 miles to Stanmore Street, where we caught the 142 bus to Stanmore Station from Priory Hill stop. This was the hottest day, near 80 F so we called an early halt. There were no cafes or pubs at the tube station, so we boarded a train and Deb did her phone search for upcoming stations. We got off at Kingsbury Station and walked the short distance to J J Moon, another Wethies pub. We shared three half pints that included Red Kite by Vale Brewery (not too shabby), Chestnut Bitter, delicious, and Black Beauty Porter, also by Vale. Yum! Closer to home and just outside East Croydon Station we stopped at the Porter and Sorter for Wainright Gold, downright drinkable after a long day and a long ride on a series of trains.
Two days later I finished the walk by myself. Deb had started out with me but at London Bridge Station decided she was not up to a long walk today. It was the only day she was unable to keep pace with me, likely needing a rest day. I resumed the walk where we had left off, at Priory Hill bus stop, crossing field and stream before stopping for lunch at Bhageecha Restaturant. Once a pub, the place has been given a very expensive makeover and now serves Indian food. There were a lot of vegan options and I chose a yellow dahl that was quite divine. A highly recommended stop over for Loop walkers, as the trail passes its front door.
I was back at the hotel in time for coffee, so I picked up Deb and we went to the George. We had coffee and shared a half of Orkney Brewery's delicious and recommended ale called Red McGregor Ruby Red. We followed this up with a visit to our favourite pub in the world, The Green Dragon. We enjoyed a perfect glass of Mad Squirrel's London Porter, following that up with a draft ale, the unbelievably delicious Viennese Swirl, also from Mad Squirrel, a chocolate vanilla porter that weighed in at 8 % (very heavy for London). We heard that the pub would be closing for a change in management and a spring cleaning. We are quite worried, frankly. We hope it will still be there when we return.
On the way home Deb spotted Art and Craft, a tap house for microbrews. They have an original Banks on the wall, in addition to some fine brews. Today we had London Black Nitro Porter and Anspach and Hobday, and it was very special indeed! We finished the day's rounds with New Bristol's Bristol Cider, which was truly delicious. What an area to have for one's hotel location!
to be continued...
