Trying to ward off the gloom of going back to work, myself and my good friend Gareth made the most of the glorious sunshine to sneak in a last cheeky walk before we hit the New Year doldrums. Despite the day being bitterly cold, the sun shone almost non-stop and we enjoyed some dramatic lighting and startling colours and shapes of trees against the sky.
We took the train from Waterloo to Ewell West (enjoying the freedom to travel extensively without having to buy tickets, now that the Oyster 'pay as you go' card is accepted on London's overground trains as well as the rest of the city's public transport) to walk a 7.5 mile section of the London Loop.
The first two thirds of the walk were very pleasant, following the Hogsmill River from Bourne Hall Park towards the shopping metropolis of Kingston. However once we got to the grotty suburbia of Berrylands, the walk started to pall a little and for the last couple of miles we found ourselves wishing we'd stopped when we reached the A3 and got a bus back.
But we did enjoy lots of brightly-lit wintry trees, the sound of a woodpecker tapping away in the distance, several herons and lots of tits flitting about (make your own jokes there please).
And when we finally reached Kingston, we lunched at our favourite riverside establishment, Woody's, the place where the sandwiches are definitely of the 'doorstep' variety! Excellent chips and great beer completed the obligatory post-walk trio.
Please also note the Norwegian star earflap hat (with optional pompom) is proving both popular and practical!
1 comment:
Great photos!
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