Nadventures
Categories: walking
Date: 13 August 2007 12:35:33
So I decided, what with wonky ankles* and foot and mouth** and the endless rain we'd had in July, that carrying on walking the Thames Path probably wouldn't be the best idea I've ever had, and when I was poking round on the Transport for London website, I found their walking section. Finally, Transport for London has started to recognise that “walking” is a perfectly valid method of transport.
Anyway, I found this and thought “now, that looks like it will be Fun. And Edumacational. And so on.” So I bought the book (and the book of its big brother walk, the London Outer Orbital Path, and the updated Thames Path walk book. Sigh), and made my lunch and anointed myself with factor 50, and off I went. The walk's divided into sections, and I thought “I'll do the first bit and see how I go, if my ankle starts giving me grief I can always get on a bus.” This is in contrast to the early part of the Thames Path, where if your ankle starts giving you grief, you're a bit stuffed.
The first section is along the river, then it goes inland through parkland and woods and things, and it's all green and civilised. With trees and squirrels. Some of it is along roadways, but they're short linking sections between parks and commons and forest, rather than major components of the walk. One of the parks has a children's zoo, with deer and various farm animals. I saw some other people doing the walk, and I must admit, their clothing gave me pause - proper clumpy walking boots and those socks that look like they've been knitted out of barbed wire and heather, and Proper Walking Clothes™ (in Proper Layers™ and those lurid colours you only ever get in hiking clothes) and hiking poles and waterproof map cases.
I, on the other hand, was wearing my Tilley hat, t-shirt, linen mix skirt and my walking sandals. And apart from underwear, that was it. Either they were taking it all a bit too seriously, or I was grossly underdressed. However, I do know that when I got caught in a sudden shower, I dried off in about five minutes flat, but one of the people I saw was still squelching half an hour later as I bounced past, going “wheeeee!”
It's South London, not the wilds of the Lake District, and most of the paths were either paved or compacted gravel. To be honest, I'd have felt a bit silly getting dressed in Proper Walking Kit (of which I possess an unfeasible amount, in a variety of lively colours), to do a walk that I could look up in my A-Z, and was in London Transport zone 4.
Funniest bit (not captured on camera, thankfully): The first part of the path goes along beside the Thames. There's various (doubtless very expensive) riverside houses and flats and so that overlook the path. It being about 11ish on a Sunday morning, people were starting to stir (hah, I'd been up for hours by then), opening windows to greet the day with a cheery whistle, etc. I think the man on the second floor realised I could see him in all his naked glory at the same time that I realised that I was looking at a naked man.
The look on his face kept me giggling quietly to myself for oooh, at least half a mile.
As I was wandering through the wooded sections, I kept thinking “this could almost be the New Forest,” (if you ignored the roar of the traffic from the dual carriageway), and then I looked closer and realised that every tree had been tagged by a graffiti “artist.” That tends not to happen in the New Forest.
My ankle held up perfectly well, which I was pleased and relieved about, and I could have probably gone one and done the second section as well, since it's only about four miles (including the link to the train station), but the second section goes through Eltham Palace and I want to visit that properly when I get there, rather than whipping through with one eye on the architecture and one eye on the time, so I called it a day and went to catch the train. Which reminds me - why do people feel it necessary to take up three seats in a train carriage - one for them, one for their shopping, and one for their feet? And are the people with their feet on the seats the first to complain when they get something yucky on their clothes, deposited there by the previous person to put their feet on the seat? Why yes, I do believe they are. And it serves them right.
Anyway, photos (not of nekkid men) are here.
*me
**not me