London Loop Section 3

So Section 2 was full of drama ( and poor Philippa did sprain her ankle. On our watch. Eek), so it was back to Becky and I, and we had some ground to pick up.

We headed back to Chislehurst and walked back down towards the entrance of Petts Wood. It's clearly a lovely little town - we past some beautiful old cottages, but then headed away from civilisation into the National trust land. This part of the loop is gorgeous - blue skies, beautiful trees and those green parakeets were back. All was well. The mud was pretty intense still but we escaped into Jubilee Park muddy but no injuries. The walk then tracks around the edge of Jubille country park - and at this point we have completed Section 2. Just Section 3 to crack on with...we start with a bit of a residential walk until we reach Bromley and head into the lovely ( muddy) Sparrow Wood. This then leads us into Farnborough and we reach the beautiful High elms country park. For anyone else doing the walk this is your lunch spot. The country park is a now council run venue with an incredible cafe ( sarnie and a cream tea £5.50 - result!). The stately home which used to be here burned down but some parts still remain including the first Eton Fives Court. It makes for a lovely place to explore. Rest over though we continue initially onto a golf course, and then into very open countryside with views of a glorious house on the top of a hill ( Holwood House). We admired the remains of the Wilberforce Oak - the very spot that William Pitt and William Wilberforce agreed a parliamentary bill to abolish slavery. Next up was the very pretty village of Keston before we started on he homeward stretch of Baston Manor and west wickham common.

After 20km, and a huge 34,000 steps we were happy to see the station to whisk us back to warm baths and roast dinners.

What a gorgeous walk.....I would massively recommend Section 3 to anyone. 

London Loop Section 2

So after a great if a little fresh first walk, I joined Section 2 slightly better prepared thanks to some warm winter running tights. All the gear and all that...

Walk 2 picks up from Bexley again, which gave me a good opportunity to try and track down my copy of the Loop book which mysteriously disappeared somewhere on Week 1. No luck in Bexley so we carried on with the walk, me clutching a brand new copy.....We were joined by my friend Philippa this time, who has good walking Pedigree. She walked the Oxfam trailwalker, a crazy sounding 100km walk that you do over a 24 hour time period. I had confidence that she'd be able to handle the 8 miles route covering Bexley to Jubille Park. The walk started well , some lovely open fields through Bexley and we found ourselves walking next to a much prettier stretch of the river cray. We were thankful for another cold day, it made the mud a bit easier to walk on. After a few miles we reach the outskirts of Sidcup and join the lovely Scadbury Park. The mud here is especially intense, which is why our Guest walker slipped and twisted ankle. Which is how Walk 2 ended up being cut a little short and we ended up at Chislehurst station heading back to a London A&E pronto....

Walk 2 to be continued.....