Day by day around north London
Or more precisely around west, north and east London. Londoners know that west London (mostly) and east London (entirely)
only exist north of the Thames.
3 May 2002: Hayes to Moor Park. 18 miles.
A bright day, though clouding over late with thunder. For the larger part of this stretch,
the Grand Union Canal
is never far away, most usually adjacent to the towpath.
That could make for something of a trudge, but the loop picks up the occasional diversion to add variety.
The first of these, through the reclaimed ground of Stockley Country Park, is just a mile from Hayes station;
not much more than a mile from its end, takes you through the pretty Little Britain Lakes and along the natural River Colne into Uxbridge.
From here there is a long canal-side stretch north, through increasingly open country,
split by the diversion through Denham Country Park.
You leave the canal at Harefield and rise into pleasant rolling countryside,
essentially outliers of the Chiltern Hills which begin properly a few miles to the north.
Bishop's Wood Country Park takes you to the affluent suburb of Moor Park,
whose tube station is half a mile off route through a neck of woodland.
5 July 2002: Moor Park to Elstree station. 13 miles.
Rainy morning, dry after lunch. Three golf courses, so it can't be a perfect day, but much else that is interesting.
Oxhey Woods provide one of the longest continuously-wooded sections,
soon after which comes a good view south and the literary associations of Pinnerwood House.
After golf course 2 you follow the Roman era earthwork of Grim's Dyke for a while before passing through the grounds
of Bentley Priory,
HQ of Fighter Command in World War II and (in 2002, not now) still operational.
I had lunch at the Good Beer Guide-listed Vine pub,
but although it's great a pub pays attention to its beer its food was rudimentary - no puddings!
There's a broad pathless meadow on the way up to the M1 before you skirt round Aldenham Reservoir
and cross fields with good trees north of Elstree village.
The station lies across golf course 3, not in the village but the less pleasant suburb of Borehamwood; you are only passing through.
20 September 2002: Elstree station to Gordon Hill. 17 miles.
Cloudy, a few sunny intervals in the afternoon.
Scratchwood is much nicer than it sounds, and the positive highlight of the first hour, that is otherwise along roads,
including the notorious A1 stretch where you are forced south for nearly half a mile, under a subway,
and north to nearly the opposite point to where you joined the near-motorway.
Thankfully, things get better, very much better, along the water meadows of the Dollis Brook,
some stretches of which are as genuinely rural as the Kent stretches long ago.
Clever route planning takes you through Chipping Barnet with minimum fuss,
alongside a League football ground,
and onto the site of the 1471 Battle of Barnet.
Beyond Cockfosters station lies more open country, the one-time hunting grounds of Enfield Chase.
Gordon Hill station lies ten downhill minutes from the loop through Hilly Fields Park.
29 November 2002: Gordon Hill to Chingford. 10 miles.
Grey and overcast. Barbara joined me for this stage. Down to one of the Thames's major tributaries,
the River Lea or Lee,
then up into Epping Forest.
Most of the way down is alongside or near a sidestream of the Lea, Turkey Brook, but the Lea is one of London's most industrial rivers,
so it's a case of count the houses most of the way until the river proper is reached at Enfield Lock.
The Lee Enfield rifle,
a British Army staple in two world wars, was manufactured in what is now converted housing just beyond the lock.
There's only a few hundred yards beside the Lea itself,
just above one of the immense valley reservoirs that store so much of London's water,
until you cut up the hill after Sewardstone village onto the gravel ridge on which the larger part of Epping Forest rests.
The Loop takes quite a short cut through the forest proper, but shows its variety of landscapes well nevertheless:
we dipped into Chingford off-route, to visit Pole Hill. More of the forest next stage.
31 January 2003: Chingford to Harold Wood. 15 miles.
Very cold, bright and sunny, with snow lying. Sometimes you are just lucky, and the weather does nice things.
On this stage I tramped long stretches through virgin snow fields
or woods with whitened branches still bearing the blanket of the day before.
It would be a good stage at any time - there is good quiet countryside on the London-Essex fringe -
but this made it especially memorable.
The remaining Epping Forest stretch passes soon, and there's a bit of suburb before the Lea's parter the Roding is crossed,
and then alas road up into the posh suburb of Chigwell. Things get more rural, including a pretty churchyard scene at Chigwell Row,
after which you enter Hainault Forest,
far less of which now remains than Epping: one had parliamentary protection in Victorian times, the other did not.
Next comes the valley of another south-flowing river, the Rom, which may surprise you by its quietness,
and the beautiful woods of Havering Country Park before the village of Havering-atte-Bower -
whose pub landlord was the only one of all the landlords on the Loop to recognise me as a Loop walker.
After another two miles of ruralness, you meet the vast Council estate of Harold Hill,
but the cunning route planners take you between houses beside a little brook.
19 April 2003: Harold Wood to Coldharbour Point. 12 miles.
Overcast, occasional light rain, a little brighter at the end.
The 'little brook' joined at Harold Hill is in fact the last of the loop planner's sleights of hand.
It becomes the Ingrebourne, another Thames tributary,
followed like the Hogsmill from source to Thames with little diversion, such as bits of Hornchurch.
The country park on the site of Hornchurch RAF station will one day take you all the way to Rainham,
but reclamation work on a landfill site is still (2009) ongoing, so there is an untidy road mile to Rainham's still village-like centre.
Beyond the station - and, in 2003, the trackbed that would become the Channel Tunnel rail line -
it's walking for the devoted only, through bleak industrial land, until the Thames is rejoined, a river to transcend any surroundings.
Spend some moments at Coldharbour Point, gazing out to Erith pier, which seems close enough to hop across to.
Frustratingly, one must return to Rainham for onward transport; doing so, I met a couple of Loop walkers,
wondering if the continuation to Purfleet was yet open; alas for now, the answer has to be no.
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