Hiking
Boston Manor, Syon House and Osterley House are all in walking distance of each other in West London. They're grouped around the Main Line of the Grand Union Canal, the Main Line of the Great Western railway to Paddington, the M4 motorway and the flight paths to the runways at Heathrow. But the old houses and their magnificent trees were built long before these modern transport arterial routes. Boston Manor Jacobean house was completed in 1623; the exterior of Syon House dates from 1547 and is still the Duke of Northumberland’s London home; the current Osterley House was constructed from 1761 in the Georgian style by the architect Robert Adam.
Here's a postcard from the South Downs, the new National Park. We were a group of seven or eight from the GOC West Kent group. This was billed as a 9½ mile linear hike from Falmer railway station to Lewes railway station, along a portion of the South Downs Way in the National Park.
Very definitely not the Alps, nor even Dartmoor or the Lakeland Fells, it's the furthest I've hiked off road so far, with the added pleasures and pressures of hiking in a group from the club. Plus of course the orchids, the pretty colours and the far views of the Sussex Weald and the coastal cliffs.
A bus ride to hike one of the Calanques. Just a bus ticket there and back, another 3 Euros well-spent for the bright sunshine and the clear air above the azure sea.
An early autumn ramble with GOC London around the water park at Rickmansworth, a short ride on the Metropolitan Line out to the north west of London. The venerable Grand Union canal (this section completed 1814), river Colne and some gravel pits are crossed by numerous footpaths which made a pleasant tour amongst the wildlife.
Our lunchtime stop at a pub alongside a canal lock was followed by a small hill up to countryside on the edge of the Chiltern Hills and then back down to Rickmansworth.
A day trip to Penrith and Keswick by train. Mike suggested a little hike in Whinlatter Mountain Forest, for its views and variety of routes. We parked at the national mountain bike centre, which is equally a national level kiddie hell-hole. But as usual the majority of the tourists stayed very close to the car park so we were able to enjoy the views over Keswick towards Skiddaw, Helvellyn and a brief view of Scafell Pikes. All very clear in the spring sunshine.
Always difficult to get on the train back to London but especially after such a fleeting visit. Good for me to walk on a few slightly rough paths, those plus the climbing had made me usefully sore this morning back in West Kensington.
