There, and back again
Those words were from the last speech by Doctor Who in the final story before the show was cancelled in 1989. Story called "Survival", and filmed on Horsenden Hill. Which was where I was yesterday. inkognitoh's boat's moored over that way, and she had invited silverjet_allie and I to join her for a walk. The Capital Ring series of walks through greener bits of the city has a section which includes Perivale and Horsenden.
Kitted out with stout shoes, waterproofs and lots of sweets (well, you need sustenance on these expeditions) we met up at Greenford and set off. We passed the pondlife viewing platform, and walked along the canal, before reaching Horsenden Hill itself. Nice little climb up to the windswept peak, from which we could see for many miles. Shame that much of what we could see was endless roofs of industrial estates and the like, but still...
The hill, aside from its fleeting Dr Who connection, was the site of an Iron Age settlement (though there's no indication of a hill fort there) and WWII anti-aircraft battery. Of which there's no sign either. It was also used for horse-drawn anti-Zeppelin guns in the Great War (and isn't that a wonderfully steampunk concept?). I did recite the Doctor's "People made of smoke..." speech under my breath.
After taking a few pictures, we headed down the hill, through some nice woodland. We found a big hollow tree and took it in turns to clamber inside it. We made our way through some suburban streets and up a steep little hill to Harrow. Harrow village is really pretty, being mostly an adjunct to the posh independent school. We popped into the only pub, the Castle, for a nice bit of lunch. I had some nice sausages and mash, but had a bit of menu envy when I saw that the hot sandwiches came with full servings of chips thrown in. Very nice pub, but our lunch was spoiled by a group of smug, competitive, middle-class young parents and their loud "Jocasta's already learning yoga, you know..." conversation. We passed the Harrow playing fields, noting that the posh kids not only had nets in the goalmouths, but even monogrammed corner flags.
At this point, it started to rain, but we were undaunted. The otherwise excellent route instructions started to fail us in Harrow, but we found our way out, including crossing the only stile on the 78-mile Capital Ring route. This was something we'd been looking forward to, in our nerdy rambling way.
We made our way on, reaching Northwick Park (yeah, where the batting cages are, though we didn't have time to hire one). Here, the footpath crosses the golf course driving range, which none of us fancied. The notice from the golf club basically said; "feel free to walk it, and we'll feel free to whack golf balls at your heads. Your move, walkers...". So we went the long way round, but found we'd been misdirected and the golf club had locked the exit gate. Luckily, we found a hole in the fence to scramble through, so didn't have to retrace our route too far. We soon reached our goal, South Kenton station. Now, as we wanted to get back to Greenford, and south Kenton is on a completely different line, it would have taken quite a while to get back by public transport. so we decided to walk back.
The rain had really picked up by the time we'd trudged up to Harrow again, and we hid from it for a bit in a convenient archway. At one point, I said; "I think it's brightening up!" just as it started to hail. We set off again, marching resolutely over Horsenden Hill and along the canal. Bit of a trudge, as by this stage we were wet and cold and that canal towpath was between us and the pub.
We emerged and headed for the Black Horse, where we had a few drinks and a bite to eat, and caught up with the day's sport. My horses came nowhere in the Grand National, but at least West Br*m got knocked out of the FA Cup. We saw the Amir Khan fight, and though he deserved his win I didn't like the way he thumped the other guy again when he'd already put him on the canvas and he was still stunned.
It was a good day out, in good company. We walked twelve miles or thereabouts, with a couple of hills, and I got to tick off several of the criteria for a good walk:
Ate sweets.
Got rained on.
Found a random stick to use as a walking stick.
Climbed through a fence or hedge.
Had lunch and beer at a proper pub.
Ended the walk at another nice pub.
Climbed over a stile.
We ended up in the pub till getting on for closing time somehow, but I managed to get home not too late.
Woke up not particularly stiff from the walk today, ready for softball practice, But that had been cancelled, because Clapham Common, like the rest of London, was under several inches of snow. Once the snow had stopped falling by the middle of the day, it started melting - but there's still some on the ground here.
Kitted out with stout shoes, waterproofs and lots of sweets (well, you need sustenance on these expeditions) we met up at Greenford and set off. We passed the pondlife viewing platform, and walked along the canal, before reaching Horsenden Hill itself. Nice little climb up to the windswept peak, from which we could see for many miles. Shame that much of what we could see was endless roofs of industrial estates and the like, but still...
The hill, aside from its fleeting Dr Who connection, was the site of an Iron Age settlement (though there's no indication of a hill fort there) and WWII anti-aircraft battery. Of which there's no sign either. It was also used for horse-drawn anti-Zeppelin guns in the Great War (and isn't that a wonderfully steampunk concept?). I did recite the Doctor's "People made of smoke..." speech under my breath.
After taking a few pictures, we headed down the hill, through some nice woodland. We found a big hollow tree and took it in turns to clamber inside it. We made our way through some suburban streets and up a steep little hill to Harrow. Harrow village is really pretty, being mostly an adjunct to the posh independent school. We popped into the only pub, the Castle, for a nice bit of lunch. I had some nice sausages and mash, but had a bit of menu envy when I saw that the hot sandwiches came with full servings of chips thrown in. Very nice pub, but our lunch was spoiled by a group of smug, competitive, middle-class young parents and their loud "Jocasta's already learning yoga, you know..." conversation. We passed the Harrow playing fields, noting that the posh kids not only had nets in the goalmouths, but even monogrammed corner flags.
At this point, it started to rain, but we were undaunted. The otherwise excellent route instructions started to fail us in Harrow, but we found our way out, including crossing the only stile on the 78-mile Capital Ring route. This was something we'd been looking forward to, in our nerdy rambling way.
We made our way on, reaching Northwick Park (yeah, where the batting cages are, though we didn't have time to hire one). Here, the footpath crosses the golf course driving range, which none of us fancied. The notice from the golf club basically said; "feel free to walk it, and we'll feel free to whack golf balls at your heads. Your move, walkers...". So we went the long way round, but found we'd been misdirected and the golf club had locked the exit gate. Luckily, we found a hole in the fence to scramble through, so didn't have to retrace our route too far. We soon reached our goal, South Kenton station. Now, as we wanted to get back to Greenford, and south Kenton is on a completely different line, it would have taken quite a while to get back by public transport. so we decided to walk back.
The rain had really picked up by the time we'd trudged up to Harrow again, and we hid from it for a bit in a convenient archway. At one point, I said; "I think it's brightening up!" just as it started to hail. We set off again, marching resolutely over Horsenden Hill and along the canal. Bit of a trudge, as by this stage we were wet and cold and that canal towpath was between us and the pub.
We emerged and headed for the Black Horse, where we had a few drinks and a bite to eat, and caught up with the day's sport. My horses came nowhere in the Grand National, but at least West Br*m got knocked out of the FA Cup. We saw the Amir Khan fight, and though he deserved his win I didn't like the way he thumped the other guy again when he'd already put him on the canvas and he was still stunned.
It was a good day out, in good company. We walked twelve miles or thereabouts, with a couple of hills, and I got to tick off several of the criteria for a good walk:
Ate sweets.
Got rained on.
Found a random stick to use as a walking stick.
Climbed through a fence or hedge.
Had lunch and beer at a proper pub.
Ended the walk at another nice pub.
Climbed over a stile.
We ended up in the pub till getting on for closing time somehow, but I managed to get home not too late.
Woke up not particularly stiff from the walk today, ready for softball practice, But that had been cancelled, because Clapham Common, like the rest of London, was under several inches of snow. Once the snow had stopped falling by the middle of the day, it started melting - but there's still some on the ground here.