Walking around London, and walking in the countryside in the Chiltern Hills
My latest two walks, could not have been more different. Walking to Chelsea from Brixton via Clapham into my favorite London space, Battersea Park. This is an easy walk I do on a regular basis.
Once Upon a Time, I cycled there to work. These days, I pop up there for a change of scenery and walk through the park and over Chelsea Bridge. The Kings Road is basically a mainstream shopping street, these days. During my time spent there, I have come across; George Best, Bob Geldof, Alan Clarke, Mark Almond, to name a few; but the real-life characters have (in the main ) all gone. I love both of the two walks, as they are interesting in different ways.
Albert Bridge Chelsea Embankment.
Usually, I would walk back the same way but as most people who walk a lot know, it’s more interesting to find new routes. Sometimes once you start that’s it, you have to keep going.
It can only be described, like a nightmare around Vauxhall. alongside the High Rise buildings, and ugly roadwork’s everywhere; it’s highly polluted with diversions everywhere. It is scary just crossing the road.
Walking back wasn’t so much fun.
Pounding the pavements, alongside traffic can be a harrowing experience after about 6-7 miles of it.
Trudging on to Kennington, up towards the Oval cricket ground., I crossed over to Brixton Road. At this point somehow I managed to get caught up in a labyrinth of NEW sprawling housing estates, made up of blocks of housing at the beginning of Brixton Road, bordering on Camberwell. It was not fun.
CHESHAM TO GREAT MISSENDEN (LINEAR) 10 miles
An entirely different experience, walking through the woods and fields in the Chiltern Hills, we passed through places with names such as Ballinger Bottom, and Lee.
Look at that sky, how beautiful it is against the wheat. A real picture.
Big sky
This group was led by the South Bank Ramblers, the journey took about an hour and a half on the starting from Brixton.
Edible Mushroom
The Cock and Rabbit is famous for being used by CI Barnaby of Midsummer Murders!, it was the pub where he often stopped off for a pint during one of his murder investigations.
There is more than one sign for this pub. You can see the name of the pub named in the tv series on the other side. The series Midsummer Murders epitomizes Middle class English life and is so far fetched with murders every week, so ludicrous but fascinating at the same time.
Cock and Rabbit (Midsummer Murderous dinners!)
As we rambled through woods and fields;and chatting with other walkers, we were drooling over what might be on the menu!
I tried to imagine the food! thinking of classic dishes served elegantly in a Bistro type environment.
Images of my favourite chef, Gino D’Acampo came to mind !
I was pretty shocked at the state of the interior which was bascially dirty, but reluctantly ordered some pasta Sicilian dish which was piled up about a foot high. I felt sick looking at it and wish I had just got a packet of crisps.
I’m no food critic but that pub is living off the merits that it attracts crowds based on its notoriety. It is a lovely location, but they are getting away with murder!
Birds in a cage..
The older I get the more my stomach churns at any sort of violation of human rights or animal rights.
Birds need to fly, simple, and people need to roam. Funnily enough after the pub lunch ordeal we came across Lamas! they are becoming quite popular in the countryside. I find them funny looking creatures. They are very curious and don’t seem scared to run towards us.
As the nights draw in we have now reached the Autumn Equinox. I’m off to Belfast for my Birthday weekend and hope to have a few walks and tales to tell on my return.
Another one bites the dust. R.I.P Lou Reed a true troubador!
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