 |
| Grand Union Canal |
This walk was a long time coming. Cancelled around three or four times for various reasons, my friend and I finally got there on Thursday of last week. The sun was shining brightly when we both left home (from different parts of London), but by the time we arrived separately at Greenford, the clouds were a grey sheet. We couldn't believe it.
But we were here! Before long we were walking along the Grand Union Canal, coming off to ascend Horsenden Hill. Our first mistake was turning the wrong way out of a gate and having to double back. For some reason (too busy chatting and failing to read the book properly) we managed to miss several turnings throughout this walk. We spent far too long in the Horsenden area and debated about what to do about lunch. Having met at midday with just a snack, and having yet again missed a turning we needed help to get us to the Horsenden Golf Club where there were supposed to be refreshments. A kind man who lived in the area walked us back to the turning and set us on our way.
 |
| The underpass near the start of the walk |
 |
| Grand Union Canal |
 |
| Horsenden Hill |
 |
| The view from Horsenden Hill |
The golf club refreshment house looked deserted until someone came out and said yes we could go in. Unfortunately, they were not fully open - no food or hot drinks, but they did have cold drinks and ice cream. I bought a cold drink, and we had to use the men's loos (I can't remember why now!).
I resorted to Google Maps to guide us back in the right direction to Whitton Drive. The route in the book looked easy, but somehow our bad map-reading skills made it all a slog. We came to a pub called The Ballot Box and deliberated over whether to stop here for lunch. But neither of us was that hungry, and we felt we still had a long way to go. So, we carried on.
The next part of the walk to Sudbury Hill was easier and we considered stopping somewhere here to eat. We spied The Rising Sun Pub where we had to turn left opposite it on the way to Harrow-on-the-Hill. But The Rising Sun had scaffolding up and was closed.
We were pleased to make progress and arrived in Harrow-on-the-Hill, the old village. This was a quaint place and we found Cotton Cream whose menu enticed us in. We were glad to stop and ordered tomato soup and cups of tea. We sat at a table in the window opposite the former King's Head Hotel where King Henry VIII courted Anne Boleyn.
 |
| Food, glorious food! At Cotton Cream |
 |
| The former Kings' Head Pub |
After recovering we set out. This walk was worth it just to see Harrow-on-the-Hill. It was like another world with Harrow School and it's buildings and massive sports fields. Harrow is the furthest part of the Capital Ring from central London and the highest. There are some great views from some roads.
 |
| Uniform shop for Harrow School |
 |
| The name of this alley was used by Anthony Trollope for the curate in The Barchester Chronicles |
 |
| The Speech Room |
 |
| Harrow School |
Our walk took us through some of those sports fields, but again because there were two routes, we missed the turning and ended up walking towards Northwick Park Station instead of South Kenton. We had to double back (Google maps helped us once more).
 |
| Know locally as Piggy Lane, this is near the end of the walk |
What we learned from this walk was this:
- check refreshment places are open (this time of year is dodgy)
- to run off the route from the website. This gives better detail and is larger. I hate doing it because printing has an environmental cost, but our map reading isn't great and we can get lost in our homes!
- getting it right saves us added extra miles.
My friend nearly gave up at Harrow, but continued as we were nearly at the end of the walk (save that one last mistake). My friend has a dodgy knee (waiting for a knee replacement) and can't manage long walks (that went out of the window on this one) and my foot problem returned on this walk and I am back to wearing a gel pad.
With both of us in our 70's we are determined to keep walking, but getting the route right is important. The book can be confusing (to us, anyway) but thankfully I have a bit of a grip on Google Maps, which was invaluable on this walk.
This walk was said to be 5.2 miles, but my fitbit logged that day as 9.2 miles. What happened? I know these things aren't always accurate, and I have to add on walking to/from the train/bus, changing tubes etc, but where did those miles go?
Comments
Post a Comment