Nearly two weeks in and the pedometer has notched up 42 miles (translated from its German 67.5 km). This puts me just ahead of the 2.8 miles per day needed to reach my target, thanks to today's 7.5 mile walk along part of the Capital Ring.
There are numerous walking routes in and around London, and as I said in my last post, I'm hoping this challenge will motivate me to make better use of them. The Capital Ring is 78 miles in its entirety, and if the London Outer Orbital Path (LOOP) is the walker's equivalent of the M25, then the Capital Ring is the North and South Circular, running in a loop around London through suburbs located roughly in zones 3 or 4.
I'm hoping to have walked the whole thing by the end of the year, but we started today with section 3, the closest bit to us. It runs from Grove Park to Crystal Palace, through the Great North Wood in Downham (north of what, I wonder?) and the lovely Beckenham Place Park. One unexpected highlight is that it also took me very close to two of the places important to my childhood - my Great Aunt's old maisonette in Beckenham where we used to go and stay, and my parents' old house in Penge, where we lived until shortly after my 3rd birthday.
We unexpectedly came across the Kent Country Cricket Ground (this one's for my cricket-mad parents):
Other highlights included meeting a giant squirrel in Beckenham Place Park:
Seeing (and most definitely hearing) a few of London's infamous wild parakeets (although a dog kept chasing them away while I was trying to take photos):
And the Crystal Palace Park dinosaurs:
All rounded off nicely with a late roast lunch in Crystal Palace.
While I may have looked a little like a powder puff or the Michelin man, my new walking socks and gilet both have a definite seal of approval for keeping me nice and snug in the (possibly slightly below) freezing temperatures. Despite the cold though, I really enjoyed myself and I think we're both looking forward to the next section.
There are numerous walking routes in and around London, and as I said in my last post, I'm hoping this challenge will motivate me to make better use of them. The Capital Ring is 78 miles in its entirety, and if the London Outer Orbital Path (LOOP) is the walker's equivalent of the M25, then the Capital Ring is the North and South Circular, running in a loop around London through suburbs located roughly in zones 3 or 4.
I'm hoping to have walked the whole thing by the end of the year, but we started today with section 3, the closest bit to us. It runs from Grove Park to Crystal Palace, through the Great North Wood in Downham (north of what, I wonder?) and the lovely Beckenham Place Park. One unexpected highlight is that it also took me very close to two of the places important to my childhood - my Great Aunt's old maisonette in Beckenham where we used to go and stay, and my parents' old house in Penge, where we lived until shortly after my 3rd birthday.
We unexpectedly came across the Kent Country Cricket Ground (this one's for my cricket-mad parents):
Other highlights included meeting a giant squirrel in Beckenham Place Park:
Seeing (and most definitely hearing) a few of London's infamous wild parakeets (although a dog kept chasing them away while I was trying to take photos):
And the Crystal Palace Park dinosaurs:
All rounded off nicely with a late roast lunch in Crystal Palace.
While I may have looked a little like a powder puff or the Michelin man, my new walking socks and gilet both have a definite seal of approval for keeping me nice and snug in the (possibly slightly below) freezing temperatures. Despite the cold though, I really enjoyed myself and I think we're both looking forward to the next section.
This blog needs more penguins. Please rectify immediately :)
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