October EEG walk

 I spent absolutely ages planning the walk for October as I felt it was time I offered some new walks, ones that we haven't done before.

No-one has asked for these or even complained about past walks, it's all me. In fact my East End Girls often tell me that they're so busy chatting that sometimes they're not that aware of where they walk anyhow. Is that good...or bad?

Pouring over the map, I managed to piece together a 10 mile route which took in bits from many walks, some only ever covered once and I was feeling pretty pleased with myself until I discovered that due to engineering works, I couldn't get back from Tottenham Hale!! Back to the drawing board.

I took elements of my planned walk, paid more attention to what tube lines were running and designed Mile End to the O2....And that's the reason that our first photo shows the North bank of the Thames as we approach the foot tunnel at Island Gardens that will take us over to Greenwich.


Teresa was going to be late to join us so we elected to walk to Canary Wharf and have coffee at Belgique on the riverside and timing should be right for Teresa to catch us up, which it was. Coffee and loo stops taken care of and onto Greenwich. Fabulous 'heather weather' - boy was I glad I'd put on a short sleeved top.

This photo was taken purposely as it was on this very spot 5 years before that the East End Girls team gathered to have ice cream and look over towards Greenwich Park where we would cross the finish line and complete our 38 mile walk. What memories.

Those memories continued, through the tunnel......

and then into M&S where we bought lunch. Five years ago it was champagne and nibbles that we were buying so that we could celebrate our success and in fact there was so much champagne brough by Nicola's dad and Alan that we were all a bit tiddly towards the end.

This time we took the very steep route and passed on through the park to go across Blackheath where near one of the many ponds, we found benches just right for lunch.

Geraldine and Marina

Lindsey and Cajsa

Teresa and Sharon

Mary, Barb and Chris

Now we have new members, Sharon having joined us a couple of walks ago and Mary being one of the Athena Angels who's discovered her walking passion.

Fabulous views from Greenwich park on the way back down, this time minus Teresa who had to leave and go and see her son on stage at the Globe. Honestly, I don't know, these par time walkers - arrive late and leave early but make sure they get lunch.

It was good to look over at the Dome as this is where we're finishing up and it doesn't look far from here, it's a bit misleading though due to how the river flows round.

We made our way down the other side of the park enjoying the views and then onto the river bank but sadly we weren't able to be there long due to the path being blocked off because of ongoing work. More water front properties no doubt, just hope they leave a path for us walkers.

This was rather frustrating as we ended up walking the streets more than we'd hoped and even when we did get towards the O2 it was still the roads we were on.

So the best laid plans go astray but on the whole it was another great day's walking and there was a Costa at the end so we relaxed in the sun, enjoyed our favourite coffee and slowly wended our way home to stretches, legs up against the wall and a lovely deep bath.