The walk of parks and sight seeing

Yesterday, 23rd Jan was the East End Girls first 2011 walk and as usual there was a great turnout. Is it the fact that everyone is starting the year off with a clean canvas and is focused on more exercise, new hobbies, weight loss, toning up or perhaps it's just the opportunity to get out there again with a great bunch of women to laugh, chat, eat and explore.

At a time when the forest and other wooded areas are rather muddy and days are shorter, although it was nice to see it was still light at 4.30, I opted to do the big fun walk route that we'd done in December. Many were sorry they'd missed it then and this route does allow for lots of variety as well as opt out stops for those needing to gather their stamina again and for new members who are not used to longer walks as yet.

Well we had a good turn out as we gathered at East Finchley, 11 in all and it was lovely to have Marina with us again looking very petite and inspiring others with her newly found running skills.

Here we all are in the local park area before heading up to Highgate Wood.

Great to see all those smiling faces, ok it was only about 15 minutes in but I can tell you they were all smiling at the end too when 9 miles later we reached Embankment tube and said our farewells until Feb 19th.

So where did our route take us? It starts by taking a path opposite East Finchley tube station on the Northern Line through Cherry Tree Woods and then up into Highgate Woods. It was interesting that Sue asked me later in the day where the steep hill was that she and Teresa walked up the first time she did it as she remembered it being hard work. Well this time she's managed it with no trouble at all and in fact hadn't registered it. Below is Sue in 2010 on that very hill, she's clearly fitter now!

From the woods we walked on down to Highgate Village where Costa beckoned with refreshments and a loo stop. From there it was on to the Heath which you can see below in sunnier weather.

It's always good to explore new areas so for me the first time I did this walk I found myself in a very different part of Hampstead Heath. It's a vast area which has lots of different parts, open space, woodland and lakes. Worth exploring on your own, plenty of walks you can do there.

From the Heath we headed up past the Royal Free, down Belsize Park and on to Primrose Hill where the view over London is fabulous. 

Again the girls realised how much fitter they now were than in the past.

After Primrose Hill comes the quartet of parks - Regents, Hyde, Green and finally St James, all so different and all beautiful.

We had decided on the S Bank for lunch but it was now 2.10 and stomachs were rumbling. The East End Girls like their food so it's a mistake to keep them apart for too long so we made a stop in Baker Street for soup and rolls before finishing the parks and then heading along the north side of the Thames to the Embankment tube and the parting of ways.

As usual, on the way home there was lots of chat and texts pinging into my inbox with thanks and comments. Today I emailed asking for feedback so have a look tomorrow and see what occurs.