efog-blog
Recent outings and activities...
North Downs Way - Cuxton to Boxley
Saturday 11th July, and as ever on a Ken-organised walk - and despite some cloudy days earlier in the week - Saturday was fine and dry! It took a little navigation around Woolwich Station to find the right platform for the journey south east but once we reached Cuxton and the Medway Estuary things got going nicely.
The first part of the walk up the hill in a spiral from Cuxton Station was quite different from what was just ahead. The Medway bridges - which cross the M2 motorway, the river itself and the HS1 railway line - gave us a good idea of just what an important route the river forms out to the Thames estuary. Apart from being very noisy, the road bridge across the river is quite safe and provides terrific views along the river valley. The HS1, or Channel Tunnel line as it is better known, inspired a game of 'spot the train' coming out of tunnels. However promising the idea of a photo of this was, the trains themselves are so quick you would be lucky to get more than just a blur as they thunder past on their way to Dover.
Once past all of this modern life though, the scenery really goes backwards in time. Behind us as we ascended the hill from the railway line sits the town of Borstal, made infamous as the location of a young offenders institute since 1908. The prison has undergone a name change in recent times but the association hasn't really gone away. The path took on the familiar chalk look of the Downs and we had a much more peaceful walk on our way up to the lunch stop at Bluebell Hill, sitting on the edge of a ridge with views right across the estuary: miles of open space!
Down the hill a short distance and nipping through a gap in the hedge, we came across Kit's Coty House - a rectangular stone chamber that once formed the opening to an ancient burial mound, constructed around 5,000 years ago. A this point the North Downs Way joins with the Pilgrims Way, the ancient route to Canterbury. The path was mostly under an arch of greenery and deeply engraved into the chalk of the Downs by hundreds of pairs of feet. It didn't take much of a leap of the imagination to see ourselves as fellow foot-travellers making our way along this ancient route, just as the pilgrims had before us.
The advice of fellow travellers should always be heeded, and when we turned off the track by a very interesting carving of a sleeping man, a man going in the opposite direction said - with more than a hint of warning - "Oh you are going up the steps....". Yes we were, and how right he was; a long steep climb up many steps did indeed follow! Luckily once we were up we were up and stayed there for the next couple of miles. What we didn't expect at the end though was the path to disappear and to have to take the road down the hill. Exercising great caution and with Trevor on traffic monitoring duties up front (also having tried and had to abort a path labelled as a bridle path but which an athletic mouse might have had trouble negotiating) we eventually made it down the hill and into Boxley and the pub for a reviver. From here it was a bus ride into Maidstone where again we had some help from a very nice lady in the village who - no doubt charmed by Ken and Fred's good manners - brought us a bus timetable from her house. We didn't have to wait too long for our transport back towards the station and the end of this leg of the journey.
Sue C. 3rd August 2015
Thames Path Walk - The Fourth Leg: Westminster to Greenwich.
On Saturday 13th June the Effoggers could be found once again pounding the pavements on our way along the Thames path. This latest leg saw us back at Westminster amongst the seas of tourists, and it took a bit of careful herding to get everyone on the path in the right direction! This section is probably the most well known, with the history of London laid out along the river in front of us. We made our way slowly along the path, passing the Temple buildings, St Paul's, the National Theatre and the Tate Modern and the variety of bridges along this stretch of the river. Close to Cannon Street railway bridge, the front part of the group, while waiting for the tail end to catch up, was lucky enough to have sometime to watch the only working wharf in the City of London in operation. Barges take rubbish away from the City and the pathway is closed by a set of level crossing barriers, necessitating a small diversion away from the river.
We were also diverted at the Tower of London as the riverfront had been closed to allow for the firing of the guns in tribute to the Queen for the Trooping of the Colour, something we had all forgotten about until we crossed over Tower Bridge and heard the guns booming behind us!
Beyond Tower Bridge the path opened up and we were able to make much quicker progress along to the Surrey Docks City Farm, where a surprise awaited us. New club member Graham was sitting waiting for us, having missed us at the start. Graham had navigated his way along the path after missing the start due to a mix up on the tubes, and somehow must have passed us en route, arriving at the farm some half an hour before the rest of the group. Good navigating skills and guesswork, Graham!
After lunch at the farm, we made our way along the final stretch through Deptford and the old Navy victualling and administrative yards, passing a statue of the giant Russian Tsar, Peter the Great (six feet eight inches tall) and then along the newly opened section of the path into Greenwich via the waterfront rather than the town, a much nicer approach. Everyone was able to spend the rest of a sunny afternoon in Greenwich, where the next leg begins in front of the Cutty Sark in July!
A stroll in Hornchurch Country Park
On Sunday 31st May Paul led us on an approximately 3 mile nature walk around Hornchurch Country Park. This was a former RAF base used in the 1st & 2nd World Wars, and was an important Spitfire base protecting London in the Battle of Britain, hence the model Spitfire used as a climbing exercise near the Squadron’s Approach entrance. Now, thankfully, it is a haven of peace and serenity, given over to wildlife and the enjoyment of the public. The Ingrebourne River meanders through the Park and the Ingrebourne Valley Nature Reserve and the wildflowers, plants, trees, insects and birdlife was varied and plentiful. Paul, our leader, was the source of a wealth of knowledge and information. We were lucky to hear a Cuckoo and to see a Bee Orchid, amongst other birds and plants.
We reached Ingrebourne Hill, a man-made summit, and Paul guided us through taking accurate compass bearings (not always as easy as it sounds) of various distant landmarks in Essex, Kent and London. Pam’s dog, Robbie, found a new (and much bigger) friend up there to play with as we concentrated on our compasses.
Afterwards some of us enjoyed a pub lunch before heading home.
This is one of the things I love about this club – this is somewhere fairly close at hand which I would not normally have visited but how worthwhile, enjoyable and informative our outing here proved to be.
Lynne E., 4th June 2015
Paul Ferris, Fred, Jenefer, Lynne, Maz, Pam, Peter, Trevor
...some trees that we looked at:
Ash
Aspen
Elder
Field Maple
Hawthorn
Poplar
Silver Birch
...some flowers:
Bee Orchid
Birdsfoot Trefoil
Blackthorn
Black Medick
Buttercup
Californian Poppy
Chard
Comfrey
Common Vetch
Cow Parsley
Cranesbills (including Cut-leaved)
Dog Rose
Dogwood
Fennel
Grass Vetchling
Hairy Tare
Hoary Cress
Hop Trefoil
Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon (Goatsbeard)
Mallow
Mugwort
Ox-eye Daisy
Poppy
Red Campion
a Spurge (Euphorbia)
Shepherd's Purse
Stinging Nettle
Tufted Vetch
White Campion
White Bryony
White Dead-nettle
...and some birds that we saw or heard:
Blackcap
Canada Goose
Chiffchaff
Common Whitethroat
Coot
Cuckoo
House Martin
House Sparrow
Lapwing (Peewit)
Sedge Warbler
Skylark
Starling
Swift
Willow Warbler
Wood Pigeon
Paul Ferris, 5th June 2015
Nine went to Kettlewell
The trip started well with news that the planned railstrike was cancelled – no need to worry about getting stranded in Yorkshire at the end of the weekend. Though it wouldn’t be a bad place to be stranded….
We went by train to Leeds, and then onto Skipton, finally taking a bus ‘up dale’ to Kettlewell. We had tea at Zarina’s café (reportedly highly rated by cyclists) whilst waiting for the hostel to open. Until recently the hostel was run by the YHA but it was recently put up for sale and is now owned and run as an independent hostel by a couple, Floss and Saul, who took the plunge along with their two children. The hostel was originally built as a guest house called Whernside House and has been part of the YHA for over 70 years, and since 2004 has also housed the village post office. Currently Floss and Saul appear to be running the whole enterprise including cooking and serving breakfast, dinner and packed lunches! Floss and Saul have plans to renovate the hostel in time but what the hostel lacks in finesse is more than compensated for by their friendly helpful attitude.
The next day Lynne led a walk up Buckden Pike, starting at the top end of the village. The sun shone and the birds sang, and up the hill we went, Great Whernside to our right (not the one that forms part of the Three Peaks – easy to get caught out). The paths were reasonable though towards the top we got bogged down by – well, bog! The path goes past the Polish war memorial erected in memory of five Polish airmen who died when their RAF bomber crashed on the hillside in a severe snowstorm during a training mission. The sole survivor, Joseph Fusniak, managed to crawl down the hillside despite an ankle injury, by following the tracks of a fox. (for more details and a video interview with Joseph Fusniak see http://www.buckdenpike.co.uk/mainstory.html)
The views from the cairn at the top were fine and clear particularly westward towards Pen-y-ghent. The skylarks, peewits and curlews were still entertaining us with their song, but we also spotted a bird on the ground that looked a little lost. We got quite close and it didn’t seem to mind (later we discovered it was a dunlin).
We descended into the village of Buckden and some of us had tea – great café in a wonderful garden. Proper Yorkshire tea! The way back to Kettlewell was along the Dales Way by the river. We added more birds to our tally – dipper, swallow, swift, pied wagtails – and with the help of some twitchers - also a common sandpiper.
The next day we walked more of the Dales way, going from Kettlewell to Grassington. The day was greyer but it didn’t rain as had been threatened by all the forecasters. The path hugged the side of the ridge and gave us a fantastic view of Kilnsey Crag, much favoured by rock climbers. Grassington provided more tea and cake, and a variety of small shops to browse in. Some walked back and others caught the bus.
Before we left on Monday morning (catching the bus back to Skipton) we gathered with the villagers to watch the start of the Morris dancing event. Groups from all over the UK had come to the ‘Republic of Yorkshire’ for this event which was entertainingly compered. The final dance involved audience participation – yes reader, we joined in!!
Jenefer S. 2nd May 2015
The Rovsco Hall Primroses
And what happened to those Beached Whales? I’m talking of course about the EFOG scout hut (ROVSCO Hall) primroses. Well what a project that was! There must have been hundreds of them. At our first working party in April, we shifted a whole load of them on to the bank where the horse chestnut trees are against the fence. They settled in very happily there and hopefully are out of harm’s way re builders.
I had lots of other primrose digging sessions with different people. Even after the jumbo bags of jumbos had been dumped on primrose patches, I was able to retrieve them when that bit had been de-jumboed. Well here’s where they all went: Loads to Efog members’ gardens. To Ken and Clive’s church gardens. To Copped Hall and to Cody Dock. To Tarzy Wood in Wanstead. To the Corner House garden in Wanstead, and new patches I’m developing with the Wanstead Community Gardening group all around the station area. In the end, before the bulldozers moved in, I couldn’t see a single primrose plant still lurking. I’m pretty sure we more or less got the lot.
The new scout hut is going up now and it looks HUGE. What remains of the garden looks like World War 1 trenches. No chance of any of the primroses surviving had we left them there. When it’s all over and done, the new hut built, I would like to move the bank primroses back to where they are visible to passers-by through the metal gates. Hope this will be possible because they were a delight to local people. Many thanks to all who helped. It was a brilliant project.
Marian. 27th May 2015