Of Buses & Birds

We have had two EFOG outings in the past two weeks – one on 24th January to see the 'Year Of The Bus' exhibition at the Queen Elizabeth Park, the other on 1st February to the London Wetland Centre to celebrate 'World Wetland Day'. Both were held on chilly, but partly-sunny, days and both were enjoyable in different ways. Definitely worth the effort of layering on the layers and risking being caught in half-predicted sudden showers of sleet and snow.

A few of us had seen some of the bus sculptures, which have been on display individually around London since October. Seeing them all lined up on the “bridge” going into the park was quite impressive, if a bit exposed to the elements – a few were to be found elsewhere in the park. There was a huge variety of designs – some very imaginative. My favourites were one covered in mosaic designs, the flower fairy bus and the guardsman. The buses will now be auctioned off for charity – the chance to bid ends on 24th February. If you type in 'Year Of The Bus Auction' on your browser you can see all the buses – and make a bid if you want (starting bid for each £1000........ )

We were a day early celebrating World Wetland Day. The day itself is the 2nd February – a Monday this year; five of us braved the elements the Sunday before. 'Our' local wetland is in Barn Elms – always worth a visit. The otters were particularly charming with lots of “behaviour” to amuse and fascinate. We then went on a guided tour round the 'The Wildside' – almost had the guide to ourselves, going into several hides and up to the viewing point. Afterwards, we took ourselves round the “captive” areas – the Australian area was particularly interesting. We didn't manage to spot a bittern but there were plenty of others birds to see, including a smew or two and black swans. Not surprisingly, not much was happening in terms of plants but there were still some interesting ones around – we really missed the presence of our 'experts' …. but we were very lucky with the weather..... none of the wet stuff.

On the first visit I “rounded up” people who had gone to the park by different routes. On the second I was rounded up by the people I was supposed to “lead” - but I knew where we were ending up when we finished – didn't I gang? Hey ho – here's to the next time!

Pam 2^nd February 2015

A Smashing Panto

How many EFOGers can you get round a table in Pizza Express? The answer – a lot – until the plates get bigger. We had just reached that point and were creating an 'extension' when we heard a plate smash and the cry “Fred!!!”. That plucky man had managed to catch the pizza as his plate slipped under the table. Good job it wasn't soup.

We then met up with the others in the Theatre Royal at Stratford to see 'Beauty and The Beast' – a little different from the usual panto fare but still great fun. The singing was good the dancing excellent; the dialogue very clever. I really liked the puppets and the magic tricks. The Dame supplied 'body parts' humour in a droll kind of way, the slinky wicked witch and her nutty daughter were determined to “baddify” the world but didn't succeed (and became “goodified” in the end of course).The “cute” bear (especially when he took his costume off) and Peter Pan got us singing and – quite rightly – Belle ended up preferring the Beast to the Prince – so he turned back to what he was.

As we all left, to continue writing our own life's stories I realised that, although I had enjoyed the Stratford, show something inside missed corny old Greenwich – ah well there's always next year …...... wonder if Fred can repeat his performance?

Pam, 17th January 2015

What we do - and what we've done...

From local walks in Epping Forest, to longer distance walks in somewhere in Europe, the Epping Forest Outdoor Group tries to cater for what its members want to do.

Whether it is walking in Snaresbrook or Sicily, cycling in Cambridgeshire or Khartoum (not yet!), climbing Pole Hill or Ben Vrackie, playing balloon volleyball on a Thursday, an after-walk meal in London, a Quiz Night or our annual Rodings Rally - we usually find something to do at least once a week.

We have an ongoing programme of events, and these are available here, But what of after a holiday away, or even a day out? If we are lucky, someone will have taken photographs, and albums have been kept by Peter Gamble showing past events from years back. These are often on display at publicity stalls and the like.

But we also have a lot of on-line photos of past events, together with some write-ups, and an easy access to those - to bring back some memories or suggest some future possibilities - is available here!

Outing and events from 2005-2009 - photos

Present Programme

Coming Soon

Paul Ferris, 13th September 2014

Liverpool Weekend - August Bank Holiday, 2014

We had a good Bank Holiday weekend in Liverpool in spite of variable weather and a long coach journey of 7 hours each way (necessitated by the lack of trains due to engineering work).

It was actually more of a ‘cultural’ weekend than a walking one, but we did do a fair bit of walking around the city   It was a bit wet on Saturday – the sun would be out and then it would bucket down with rain.  So we spent the morning doing ‘inside’ things, wandering round the undercover part of the beautifully restored Albert Dock area, being mesmerized by  the stunning WW1 dazzle ship (painted in amazing vibrant geometric shapes – designed to confuse the enemy as to its exact range, speed and even which way it was heading – making it a much less easy target to focus on).  We visited the modern art gallery and then went on a Magical Mystery Tour coach trip round the Beatles houses, Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields etc. then ended up in the Cavern –rebuilt since their day, but we saw a couple of enthusiastic Beatles tribute bands there.  The weather improved dramatically in the afternoon & we went on a walk around Liverpool visiting the Anglican and Catholic Cathedrals (Paddy’s Wigwam as they call it in Liverpool). There was a high level zip wire overhead along the main shopping mall which provided us with some amusement.

Sunday was much nicer weather & we took a ferry ride across the Mersey and back – very nice.  Then a couple of museums – including the large Museum of Liverpool and the Museum of International Slavery.  Some of the group  did a spot of wandering round shops,  some went on a hopper bus around Liverpool whilst others  went to see the Mondrian exhibition in the Tate Gallery. 

It rained again on Monday, but hey, we were going home!  The streets of Liverpool had clumps of mud all over them all the way to the coach station and we saw abandoned muddy wellington boots outside cafes.  There were a lot of muddy individuals waiting for the coach back to London who had been at the Greenfields Music Festival, some people were telling us that most of them had abandoned their tents at the festival!

The YHA was brilliantly situated, right near the Albert Dock area and  was very comfortable.  There were a couple of ‘party groups’ staying there – a group of hen party girls and another group of boys – what is the YHA coming to these days?  Actually they were no trouble at all and did not make any noise coming back in the early hours.  We had some lovely meals out in the evenings.  Altogether a good weekend!

Lynne E. 28th August 2014