efog-blog
Recent outings and activities...
Early October walk in the Forest
A long weekend in Ironbridge
At the end of July 2022, six Efoggers travelled to Ironbridge for a long weekend, staying at the Coalport YHA. Negotiating the dreadful motorway service stations (Warwick for Brian and Cherwell for Eileen) Brian’s group stopped at Kinver Edge, a NT property. Here, houses are built into the rock. After a tour, and tea at the café on top, we climbed the adjacent hill to the top where there were remains of a hill fort and glorious views.
That evening we decided to walk from Coalport to Ironbridge, which was longer than expected. A meal later – no, we won’t give a good review for the White Hart Inn – and we decided a taxi back would be preferable.
On Saturday we walked up Silkin Way to Blist’s Hill Victorian World and bought annual passes covering all the sites around Ironbridge. A bargain. Several hours later we walked back to the YHA and popped into the adjacent China museum. We went to the Shakespeare pub near the YHA in the evening. The food was good but the clientele that night was noisy, shriekingly so. Ears deafened, we staggered back to bed.
On Sunday we visited the Darby houses, where some of us dressed up in Victorian costume, the Museum of Iron and the Enginuity museum, all very close to each other. Enginuity was designed for kids so we had a wonderful time. In the afternoon we visited the Tar Tunnel, a tunnel in a tar seam. Stomachs straining after a weekend of eating out, we had a modest meal at the YHA in the evening watching the England women winning the Euro final.
On Monday we set off home, visiting another NT property, Basildon Park, on the way to have lunch and break up the journey.
Brian U. 4th October 2022
Cold Christmas on a Sunny June Day
Several months ago at programme planning, I volunteered to organise a walk for Saturday 25th June, calling it the “6 months to Christmas Walk”. Now I needed to find a walk with a Christmas connection.
So, a few months later, we met at Stratford Station on Sunday 26th June (put back by a day due to the train strike). First to arrive were Cathy and me, soon followed by Madeline, Jill V. and Sue S. and Marian. Train tickets purchased, we boarded the train to Ware arriving at 11 a.m. and set off, crossing over the river Lea.
However, Marian had lost her phone and so retraced her steps to see if she could find it whilst we pushed on without her. We’d lost 1 person within 5 minutes, not a great start. The first mile and half were through Ware, a historic town, to the pretty little village of Thundridge, along roads, but getting the uphill walking done early on.
Reaching Thundridge we turned off the road into a wooded track next to the river Rib, passing fields filled with poppies, before turning left to St Mary’s Church. The church is better known as
Cold Christmas Church. I say church, all that remains now is the Tower, the rest of the church having been demolished. The church is reputed to be haunted and according to legend was a focus point for witches and devil worshipers, although on a bright sunny day it felt quite tranquil Pushing on, we rejoined the River Rib at a small ford across the river, where we had lunch. Checking my phone, I had a message from Marian saying that she had found her phone.
After lunch we continued alongside the river, catching a great view of a Red Kite over the fields and woods. After ten minutes we turned away right heading up a small hill to the tiny hamlet of Cold Christmas. Topicality was never my strong point, but I’d excelled myself here I think. Posing to have our photos by the village sign we disturbed a mouse/vole like small furry creature which quickly scuttled away down the lane. We continued across fields, between Diamond Jubilee woods, reaching a road and heading back to Ware, where we found a nice cafe for waffle/pancakes and ice-creams before boarding the train back home.
We’d walked about 6.5 to 7 miles, seen some lovely countryside, enjoyed sunshine, and seen quite a bit of wildlife. Anyone up for a walk to Summer Bay in December?
Trev (pathfinder) Eley. 3rd July 2022
Wanstead Garden Patch Trundle.
On Thursday 26th May 15 horticulturally enthusiastic EFOGers gathered under the Snaresbrook train bridge for a trundle around some of the unofficial garden patches created by the Wanstead Community Gardeners.
The afore mentioned group (gardeners not EFOGers) have been out of control around Wanstead for some years. No unloved patch of public soil is safe from their depredations. The more inaccessible, the more attractive it is to them.
First off the blocks for the EFOGers were the Hanging Gardens of Wanstead around Snaresbrook Station, then a quick trundle to the Wanstead Clinic Garden, ith its collection of ceramic animals, most of them missing an ear or a leg or some such. These materialised out of nowhere soon after the gardeners created the garden. We suspect they might be hoping the clinic would be a good place to get missing limbs replaced. Overly optimistic, I reckon.
From there to the Corner House Garden on the High Street to look especially at the back garden now alive with huge oriental poppies and a wonderful selection of bearded irises. At this time of year especially it serves the same role as a photographer’s studio in Victorian times. People in their Sunday bests would pose against a painted background of a garden to have their likenesses captured for posterity. Not sure that Posterity ever really appreciated their efforts but the same is going on now in the back garden of the Corner House. Selfies are taken against a background of real flowers. Perhaps Posterity will be equally unimpressed.
Love the idea of selfies. Maybe for people who don’t know what they look like or perhaps have an identity problem. Anyway, it’s all happening in Wanstead.
From the Corner House it was a quick step to the George. I was not for one moment fooled by EFOGers horticultural enthusiasm. I knew they were only there for the beer.
Marian T. May 2022
Norfolk Broads Holiday 2022 (Third time lucky)
After a wait of two years, I finally arrived at Acle station in Norfolk (and you thought TfL rail was bad!). Having walked to the village, Val phoned and offered me a lift with her and Marian. After a short drive, we arrived at the boat-yard, booked in, found and boarded our boat, Caribbean Light. Having unpacked, a member of staff showed us where everything was, how the boat worked, and we were ready to go – almost, we’d better wait for Eileen first.
Eileen arrived, ships provisions were bought, and we cast off on our adventure, the ladies volunteering me to do the tricky job of getting the boat out of the marina. Once on the main rivers, Eileen and Val both took a turn at the helm doing a good job piloting the boat, although Val did carry out a couple of close river-bank inspections, just to keep me alert. A couple of hours later we moored at Salhouse Broad for the night, with the pub about a mile away for our evening meal (but that’s another story!).
On Sunday, we cruised up river to Wroxham and moored up, before walking to the gardens and cafe at Hoveton Hall for tea and (very yummy) cake. Suitably refreshed, Marian wanted to visit the gardens. Despite my aversion to anything flowery, not helped at all, when the ticket lady mentioned one of the features was the “spider garden” the ladies press-ganged me into visiting them, and I was surprisingly impressed. We returned to the boat and cruised to Horning for the night.
Monday, we left the moorings early-ish and had a leisurely breakfast on Ranworth Broad. We then turned up the River Ant, a much smaller river, but probably my favourite, through the low and narrow Ludham Bridge (windscreen down for the bridge!) heading to Stalham. We stopped on-route at How Hill, to see the old Marshman’s Cottage and explore the Wildlife Trail walk and the “secret garden”, before continuing to Stalham to moor up overnight.
On Tuesday we had to return to our boatyard as Val, Eileen and Marian were leaving, and a new crew were joining me for the rest of the week. I say a new crew, it was actually just Lynne, as Fozi wasn’t feeling well. So it was going to be just two of us with a seriously large (42 foot long) boat, what could possibly go wrong!. “Crew” changed and boat re-provisioned, we headed out again for Adventure Part 2, and moored up at one of the last remaining berths at Ludham for the evening.
Wednesday, we headed back to Salhouse Broad, with Lynne doing most of the driving, and doing a fine job (no river-bank inspections!). We had lunch on the Broad, before walking through the bluebell wood and village to the old thatched church, where I spotted the Phantom Norfolk Church Arsonist at work. Correction, it was a bee-keeper and we got chatting with his friend who gave us some of the honey-comb fresh from the hives. We returned to the boat before heading to Horning for the night.
Thursday morning was exciting!. An elderly couple had moored near us, but had no idea what they were doing, and despite three of us helping, I thought he would ram us, but he eventually got out trailing his ropes in the water! We departed, cruising to Stalham, where we had a pleasant walk along the Weavers Way and local footpaths. In the evening, two ex-members who Lynne knew and live locally, Edwina and Kenth, invited us for dinner, which was very enjoyable (thanks folks!).
Friday we departed, stopping at How Hill for a second visit, but there’s always something new to see, and I was lucky enough to see two eels (might have been the same one twice!) having never seen one in the wild before. After a few hours, we departed, hoping to moor up at Ranworth for the night and were in luck. We visited the church, known as the Cathedral of the Broads, and Lynne climbed to the top of the Tower, whilst I waited below to ensure we didn’t get locked in the church.
Saturday morning we departed Ranworth, for our boat-yard at Potter Heigham. Despite the light drizzle (the only rain we had whilst travelling) we arrived back at the boatyard safely and enjoyed a snack at the cafe before departing back to Essex.
All in all it had been a fabulous week. The girls all did superbly, in handling the boat, mooring up and casting off, with no accidents. We saw plenty of wildlife, several kingfishers (although don’t ask Eileen, she missed them all), some ostriches (they weren’t actually on the broads), the eels, and Val saw an otter. Thank you ladies for all your work in making everything go so successfully and safely, I couldn’t have done it without your help! There’s a Captain or two amongst you!
Trev Eley 19th May 2022