Post Camino - Lea Valley Walk, Box Hill Ramble

So I've been a bit remiss lately in updating the blog, since I've not done a lot or as much structured hiking as I had hoped too.

Life inevitably finds a way to weedle through the what ifs and the that would be nice and I've found the sagacious advice of Samuel Smiles, or Marcus Aurelius to be ever the more true with each reading. Commit to the idea, begin the work, and seemingly fate will fall into alignment for you.

Not that I believe that it magically happens, but there is something to be said for the iron law of committing to something even when the results could be failure or embarrassment, or any other unpleasant feeling under the sun.

I've been busy. I recently took up a beginners course in Kendo and passed after a two month course. I've always wanted to do it as a sport, and when the opportunity came about I decided to commit and stick with it. Now the real work begins, but it was a start and I'm happy to say that I'm not as terrible as one would think, probably a little bit worse.

As for walking there have been two occasions, a nice short hike through Box Hill that was arranged as an away day from Escape Plan, and two of the London walks that are part of the TFL, the Lea Valley Walk and the Green Chain.

With the Green Chain I managed to cover the first four sections in an afternoon, but the November light was against me, as well as a late start. I finished in Oxleas Wood wandering around in pitch darkness.

Lea Valley was a little bit better, I completed it after a 11:00am start for a 6:55pm finish, at a distance of 18 miles. From the beautiful church of Waltham Abbey where I got to visit the grave site of King Harold. (Harold Godwinson) and visited the church as well to have a viewing and also seek a blessing for my undertaking.

The Lea Valley was a mixed bag. Beautiful riverfront meadows gave way to dull riverside moorings and industrial parks, which then gave way again to the Lea Marshes. The weather was a mixed bag of rain and shine, but when I'm walking unless it's tipping down that sort of thing doesn't seem to bother me as much. It was nice to get some actual serious hiking in again, even though the gradient wasn't anywhere near as challenging as parts of the Primitivo.