Capital Ring: Section 3 - Grove Park to Crystal Palace

Weather: Warm, Windy and Wet.

Playlist: LastFM Playlist

Time: 2 1/2 Hours

It was good to get back into the open air after a month of no serious walking, my feet had started to itch! This leg is at the heart of why I wanted to do the Capital Ring in the first place; to show me the London I didn't know. I had a fairly good idea of what the west, north and east of London was like but I had rarely visited that part of our great metropolis that lies to the south of the river.

The start of the walk, in heavy and penetrating drizzle, appears on the map to run through residential streets but in fact it takes you along the the remains of the Great North Wood. Now to my eyes this is not in the north, is not much of a wood and is not that great! A narrow strip often no more than a few metres wide with very few mature trees. However there are some very nice carved posts and benches shaped like leaves dotted about and it is a green lane through which wildlife can move and nest. One of the stranger lifeforms I spotted in the area was a large flock of Santas. On one short row of houses there must have been 20 or 30; some climbing trees, others on walls and some keeping watch from the lawn. Along with them were several large snowmen and numerous large bells hanging from lines strung across the back gardens. There was another slightly smaller congregation on another house further round on the walk. So gob-smacked was I by this display (it is the middle of January when these creatures have normally flown back to the north by the beginning of the month) that I forgot I had my camera with me.

The next section of the walk ran through the large golf course attached to Beckenham Place Park. Nice rolling hills and great views but very muddy. The 18th house itself is quite a feature with a massive portico the builder took from their previous property - the whole thing looks a little odd to say the least.

Finally the walk meanders its way to Crystal Palace. To my delight the dinosaurs were on view along with what appears to be a new geological time trail.

Raarrghhh!

 

 

I'm now two thirds or thereabouts around the Capital Ring and only three more sections (five legs) to do. I've already started thinking about attempting the London Loop!