London Loop: Section 8: Donkey Wood to Uxbridge Lock

Kingfisher on the River Colne

I wonder if my rope's still hanging from the tree
By the standing pool where you drank me
And filled me full of thirsty love
And the memory of water?

I wonder if a king still fishes there
His back towards the burned-out air
His laughing catches singing loud
The memory of water
- Marillion, Memory of Water

I don't think I have every been so cold as this, even being snowed in on a concert tour of North Germany where the River Wesser froze over and we had snow drifts a dozen feet thick piled up against the youth hostel walls can compare. I must be getting soft in my old age. This walk starts, like the last one finished, with a dreary walk alongside the A30 with jumbo jets and huge A380's blasting off from Heathrow over my head but soon you turn off and join the river Crane again. Just before that however, parked next to one of the giant British Airways' hangers was a Concord. Still as brilliantly different as ever but looking rather sad and lonely. I remember having to pause my lessons at about 11am each day as Concorde took off from Heathrow not far from the school I taught at.

The snow that fell earlier in the week was still lying on the ground and any muddy patches were frozen into rock hard ridges and my mood was lifted by spotting a fox that paused to study me ahead on the path and a falcon perched on a broken branch above my head. I wonder if they were both hunting the rabbits I saw a few moments later bounding across the path to find cover in the brambles? I love the wildlife I see on the walk and this gave me hope that this was going to be a good leg, despite the cold!

Despite the early part of the walk following the A30, crossing the A4 and diving under the M4 the walk felt very rural as it tracked the meandering River Crane with its frozen oxbow lakes and snow covered banks. In places the snow was 5-8cm deep and made walking difficult as you crunched through the icy crust into the powder below. Leaves were covered in a rind of frost and Crane Meadows between the A4 and M4 were particularly pretty with their coating of snow.

After the M4 the walk joins the Grand Union Canal as it winds its way from London to Birmingham. In parts the water had frozen over with only the odd gap under bridges and where rivers and surface water drains pour warmer water into it. It was quite amusing to watch coots come flying in, land on the ice and skid, sometimes backwards, for some distance before colliding with the bank or one of their fellow canal dwellers. Most boats were moored up for the winter, their owners working on maintaining the boats for the summer season. One or two were working their way through the ice though, dramatic cracking sounds as the metal hulls forced their way through the ice.

The path swings away from the canal for a time through Stockley Park, a modern science park. Very icy paths through here were snow has melted and refrozen on the tarmac paths. Back to the canal the path goes close to West Drayton, where I taught for five years, before leaving the main Grand Union for a short stretch along the Slough branch of the same canal. At the junction is a huge marine crammed with canal boats of all colours and sizes and a haze hung over it from the stoves that were running on some of the boats.

The path then joins the River Colne as it runs through an area of former brickworks which have been flooded. The area was famous for its bricks and the canal was used to ship them into London in their millions. Passing through a wooded area I caught a glimpse of copper and turquoise as a kingfisher exploded from the river and landed on a branch with a small silver fish in its beak. I started to creep closer but before I could get very far a car door slammed and it was off. I saw it again a couple of hundred of yards later but again too far away to get a decent photo. This probably was the best moment of any of the walks I've been on, you don't get to see a kingfisher everyday in London!

This sight kept me going through a slightly grotty leg where the path runs between tangled branches and a high metal fence before a short road stretch leads you back to the canal and the final walk towards Uxbridge. By now I was feeling very cold where the bustling high street and tube station were very very welcome!