Wond'ring Aloud: Tracking the Tube: Central Line 01: West Ruislip to Perivale

Weather: Unseasonably Cool and Grey
Distance Walked: 18.73 km
Distance By Tube: 8.65 km
Stations Visited: 6
Fantastic Place: Northolt Village Green

So the penultimate line of the tube line walk project - almost two years since I completed the Victoria Line. Alongside the usual reason of work taking up so much time, last summer we got two new kittens after our beloved Fitz died at the age of 21. This meant I 'had' to stay at home with them to make sure they got acclimatised to their new home. Suffice to say they have and now rule the roost, every day they commit a new crime!

Six Stations on this Section of the Line

Anyway, back to the walk. I decided to walk west to east along the line to make the most of starting close to home, it is going to be interesting to see how I break up the loop at the eastern end of the line.

The walk started at the western end of the line at West Ruislip, an uninspiring station in the middle of an uninspiring area, I actually got a bit lost leaving the station, not a good start! The first section of the walk was through dull suburbia, in fact the walk kept returning to the same busy road before diving off to one side or another to gain respite. Ruislip Gardens station is if anything even less interesting than West Ruislip, but it does lie opposite the entrance to Northolt Aerodrome, pretty unique to be walk past the end of the main runway of the RAF base. It is the oldest RAF base in the UK, created in 1915 and was the first to take delivery of Hurricanes in WW2. It is now the base where the royals fly into and out of and I often see planes coming in when working in the back garden.

More suburban dullness leads to the excitement of crossing the busy A40 (which the Central Line follows into the centre of London) at the Polish War memorial roundabout (the Poles had a squadron that flew out of Northolt during WW2).

The weather has been very wet over the past few months and this caused me to take a detour when the path through the woods back to Northolt station crossing the A40 again this time via a high footbridge. This area is starting to be recognisable to me, we quite often need to go to the Post Office sorting centre here to pick up parcels and the vet hospital is near by as well.

After the station with the busy road pounding outside it was pleasant to pick up a sandwich and a drink for lunch and sit in the peaceful Northolt Village Green with ducks looking interested in my sandwich.

This quiet location is overlooked by the 13th century church of St Mary with St Richard.

The path drops down from the hill towards the Grand Union Canal which winds along under road and rail bridges. Lots of barges moored against the tow path in a variety of conditions of repair! The walk would be more peaceful if it wasn't for the bikes speeding along often not ringing a bell as they approached from behind.

Leaving the canal to walk up to Greenford station via the new housing development on the old Glaxo factory site I spotted a swan nesting beside the canal. Returning to the tow path once more for the last section towards Perivale I walked through a section of fenced off land where beavers have been reintroduced, sadly none were visible on this trip but I will keep an eye out for them when walking down to the shops. Then I retraced my steps, over Horsenden Hill back home