Snowgood's Blog

By: snowgood

Mar 14 2020

Tags: boating lake, Greenwich Meridian Trail, Highams Park

Category: adventure, Failure, london, Walking

Leave a comment

Last Sunday we did church, came home and had dinner.

Roz had a long journey and was staying away.

At the last minute I decided to head off to Highams Park and try the next section of The Greenwich Millenium Trail.

As I waved goodbye to my wife it suddenly dawned on me.  My car keys were missing.

Fifteen minutes later I worked out that they were probably in the back of a Hyundai i20 heading for Frinton!

Lesson 1, be more careful when loading your wife’s car for a long journey.

So I then picked up my reserve Ioniq and Front Door keys.

I loaded the car with my boots and rucksack and headed around the M25.

Lesson 2 – in situations such as these park at the beginning of you walk (I didn’t, choosing the end point of my planned itinerary).

Further time lost unpacking the car, as a chap pulled up alongside me.

I waited for the inevitable “What are you doing parking there?”

Wrong.

He said “I’m jealous”. he’d got a 19 plate car, mine is a 20.

Matey kept chatting for twenty minutes, and I still had to reach Waltham Cross.

Eventually he said goodbye, and I walked along the A121.  Arriving at the station two minutes after my train had gone.

The Rome to Rio App suggested I take the next train, which took half an hour to arrive.

I hopped on.

It kept rolling all the way to Stratford station. My intermediary change was missed altogether.

So I headed to South Woodford and a 25 minute walk to Oak Hill.

Disaster!

The Boating Lake in Highams Park was pretty, but by the time I reached Chingford Premier Inn I’d had enough stumbling around in the moonlight, and bailed out.