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Out and about
Sep. 3rd, 2011 10:18 pmToday may have been the last warm and sunny day for some time; it's supposed to start raining tomorrow for the next five or so days. So, after a late morning and coffee, I packed some water into my bag and went for a walk.
There is an old towpath which starts in Bishops Stortford. It goes along the rivers Stort and Lee (or Lea, I've seen both spellings used in official publications and it is definitely the same river both times), and eventually reaches London. I didn't walk quite that far today, but I made the first leg of the river walk, from Bishops Stortford to Sawbridgeworth, approximately 8km / 5 miles, which I finished in two hours at a normal walking pace.
The river was on my right, with ducks, swans and house boats, fish and damselflies, locks and weirs, and the occasional joggers and cyclists on the path, airplanes overhead and the trains in the distance. There were lightly wooded stretches with willow branches hanging deeply into the water and reeds rustling in the breeze. There was grassland - for some reason, the word "undulating" seems to describe it - with a wonderfully big blue sky overhead with just the right amount of white cotton candy strip clouds so you could perceive how far your eyes could see. There were two houses amids the fields, and seeing them, it clicked: I was walking through the area that you see from the plane when it is coming in to land at Stansted Airport. I had seen these houses from above for years.
Something else clicked, too - I love this part of the world.
Eventually, I reached Sawbridgeworth. In search of a pint, I tried finding the town centre, but it was hard to find and I was thirsty. So I went towards the station, because there is always a pub near a station, and soon, the friendly barmaid at the Railway Inn poured me a pint of bitter, which I enjoyed immensely sitting outside in the beer garden. Then, rested and slightly tipsy - a pint of bitter on an empty stomach after two hours' walk will do that - I took the train back to BiSto, which only took a few minutes, speeding through the countryside I had walked earlier.
It was a lot warmer and sunnier than I had expected, and I have a slight sunburn on my arms and face. My feet are fine (hooray for good shoes), but I can feel my legs not being used to two hours' straight walking, and I suspect I will sleep very well tonight. I hope it's going to be good weather next weekend, for the second leg of the river walk.
There is an old towpath which starts in Bishops Stortford. It goes along the rivers Stort and Lee (or Lea, I've seen both spellings used in official publications and it is definitely the same river both times), and eventually reaches London. I didn't walk quite that far today, but I made the first leg of the river walk, from Bishops Stortford to Sawbridgeworth, approximately 8km / 5 miles, which I finished in two hours at a normal walking pace.
The river was on my right, with ducks, swans and house boats, fish and damselflies, locks and weirs, and the occasional joggers and cyclists on the path, airplanes overhead and the trains in the distance. There were lightly wooded stretches with willow branches hanging deeply into the water and reeds rustling in the breeze. There was grassland - for some reason, the word "undulating" seems to describe it - with a wonderfully big blue sky overhead with just the right amount of white cotton candy strip clouds so you could perceive how far your eyes could see. There were two houses amids the fields, and seeing them, it clicked: I was walking through the area that you see from the plane when it is coming in to land at Stansted Airport. I had seen these houses from above for years.
Something else clicked, too - I love this part of the world.
Eventually, I reached Sawbridgeworth. In search of a pint, I tried finding the town centre, but it was hard to find and I was thirsty. So I went towards the station, because there is always a pub near a station, and soon, the friendly barmaid at the Railway Inn poured me a pint of bitter, which I enjoyed immensely sitting outside in the beer garden. Then, rested and slightly tipsy - a pint of bitter on an empty stomach after two hours' walk will do that - I took the train back to BiSto, which only took a few minutes, speeding through the countryside I had walked earlier.
It was a lot warmer and sunnier than I had expected, and I have a slight sunburn on my arms and face. My feet are fine (hooray for good shoes), but I can feel my legs not being used to two hours' straight walking, and I suspect I will sleep very well tonight. I hope it's going to be good weather next weekend, for the second leg of the river walk.
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