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A friend of mine is taking part in Shine London 2011 which involves walking 26 miles over night in aid of Cancer Research UK. She is working her way through an extensive training plan and I've now kept her company on two long walks. On Bank Holiday Monday I walked 13.2 miles with her and her husband from Wimbledon, through Wimbledon Common, around Richmond Park and back to Wimbledon Village. Before the walk I'd been worried that I wouldn't make it all the way round as I'm so chronically unfit but we all made it without any major problems. It helped that it was a really good day for walking. Not too hot and not too cool with plenty of sunshine. We walked all round the park including up to the top of King Henry's Mound where we got to see the famous view of St Paul's Cathedral 10 miles away. It's also a great time of year to see the Richmond Park deer. We saw several lone red stags wandering around (probably preparing for the rut in the autum), a large group of red deer including females and young and some of the smaller fallow deer which are usually more difficult to spot (I was suprised to read on the website that there are more fallow deer than red deer in the park - I always see more red ones). I also saw the windmill at Wimbledon Common for the first time and learnt that Lord Baden Powell wrote some of the Scouting Book for Boys there. Hopefully, I'll be able to go back there one day to visit the little museum.
Today my friend's target distance was 14 miles. We met up with another friend to walk part of the Capital Ring from Richmond to Greenford. This comprises two sections of the Capital Ring which are five miles each (Richmond to Osterley Lock and Osterley Lock to Greenford) so we knew we would have to tack a few more miles on the end. Unfortunately, the weather forecast wasn't that great and for once it was right. It started raining when we got to Isleworth and by the time we entered Syon Park it was tipping it down. We stopped off and ate our packed lunches standing in the covered entrance to Syon Park Garden Centre. It felt very British! The next few miles mainly followed the Grand Union Canal and it wasn't that enjoyable in the pouring rain. However, we carried on and by the time we got to Hanwell Lock it had pretty much stopped. We walked through Perivale and Greenford (areas of London that I don't know at all) and decided to carry on to do the next stage of the walk ending in Harrow on the Hill. The last section of the walk was lovely. The hills were a bit of a shock to our tired legs but we got to see a great view over North London all the way to the Chilterns. Finally we found ourselves walking through all the historic buildings of Harrow School. My legs ache loads now but it was a great way to spend a day.
Today my friend's target distance was 14 miles. We met up with another friend to walk part of the Capital Ring from Richmond to Greenford. This comprises two sections of the Capital Ring which are five miles each (Richmond to Osterley Lock and Osterley Lock to Greenford) so we knew we would have to tack a few more miles on the end. Unfortunately, the weather forecast wasn't that great and for once it was right. It started raining when we got to Isleworth and by the time we entered Syon Park it was tipping it down. We stopped off and ate our packed lunches standing in the covered entrance to Syon Park Garden Centre. It felt very British! The next few miles mainly followed the Grand Union Canal and it wasn't that enjoyable in the pouring rain. However, we carried on and by the time we got to Hanwell Lock it had pretty much stopped. We walked through Perivale and Greenford (areas of London that I don't know at all) and decided to carry on to do the next stage of the walk ending in Harrow on the Hill. The last section of the walk was lovely. The hills were a bit of a shock to our tired legs but we got to see a great view over North London all the way to the Chilterns. Finally we found ourselves walking through all the historic buildings of Harrow School. My legs ache loads now but it was a great way to spend a day.
