Saturday, January 28, 2012
Severndroog Castle in Oxleas Woods, Shooters Hill
It had been a rough day at work and I decided that I needed to go out for a long walk to clear my mind before it explodes.
On Friday night, flipping through my usual cache of weekly postings from the Londonist, I came across the news that Walk London is conducting a whole weekend of their excellent, free guided walks.
I clicked on the first link - a 5 hour, 7-mile meander through parkland, ancient woodland and a climb to one of the highest points of London offering a glimpse of the North Sea.
Perfect - just what I needed.
The amazing thing about London is its many different faces. The London that tourists see is completely different from the London that is. Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park... all part of London and entwined in the national psyche of course, but just seeing that doesn't quite complete the picture.
That is no longer the London that I now know.
Today, I saw the "wild" side of London - deserted sand quarrys, now overgrown with wild heather and thorny plants; Charlton House, a 4oo-year old Jacobean mansion housing an old library, on whose doorsteps we sat and had our packed lunch; the dilapidated Severndroog Castle, tucked away in the 8000 year-old Oxleas Woods; nature reserves and open heaths along the Green Chain Walk, offering vast expanses of grassy fields and spectacular views of London City.
Only 20 minutes by public transport from the city centre, and I was in the middle of glorious meadows and ancient woods. In front of me, in the not-too-distant horizon, I could see Canary Wharf and its tall glass buildings, faintly golden amidst the sunset. Behind me was a bluebell forest that had survived for thousands of years and in which deer and foxes made their homes. Unbelievable.
I turned and shared the thought with the person walking beside me, a vivacious woman from New York who works in AIDS preventation in Asia and Africa and who has recently moved to London to start a PhD.
She agreed, wholeheartedly.
We chatted the whole way during the 5-hour long walk. I found out that she is fluent in Swahili, thinks of Tanzania as her "home" and yet loves big crowded cities and skyscrapers, considers African, Middle Eastern and Indian food her favourite cuisine, and ... reads the same blogs as I do (such as the Londonist from which we both found out about this walk).
I knew I had found a new friend.
7 hours later, sitting in front of a computer and sipping my 3rd glass of cider (cider just doesn't count, right?), the stress of the week has melted away.
Monday may yet be another difficult day, but right now, it really doesn't matter.