Trips on 7 & 8th September (Kennet & Avon + London)

 7th September – Rural Wiltshire Countryside along the Kennet & Avon

I started walking the Kennet & Avon canal last year leaving the 12 and a bit mile gap between Devizes & Pewsey last summer time, an idea which has slipped over and over for the last few months, but with autumn arriving meaning rural canals will soon become off-limits (as towpaths turn into muddy quagmires) I decided to do the canal walk with another local area day rather than heading to the Midlands.

The day began with the 08:30 service from Grateley formed of 159103 on the Exeter service (which ran into an unknown unit at Salisbury).  After speaking with one of the guards (who wanted to know how I was getting on with my training), I left the station heading into the city centre swinging via Boots for a meal deal before making my way to the bus stop on Blue Bore Row for the 09:25 service for Swindon (advertised as “Pewsey for Swindon” as it was one of those routes which are split up for distance reasons.  At 09:30 when the bus was a no show, I was thinking about a plan B (involving catching the Bournemouth bus to Ringwood for the old railway line walk towards Wimborne) before bus 1140 (a Scania OmniCity) rolled in to depart around 10 minutes late.  

The service departed Salisbury, heading towards Amesbury before going via Durrington & Netheravon (along some narrow roads) before joining the A345 for the run towards Upavon before reaching Pewsey.  The delay on departure was easily made up and I remained on board after the centre of Pewsey to alight at the bus stop near Pewsey Wharf where my walk began.

Poppy Bus

This section of the canal is very rural and once away from the wharf area in Pewsey the towpath turned grassy, bit muddy in places due to all the recent rain.  A few times I had to duck underneath low laying trees (including some thorns) and a few places the towpath did get quite narrow but nothing as bad as the Grand Union in Northamptonshire.  It was very peaceful (with the occasional sound of train from the south) before passing the small settlement of Honeystreet (bringing back memories of the times I've visited the Barge Inn 20 or so years ago).  Countryside soon returned as the canal did some weaving round hills, skirting close to All Cannings & Horton, with some places the canal hiding from view due to weeds.

The rural peaceful countryside got replaced with Devizes suburbia, and soon I reached the A361 road bridge where my canal walk was complete.  Leaving just a small section around Crofton pumping station (where the towpath was closed) and the river Avon section from Bath towards Bristol to clear the entire Kennet & Avon, although I suspect both those walks will be done next year.  After swinging via Morrisons, I headed towards the town centre to relax before the next Salisbury bus rolled in, trying to avoid the rain which had finally caught up with me.

Kennet & Avon Canal

This was the recently introduced X2 service from Devizes to Salisbury with bus 2729 (a Park & Ride Spec Enviro200).  The bus departed with a handful of passengers on board (gaining more passengers as time went on), following the same route as the route 2 (via Potterne, Market Lavington, Tilshead, Orcheston & Shrewton) where instead of turning off to head towards Winterbourne Stoke, the bus went onto the main road towards the Stonehenge Visitors Centre (where it picked up 15 passengers, all avoiding the ~£20 Stonehenge Tour Bus [also ran by Salisbury Reds]) before a fast section along the A360 to reach Salisbury, terminating on the bus stop outside Tesco Express.  Certainly, a fast journey at the end, but why it's been introduced is a bit of a mystery considering it undercuts the tour bus (which until this week was the only way to reach Stonehenge by public transport).

Anyhow back in Salisbury, I made my slow way towards the station, and to platform 6 where I took a seat on 159005 on the next stopper to Basingstoke, which took me home to Grateley, followed by a gentle walk home before the rain returned once more.  An enjoyable walk in the Wiltshire countryside, bringing back some memories of my youth.



8th September – An unexpected trip to London & Hertford

A bit unexpected as originally my plan for Sunday was to walk the old railway line from Ringwood to Wimborne, but with the expected wet weather that got put back on the shelf, along with a couple other random plans.  It was only until I heard my good friend Jules was heading to London on another improv trip (think he only booked the coach tickets in the evening) I decided to do the slow “Tour De Staines” due to engineering works at Wimbledon.

The day began with a drive to Andover (as I’m commuting to Basingstoke at the moment my car use has dropped so I’m trying to give the car a run every week until training has complete) with the 06:55 (or so) service to London, formed of 159101 & 159018.  Nothing unusual happened along the way other than RPIs boarding at Woking and going via Isleworth after Feltham, arriving into Clapham Junction a few minutes early due to a cancellation of a stopper which this service was due to follow.  At Waterloo I headed to the underground with the Bakerloo line to Oxford Circus (set 3250-3559) transferring to the Victoria line, jumping onto 11088/11087 as it was on the platform, remaining on the platform for 5 minutes due to an issue with a train in front.

Eventually this service departed and it took me to Seven Sisters as I made my way up the stairs to the national rail platforms (Tottenham Hale was closed today so GA were diverting via Seven Sisters), much to my surprise a Stansted service was on the platform being delayed and I jumped on (745109) for the run to Broxbourne, transferring to 720551 on a Hertford East shuttle.  My original idea was to take this unit to Hertford East giving me 10 minutes to make my way across to the bus station for a bus for Welwyn to walk the disused railway line (the Cole Green Way), but that idea got shelved when the service lost 5 minutes around St Margarets due to a signalling issue as I bailed at Ware to begin a shorter walk.

A 720 departing Ware (rabbit)

Annoyingly the weather forecast was wrong as it suggested rain wasn’t due until later in the afternoon, but it started to drizzle a few minutes after leaving the station as I headed to the New River path.  I reached Ware back in July last year (time flies!) when I walked this path from Broxbourne ditching it at Ware due to the rain (why does it always rain on me when I explore the New River?).  The first section was alongside the A119 before the waterway moved away from the road towards the King's Mead nature reserve, the path coming to an end as previously it crossed the railway on a foot crossing, which Network Rail has closed, the path turning very overgrown so I decided against walking it to the railway fence.  I took a footpath via the nature reserve, going underneath the A10 viaduct having a small detour to find another crossing closed, before reaching the Hertford area, crossing over the railway on a foot crossing at Mead Land.

Once across the railway I headed back towards the New River, picking the path up and walking as far as I could towards the A10 viaduct (effectively now a cul-de-sac path) with the path suddenly ending in overgrowth, which is what I was sort of expecting.  I did a U-turn back to the point where I joined the waterway and followed the path to the New Gauge House where it joins the river Lea.  I joined the towpath the Lea Navigation heading towards Hertford, remaining on the towpath after Mill Road for the short section to Hertford Basin which somehow, I missed out when I previously walked this navigation.  I reached the limit of navigation, and headed back towards Mill Road via a path alongside another part of the River Lea.  Finally reaching Hertford East station, deciding against doing the railway line walk owing to timings and the changeable weather (for I was a bit wet).

The New River in Ware

Back to the trains and a late platform change from platform 2 to platform 1 with 720524 coming in on top of another 720 (which was stabled at the buffer stops), which I think is the first time I’ve departed from platform 1, only previously arrived on that side on a peak time extra.   This 720 took me to Broxbourne where after looking at RTT found nothing of interest heading south for the next hour, I jumped onto 720513 & 720103 for the short distance to Cheshunt transferring for the Overground with 710120 & 710122 on the stopper, solely to cover that part of the Overground network for 710.  I bailed at Rectory Road for a gentle stroll towards Hackney Downs going via the park (one of those short London area walks which had been on my list to do for a while), swinging via the Tesco Express outside the station for lunch before 710105 & 710257 rolled in to take me the 3 miles to Liverpool Street.

I exited the station at Liverpool Street for the short walk to Fenchurch Street where I met up with Jules on winner 720612, surprisingly out today on Leigh on Sea services.  Pretty much the same inside as the Greater Anglia examples, other than more areas of “3-1+2” seating creating wider aisles.  We took this 720 to Upminster, opening my book with the C2C examples, returning to West Ham on 357046, where we transferred to the underground doing a series of linear hops (and a walk from Chancery Lane to Farringdon) to reach London Marylebone for 165036 to West Ruislip, for a short fester before 165025 took us back to Marylebone (Jules was quite happy as this was his final Chiltern 165, which had been out of traffic for ages).

720612 departing Upminster

With time looking on, we headed to the underground to Waterloo (changing at Baker Street from the Bakerloo & Jubilee lines), popping out of the station to grab dinner supplies before taking a busy 159022, 159106 & 159002 (which didn’t help that it was advertised as boarding before the train even arrived onto platform 11 so there was heavy congestion on the platform, but when the train only has a 10-minute turnaround there is only so much control can do).  I said farewell to Jules at Clapham Junction (where a lot more passengers alighted) and settled down for the trip via Richmond & Staines to reach Woking where the train had a booked 15-minute dwell to put it onto the path of the 18:20 Waterloo – Exeter train.

I remained on board to Andover, heading to my car to drive home.  An enjoyable day with a walk in the morning (even if I did end up getting wet), but at least the New River path at the Hertford end is complete, leaving the section from Broxbourne to Palmers Green which I suspect will be done next year due to the oncoming of autumn.  A good catchup in the afternoon as well.  More photos can be found on my Flickr Here, thanks for reading :)