All the union news that's fit to blog...
Off message. Drove back today after a lovely week’s holiday in Cornwall recovering from UNISON conference. I did of course develop the traditional post conference lurgy but it did not spoil the break.
Yesterday Gill and I had the best walk of the week…Read more…
Off message. Last year Gill and I finally finished the London Loop walk (which took us 3 years to complete in stages) but on 10 June we started our next long distance walking challenge, the 82 mile (130 km) Essex Way. Which starts in Epping and fi…Read more…
Off message. Please excuse the “Great Expectations” pun but we went for what turned out to be an unexpectedly lovely walk yesterday near Rochester in Kent. The guide book claimed this was the countryside described by Charles Dickens in “Great Expe…Read more…
Off message, I had my first day on Sunday off from politics and the union for a long time. I downloaded this 8.5 mile circular route from the free website Essexwalks.com and we drove to Clavering near Bishop Stortford in around 45 minutes from Eas…Read more…
Off message but did a fabulous 6.5 mile walk in Essex today (Pathfinder Essex walks). Cold and windy but blue skies and sunshine. Mill Green Common is only about 40 minutes from Forest Gate, East London by car (near Brentwood).
The start of the walk i…Read more…
Picture collage from a lovely walk in North Wales last week. A 7.5 mile circular walk around the Alwen Dam and Denbigh moors. The dam was built in 1911 and flooded an ancient sheep farm valley in order to provide drinking water for Birkenhead in …Read more…
Definitely off message but today Gill and I went for a linear walk from White Notley station to Witham station (Essex). It was a walk in an old booklet I found on my shelf called “Off the Beaten Track – 20 Rambles in Rural Essex” by Great Eastern Railw…Read more…
Off message but a lovely walk today from the People’s Republic to Queen Elizabeth’s Hunting Lodge at Chingford. Highlights are :- Great sky. Fantastic breakfast at the Lakeside Diner. Then got lost. Found way across A406. Had coffee at Higham lake. At …Read more…
Off message but recommend this marvellous recent summer holiday walk, 11k (4 hours-ish) alongside Madeiran Levadas (irrigation water channels) in stunning mountain countryside.
Madeira is an Atlantic Portuguese Island off the coast of Africa and a li…Read more…
Off message but this was a great recovery walk that Gill and I did after the UNISON NDC conference in Brighton last month.
The National Trust car park at Ditchling Beacon is pretty small so either get there early or be patient. There is no cash car pa…Read more…
Off message but over Xmas, Gill and I went on a marvellous walk in North Wales. Tal y fan is the lowest mountain in Snowdonia at 2000ft (610m) and an ideal introduction to climbing mountains. It also follows an ancient Roman road, passes prehistoric mo…Read more…
To confuse matters this walk is posted out of sequence on this blog due to my error. This was the second day of a weekend “London Loop” walk. This is a circuitous 150 mile walk in stages around London which my wife and I started in 2015 and have still …Read more…
On 25 January 2015 I started the London Loop walk, a 150 mile – 15 routes circular walk around London, thinking I would get it done by the end of that year. By end of 2016 I had only done 10 of the 15 “London Loop” walks.
The last one I did in 2016 wa…Read more…
While out walking this No 23 pathfinder 8.5 mile walk in Bedfordshire during the August Bank Holiday weekend, I came across this plaque on a public footpath, which crossed a minor country road(click on photo to bring up details).
This is&nb…Read more…
Off message but last week I was on holiday in the Lake District and went for a superb 8.5 mile walk up and down Place Fell then alongside Ullswater. The weather was unusually kind, warm and sunny (unlike some of the other days – there is a reason why t…Read more…
Off message but another marvellous 10 mile loop walk from last Saturday. Hamsey Green is not easy to get to from East London. Train it to East Croydon then 10 minute walk to 403 bus to Hamsey Green. Used “The London Loop” guide book.
Weather was…Read more…
Last Saturday I posted on a London Loop walk here http://grayee.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/london-loop-walk-section-4-west-wickham.html in rural Croydon, South London.
I was astonished to later find out that a memorial in a Church grave yard in West Wickh…Read more…
Last Saturday I resumed my plan to walk around London along the loop walks after a gap since May. Saturday was better than Sunday since railway and bus links, there and back, are much better. I used the Transport for London (tfl) guide since I couldn’t…Read more…
Off message but this was a lovely 5.5 mile, Essex pathfinder walk only 30 minutes by car from Forest Gate, London. I have been silently suffering for the last week with the “dreaded lurgy” (aka as “Man flu”) so did not feel up to a full Lond…Read more…
The General election is finally over, for good or bad (and I think it is very bad). Yesterday I had my first free Sunday for ages and went off and walked section 3 of the London Loop Walk “Petts Wood to West Wickham”.
The weather was warm and mostly s…Read more…