The great landscape painter Samuel Palmer would have loved this beautiful day out in the Darent Valley that he touched with visionary magic in the years 1826 to 1836 in his pictures of its woods and hills turned into an earthly paradise. So it was too for the select band who ventured out on the … Continue reading April 2016 Ramble – A lovely Palmeresque Spring outing
The Thames is always beckoning for these New Year Walks, an easy option if the trains happen to be disrupted by snow or storms. They weren't, but habit grips hard, so for this New Year 2016 ramble we approached the river from Blackheath and Greenwich rather than (as previously) starting riverside and staying there. A … Continue reading January 2016 Ramble – Walking the Meridian Line
It was a glorious day. And a wonderful walk, among the best we have ever had, people said. After a summer and early autumn of chill and downpours, the Last Saturday of September behaved as it normally does, delivering almost perfect Goldilocks walking weather: not too hot and not too cold. Ten old faithfuls (some … Continue reading September 2015 Ramble – A Goldilocks Outing
It was not a prepossessing start. Rain sprinkles and clouds all over the forecast as we set off. As we waited under the canopy at London Bridge station, we wondered if it might not be better to go home at 10am and write a pretext report of the walk and pretend that the pictures did … Continue reading April 2015 Ramble – Greenwoods, Bluebells, Blue Skies
Good things are sometimes there under your nose. As the famous graphito at Paddington Station used to say: "Far Away is Close at Hand". So it proved on the 2015 ORRA New Year Ramble: so unadventurous that it needed no bus train or tube for most of us to reach the starting point: the Regents … Continue reading January 2015 Ramble – On The Towpath
A select few gathered at Victoria station on Saturday 27th September to set off to Dorking for the final ORRA walk of the year along part of the Mole Valley and the Greensand way at the foot of Box Hill. The going was pretty level at the start and although cloudy, it was a warm and … Continue reading September 2014 Ramble – Mole Valley
Never before have we embarked on a walk with no pub in the middle; that lack of respite and sustenance may have deterred some of the more faithful usual Ramblers. Others were still lingering abroad after Easter or otherwise disengaged. But – undeterred by a gloomy previous day and an uninspiring weather forecast – a … Continue reading April 2014 Ramble – A Very Stylish Ramble
