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Pam Raises Awareness on the London Loop Walk

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Category: Awareness

Published on Thursday, 16 September 2010 09:12

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The walking on day 3 was very similar to the previous day, but this time the awareness venue was at the Wellbeing Centre in Selsdon, where we were made very welcome.

On day 4 more beautiful countryside walking to the Good Companions pub at Hamsey Green, where information was left at almost every shop in the village and I meet two people who knew someone with fibromyalgia.

Day 5 was a day of many pavements and not so much countryside, but lovely sunny weather. The highlights were smelling lavender while walking through a field of horses then climbing a stile into the lavender field and the lovely Oaks Park with its scrumptious cakes at the cafe and brilliantly colourful gardens.

Day 6 followed the Hogsmill River the whole way from West Ewell to Kingston, so not much road walking. I saw a kingfisher, heron and grey wagtail within the first 10 minutes of walking.  On reaching Kingston centre the river was full of fish, some of them quite large.

The awareness at Shakeaway in Kingston was quite busy, with one teenager wondering whether her brother had fibromyalgia.  The double banana milkshake they gave me was delicious as well.  Thank you.

For the start of day 7 I could walk to Crane Park as this was the nearest to home and was where my first encounter with the London Loop took place.  The route followed the River Crane even when it left the park and even though it changed its name in places.  A kingfisher swooped ahead of me for a while and I startled a heron who hadn’t heard me coming above the noise of the planes from Heathrow.  There was the mixture of large open spaces like Hounslow Heath and Cranford Park with narrow sections of woodland next to the river running through industrial areas.

On day 8 the walk followed the Grand Union Canal, which was very busy with narrow boats and several large marinas. The most interesting place was the old mill house where the river flowed under the house as it did when it turned the mill wheel. Awareness in the busy Uxbridge town centre was done by asking the shops to display leaflets as we could not find anywhere that would let us set up a display stand.