17/7/13
Section 20 - Chigwell to Havering-atte-Bower
Section 21 - Havering-atte-Bower to Harold Wood
Section 22 - Harold Wood to Upminster Bridge
6 miles, 4.3 miles and 4 miles
total 14.3 miles
A very, very hot day, even with all the water I carried with me I still stopped off to buy more to ensure I didn't run out.
One of the problems with the Loop is finding somewhere to go for a pee as, while I often saw no one for a long time, it never feels completely safe just to nip behind a tree. With it being so hot today this was never a problem however much I drank.
Section 20
With all the rain earlier in the year and now the sun the nettles and brambles have run riot. This is a national trail but here was the path at the start of todays section.
It is not only the weeds that are doing well, the crops look like they are catching up too.
Towards the end of this section I walked for a while with the first person I've met who was also doing the Loop. He started in April as training for the Coast to Coast in August. It was nice to chat for a while and then we went our separate ways.
Section 21
This is called the round house and, though it looks like an old water tower, I think it was built to be a home.
These iron gateposts are all that is left of Pyrgo House where Henry VIIIs daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, grew up together.
At the end of this section there is a choice of either throwing yourself over the dual carriage way or walking 0.5 km to a crossing and then 0.5 km back up the other side of the road. I lived to complete the walk!
Section 22
This section goes through Pages Wood which is an entirely new wood of 100,000 trees planted in 2001. I suppose with time it will look more natural but at the moment it is like a wall of trees with very wide paths round them.
There was quite a lot of road walking in the middle of this section but it is amazing the number of times the Loop takes you down a tiny path between 2 suburban houses and you end up in woodland.