Author: Fergy.

Hello there and welcome to my blog which is the last attempt of a retiree and child of the 50's to overcome advanced technophobia and create a memoir of my rambles having had three commercial travel blog sites pulled from under me in just over a year. A learning curve like Everest! I am rapidly approaching a senior citizen bus pass and realistically I have more days independent travelling behind me than before so I intend to "do it while I still can" and am trying to cram in as much as I can now. Apart from travelling, I love playing music (guitar, vocals and a bit of percussion) as the profile pic suggests and sport, although my active participation is now restricted to the very occasional game of pool. I read voraciously, probably a legacy from my dear late Mother who was a librarian and encouraged me towards books from an early age. I'll read just about anything although I do have a particular interest in military history of all periods. I live alone in fairly central London where I have been for over 30 years since leaving Northern Ireland which was the place of my birth, youth and early manhood. Partially by necessity although more by love of the art I adore cooking and I can and do read recipe books and watch food programmes on TV / online all day. Nothing fancy and none of your nouvelle cuisine nonsense, just hopefully tasty, proper food. To my knowledge, I have not poisoned anyone yet! No doubt other little personal facts about me will emerge during the course of my writings here so stay tuned if you are at all interested.

Lock-down Diaries #1

What’s all this about?

Hello there and welcome to a post which is probably going to make me hate myself, I just hope it doesn’t have the same effect on you.  By way of keeping  the site tidy, I am going to put a read more link here so please do as I am going to try something completely new.

Continue reading “Lock-down Diaries #1”

Building works, Beckton and a bloody bad back – Jubilee Greenway 7.

Hello once again and welcome to a somewhat ridiculous seventh day of walking the Jubilee Greenway which, considering it is only 35 miles long is pretty poor going but it was only ever intended as a means of getting a bit of exercise whilst I was fairly well grounded due to a succession of hospital appointments. If you haven’t read my previous posts about this jaunt then you may wish to start here. If you have read them, I thank you and let’s go for another walk.
Continue reading “Building works, Beckton and a bloody bad back – Jubilee Greenway 7.”

Drunken Tsars, alder carrs and shut down bars – Jubilee Greenway 6.

Hello again and welcome to the sixth day of my walk along the Jubilee Greenway in London and when I say that you can probably see the problem already if you know about that particular designated footpath.

The Greenway is 60 km. long (35 miles in proper Imperial measurement) and was designed thus to celebrate Her Majesty the Queen’s 60th year on the throne in 2012.  Starting at Limehouse Basin and working anti-clockwise I had still only managed to get as far as Surrey Docks (now renamed Surrey Quays) in Rotherhithe which was probably two thirds of the total distance and there is simply no way it should have taken five days to achieve that modest distance.

My problem as that on the previous two days I had been “cut off in full flow” by my treacherous knees, hitherto very robust, which had now decided to make their presence felt in a very uncomfortable manner. I was probably taking a bit of a risk as it was only the next day but the perfidious patellae felt OK so I decided to chance it and if you want to join me, let’s go for a walk.
Continue reading “Drunken Tsars, alder carrs and shut down bars – Jubilee Greenway 6.”

Roaming in Rotherhithe – Jubilee Greenway 5.

Welcome once again to the fifth day of my walk round the Jubilee Greenway in London. If you have not read the previous entries then you can start here. You will remember that my last day’s walking had been prematurely curtailed at Rotherhithe when my ageing knees had decided to play up after a fascinating day where I had walked from Westminster along the South Bank. Six days later and with my old bones suitably rested I was back at Rotherhithe Tube Station and ready for another day of discovery along this interesting route. If you’d like to join me, let’s go.
Continue reading “Roaming in Rotherhithe – Jubilee Greenway 5.”

Suffragettes and spooks, Shakespeare and ships – Jubilee Greenway 4.

Hello again and welcome to the fourth instalment of my walk along the Jubilee Greenway , a 60km. footpath in London which was constructed from existing rights of way to celebrate Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012 even if it was hijacked by being linked to the London Olympics of that year. If you haven’t read my previous entries, you can start here.
Continue reading “Suffragettes and spooks, Shakespeare and ships – Jubilee Greenway 4.”

London’s green lung – Jubilee Greenway 3.

Good day to you and welcome to the third day of my walk along the Jubilee Greenway in reasonably central London which I had come upon more or less by accident on Day 1, managed to wander off on an interesting diversion on Day 2 and had determined myself to regain and continue on Day 3.
Continue reading “London’s green lung – Jubilee Greenway 3.”

Greenway or Grand Union ? – Jubilee Greenway 2.

Hello again and welcome to the second day of a walk I undertook in early January 2020 which began in the previous entry and, if you have not read it yet, I respectfully suggest that you click back one page (use the button at the bottom of the page) as it will give you an idea of what I was at plus which I could use the traffic for the site! Continue reading “Greenway or Grand Union ? – Jubilee Greenway 2.”

A Saturday stroll goes large – Jubilee Greenway 1.

It all started with a bit of a Saturday stroll and by the time the light was fading on an early January afternoon it had metamorphosed into a new project. As with so many of my little excursions it was unplanned but that is the way I like to do things. Let me tell you about it. Continue reading “A Saturday stroll goes large – Jubilee Greenway 1.”

The only Way is Essex – the slightly easier way.

I do hope you have come to this page by way of the previous entry where I walked the first section of the Essex Way from Epping to Ongar, or rather I didn’t exactly walk it. I had set out to do so, become completely lost before I had walked 50 yards, trespassed on private land and a railway line and nearly got killed on an unlit busy A road. There you are, you don’t need to read it now but I do hope you do if you haven’t already as it is an object lesson in how not to undertake a hike. This entry is not exactly textbook rambling but it is a whole lot better than the previous effort. Continue reading “The only Way is Essex – the slightly easier way.”

The only Way is Essex – the hard way.

Hello again and welcome back or a fresh welcome to you if you have not read any of my pages before.

In the last couple of entries I walked the Wandle Trail which follows the course of the river of that name in South London from Wandsworth, where it empties into the Thames, to one of it’s two sources at the rather picturesque Carshalton Ponds. It is a distance of about nine or ten miles (depending on which website you read) and had taken me two days which doesn’t sound like much and indeed it isn’t compared to the distances I did in my youth. Without wishing to bore my regular readers, the brief story is that I had been hospitalised in the latter part of 2019 and the medicos had told me to take plenty of exercise.

Due to a bad back and various other factors, the most telling of which is advancing old age, a lot of forms of strenuous physical activity are out and so I decided to do a lot of walking which I love and had done regularly anyway. I was on the hunt for other delineated paths to tackle and found the Essex Way, an 81 mile way-marked long-distance footpath which runs from Epping on the outskirts of London to Harwich on the coast. Continue reading “The only Way is Essex – the hard way.”