It took us about 1 hour to get to Grove Park (bus to Stratford since Lizzie line down, change Jubilee to London Bridge then over head to Grove Park). Route is 7.7 miles with extra 0.5 miles from station to start.
The walk was mostly going through London suburbia but there were a number of parks and greenways. Highlight was Beckenham Place Park which had ancient forests and trails, wide open spaces and is a wonderful green lung for London. I enjoyed there a tasty (but somewhat pricey) egg, bacon and tomato roll with coffee.
The weather was quite warm for the time of year (quite a few people in shorts and even tee-shirts) but it was overcast and we were lucky it didn't rain. The early spring blossom and flowers were marvellous and a reminder of the good things to come.
It is a fairly long section of the ring walk but mostly flat with some up and downs. Lots of noisy Ring-necked Parakeets and squabbling grey squirrels.
In another park Gill chatted to a family about their naughty dog, which refused to respond to their repeated calls to return to them, instead enjoying drinking out of a very muddy puddle. She afterwards recognised him as the actor, Paul Ready, from the sitcom "Motherland" (Kevin).
At the end of the walk in the historic Crystal Palace, the kids seem to enjoy the victorian statues of dinosaurs. Despite being on the "at risk" register of English Heritage they seemed to be in fairly good condition considering they are around 170 years old.
The walk finished at the station and we took a similar trip back and are looking forward to our next leg, Crystal Palace to Streatham.
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