This week the book display is about fitness, positive health and well-being. As I enter another decade on this earth, I realize this is not necessarily about extreme sport, but finding ways to stay active, both physically and mentally. It needn’t be a big deal – loops of the Bloomsbury streets on a work lunch break can be a very good thing.
A few weeks ago a friend and I went to Ruislip Manor on the Piccadilly Line, and walked mostly via the London Loop route to Stanmore. This walk is essentially a circuit of the periphery of London. A muddy section of forest (there had been a lot of rain the week before) and some messed up navigation (not helped by missing signage in a few places) made the first part of the walk a bit of an endurance exercise, but eventually we came to a good path and the correct route which took us to a view point. Given that we were never too far from housing estates, rail and tube stations, we saw very few people. At one point we passed by a lake surrounded by rhododendrons, yet we were only 50 metres or so from a main road. Beyond the viewpoint, there were houses around an unsurfaced road – yet this village-like scene was only a mile or so before Stanmore Broadway.
For a selection walks in and around London see the following link:
https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/walking/loop-walk
