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This Week's Walks - Archive

Please see the Saturday Walker's Club This Week's Walks page.

This is an archive of walks done by the Saturday Walker's Club. You should only need to use this page if the SWC website is down.

Sunday 1 March 2020

Sunday Walk – The Lea Valley from Tottenham Hale to Cheshunt

Part of the Lea Valley Walk – Tottenham Hale to Cheshunt
Length: 14½ km (9 miles). Toughness: 1/10

Take a Victoria line tube to arrive at Tottenham Hale by 11:10 and meet outside by the entrance to the mainline station (since east Londoners might find it more convenient to travel from Liverpool Street, with fast trains at 10:55 and 10:57). Tottenham Hale is in TfL Zone 3.

Cheshunt (in TfL Zone 8) has fast trains back to Liverpool Street via Tottenham Hale at xx:20 & xx:51 and slower ones at xx:29 & xx:59, plus the London Overground service via Seven Sisters at xx:01 & xx:31. If you drop out earlier, the slower mainline trains call at Waltham Cross (Zone 7) and Enfield Lock (Zone 6).

You can use Oyster PAYG or contactless at all these stations but a simple return to Cheshunt might be cheaper, especially with a railcard. A London Freedom Pass is valid on the Overground service but only from Enfield Lock on the mainline trains, not from Cheshunt or Waltham Cross.

A year ago there was quite a good Sunday turnout for the southern part of the Lea Valley Walk, and today's walk gives you a chance to explore another section of the Lee Navigation. Information about the first 12¼ km (from Tottenham Hale to Waltham Cross) can be found on the Lea Valley Walk page on the TfL site, where you can download Sections 1 & 2; they're described in the opposite direction but that shouldn't present any difficulty. The suggested 2¼ km extension through the River Lee Country Park to Cheshunt is simple enough, and will be familiar to anyone who's done the Cheshunt to Broxbourne walk (#311).

If you want a pub lunch there are watering-holes at Ponders End (The Navigation Inn, after 6¾ km) and Enfield Lock (The Greyhound, after 10¼ km). If you press on through the Country Park the suggested tea place is the Terrace Bar & Café in the Lee Valley White Water Centre, which is an interesting place to visit in any event.

As always, remember that there will be no leader for this walk. Please bring the directions (or a map) and be prepared to find your own way if others press on ahead or stop off to look around.
T=LDP.28

2 comments:

Mr M Tiger said...

On a w=dry-sunny-but-cold day, N=14 turned up for this Tfl walk, previously untried by SWC. In a mud-soaked world, this was an inventive choice almost entirely along towpaths. Sadly, though, what the walk lacked in mud it made up for in monotony. Good for boat- spotters and duck spotters I guess – also factory and warehouse-spotters. And puddle-splashers, plenty of puddles.
At last the Greyhound lunch pub hove into view. It didn’t do lunch. It hasn’t done so “since the pool table went” (a comment that was cause for much speculation as the afternoon wore on). The scenery picked up a bit after what would have been lunch. There were even horses and a sign about otters. (No otters mind you, but at least there was a sign). Some went to the White Water centre for an afternoon break. One got slightly lost in the Country Park. But that fortuitous sort of lost that got him to the station before everyone else. No prizes for guessing who that was.

Anonymous said...

One walker, who opted to do the Cheshunt Circular today, bumped into three of the official group in the White Water Centre cafe and persuaded them to finish the walk with a brief meander through the Lee Valley Park.