I love exploring London well beyond the tourist honey pots in the centre and last weekend I decided to follow the river Wandle from Morden to the Thames. I found out about this trail through reading a book about the rivers of London and then finding a useful website: The Wandle Trail. I didn’t start at the beginning of the trail but decided to walk half of it and took the underground to Morden, the southern end of the Northern line. This meant I had a 7 mile walk and the photographs show some of its wonderful scenery. This walk took about 4 hours (including stops for coffee and lunch) and gave me plenty of time to reflect along the way.
The walk along the Wandle reminded me of a career journey. Certainly, as I have moved along my own career path there have been parts which have been very well sign posted (e.g. I knew what I needed to do to gain promotion or which qualification I needed), there have been other parts where I got lost and took detours until I re-found my path and got moving again. This was certainly my experience along the route of the Wandle where signage varied hugely from being repetitive to the point of almost spoiling the walk through to areas where the signs seemed to disappear. At these points, I had to search for the next sign and this meant minor diversions. This added excitement, uncertainty and a bit of tension to the walk. There were parts of the walk where there was no need for signs – the path was clear and it was just a matter of following it. Walking alongside or near the Wandle meant that I knew I was on track and could enjoy the experience.
As a walk, it was not just the goal i.e. reaching the Thames which was important but also the experiences along the way and these included: a City farm (complete with my favourite hens – Buff Orpingtons); a wonderful complex (Merton Abbey Mills) where the original Liberty factories produced their fabrics with the help of the water mill on the Wandle; seeing many allotments full of vegetables including cheerful looking pumpkins; as well as the river itself. The Wandle is now clean and fast flowing. No fishing signs indicate the presence of fish. I had hoped to see a Kingfisher but perhaps that will happen next time I do this walk. Having completed this part of the Wandle Trail, I am now looking forward to finding time for the Morden to Croyden part of the walk.
