Free Weekend: Walk To The Countryside (well, Totteridge Fields) (via Kentishtowner):
From the Garden Suburb we picked up the Dollis Valley Green Path, a 10 mile route to Moat Mount Nature Reserve in Mill Hill (with links to the 78 mile Capital Ring, which we walked here), through the bluebells of Big Wood and Little Wood, and on to Mutton Brook and Windsor Open Space.
The clear signs make the route a no-brainer, despite its fiddly weaving together of the various green spaces all connected by the tiny Dollis Brook.
Often no more than a few centimetres deep, it’s a tributary of the River Brent (itself a tributary of the Thames) and a calming presence with bridges, waterfalls, tunnels.
It’s hard not be impressed passing under the vast Victorian viaduct, built in 1863 and, at 60 feet above ground level, the highest point on the London underground, with trains rattling along above the trees. Eventually we turned left off the Route along the muddy hedgerow at Woodside Park Sports Club, so we could cross the ancient hay meadows of Totteridge Fields, a beauty spot of ‘Metropolitan Importance.’ And there we were: hello countryside!
