Section 14: Moor Park to Hatch End

 This section was very short so I decided to do it in an afternoon.  To be fair it was probably the quietest and most uneventful of all the LOOP walks so far.   No getting lost, no historical houses, no crossing busy roads. It was all mostly a huge golf course at the beginning followed by ancient woodlands and ending with a horse riding school.  Right from the start  I barely saw a soul.  This amazes me about these walks as I'm stuck in the middle of high density outer London.  This time sandwiched between Pinner and Watford.

Yellow blob was my afternoon walk

Here is the route on my new OS map subscription on my phone. I love this new app. I have access to every OS map in the country. I can snap my walk to any path, check the length, see the elevation and track myself so I can't get lost!

The blue line is the walk.

As this walk was about 5 miles(one of the shortest) I did it in one afternoon. Leaving Moor Park (the only london underground within a private gated housing estate) I was straight away in the woods running parallel to the Metropolitan Line

The route outside Moor Park Station

Walking next to the metropolitan line

Typical over signage. London Loop in three directions is very confusing.

Starting the walk and hoping the rain would stay away. Which it did.

Then I entered a huge golf course.

I had to be so careful as I walked through this golf course. It was a work day but hey these guys don't work, this course was PACKED with middle aged guys whacking their balls. I felt like a walking target but luckily I got through without being knocked out.  The website for the golf course...how the 2% live!

Sandy Lodge Golf Course

Into Oxhey Woods

Not a soul in these woods.  Not even dog walkers. It was a a bit creepy. I expected an elf, pixie or tree spirit to appear at any moment.  When I'm walking through woods it's the supernatural that freaks me out far more than bumping into humans! In fact meeting another human would have been a welcome relief. 

On the Oxhey  Woods website they say

Some parts of the woods

 are ancient woodland, having been continuously wooded for at least four hundred years, and possibly up to ten thousand years.

That's hell of an old wood!

Happy to be out of Oxhey Woods

Oxhey Woods

The ancient woods

To be honest, the woods were lovely. It is amazing that they haven't been destroyed. An oasis sandwiched between Pinner and Watford.

Soon I was in horse lover land.  Lots of horses and horse shit and horse smells. I was lucky it was dry as I'm sure this part of the walk would be a total shit, mud fest in wet weather. 

Found this poster informative.

I then passed by the gated carriage way to Pinnerwood house.  It's currently for sale.  Savills doesn't say how much it is being sold for but hey, what's money?!

Pinnerwood House

Looking back at the woods I had travelled through.

I then ended up in Hatch End town centre.  The pub there looked a bit unwelcoming so I went straight to the overground station..it was cute

Hatch End Station

The line through Hatch End  is named after the England Women's football team

I decided to get off the train in Queen's Park just because I had never been to that part of London before.  I liked it.  I went to a great little craft brewery place which was jammed (Beer was great) and found a fab looking Malaysian restaurant which was empty as it had only just opened for the evening.   I might go back again.  Queen's Park is only a short distance up from Marylebone on the Bakerloo line.  That's what I really like about this walk, investigating random new places.     Sudu Malaysian restaurant review.

I think my travelling was longer than my walking today. Next time I'll make up for it. It's a longer one.