The Walk that Never Was

Venue - that should have been - Dulwich Park & Crystal Palace Park

Walkers - that should have been - Farty, TB, Miss Windy Nohills and Mrs P



Farty had arranged another Urban PP for our delight - this time a journey to East Croydon, onwards to Penge West and a perambulation around Dulwich and Crystal Palace Parks.  Excellent, we thought! Somewhere different, no mud, weather forecast good - all recovered from our attacks of the lurg - what could go wrong go wrong go wrong?

The day dawned not so bright and clear, overcast and rather chilly.  Never mind, suitably wrapped up Miss Nohills and Mrs P drove into Uckfield, parked the car and walked down to the train station in plenty of time to catch the 09.34 Uckfield Express.  Arriving on the platform Windy (who had been somewhat quieter than usual) decided that she really wasn't feeling at all well and that getting on the train for a day's walk was just a step (sorry!) too far .... so I packed her off home with instructions to have a duvet day instead.  Get well soon Windy, hope you've not got what Farty, TB and I have had.

Has anyone seen the Uckfield Express?

So, that just left yours truly to carry on & be the sole representative from the Provinces.  I went to the ticket office and had a long and involved conversation with the ticket lady about the best and cheapest way to get to Penge West - clearly more complicated than I had realised!  The queue behind me grew .... I put my card into the machine as she said to me "The coach is outside".  The coach? I gasped, what coach?:  at that point everyone behind me in the queue repeated parrot fashion "Coach, what coach?"  The Uckfield Express had morphed into the National Express!  And the coach was heading for Haywards Heath - via Buxted and Crowborough - which may not mean much to you chaps who don't have the pleasure of living deep in the provinces! but I reckon it would have taken until almost lunchtime to reach Haywards Heath let alone East Croydon!

I don't think so thank you very much!

Someone somewhere was trying to tell us something.  Having dragged Mon out of the shower and leaving TB luxuriating in the bath (with or without pussy??), we decided to call it a day as far as the Provincials were concerned.  After some debate between M&M, they made the decision to forget Dulwich for the time being and head for Highgate instead.  And, yes, you guessed, all their trains were delayed due to congestion! so they were last seen heading for buses ..... and most likely a pub!

The rare and elusive Lesser Spotted Orange Nosed Uckfield Express - on a sunnier day!

We will try to reconvene next week - trains permitting!  venue TBA!

Have a good week one and all!