Cycling: Southwest to Richmond Park

Just got back from a ride out to Richmond Park, via Fulham and Putney on the way there, and Hammersmith and Notting Hill on the way back. The weather’s been excellent all week — so warm, so nearly-summery. I’ve been making sure to spend every lunch hour in the park near work, but I saw the forecast for Saturday, and decided something must be done. (Being home alone with nothing else to do all weekend also helped force a decision.)

The weather looked a bit dodgy in the morning, but by 1pm the sun was out fairly frequently, and it got sunnier from there. I tried to use my London Cycle map, but that thing’s pretty big, and requires folding and unfolding (and stopping), so I just did my usual “point in the right direction” style of navigation (plus a few stops to look at the map; more for reassurance than anything else).

I was intending to go down to Bayswater Road, and west from there, then make my way along the bike path next to Holland Park. I didn’t get there, so I sort of ended up on Kensington High Street, and turned south from there. A few random turns later, I was at West Brompton tube; a bit after that I was on the highly trafficed North End Road, where they also seemed to have a market (with the stalls pretty much a meter from passing buses) — so that was pretty slow going. Then I went down past Fulham Broadway, Walham Green, Parsons Green (where the work Christmas dinner was), down New Kings Road, and across Putney Bridge.

From there I headed up to the London Wetlands Centre — the embankment seemed to be taken up by some sort of running event; not quite sure what it was. Then I sort of headed west along a bike path, then followed the random National Cycle Network signs to Richmond Park (it was actually pretty well signposted). (Other than that, I have no idea how I got there…) One of the slower parts of the trip was waiting for two railway level crossings (within 200m of each other). While waiting there for a total of about ten minutes, I chatted to a couple of other cyclists (Richmond Park seems to attract a lot of them!)

When I got to Richmond Park, I stuck mainly to the dirt shared cycle/pedestrian path. It’s good that there’s a park in London that actually lets cyclists in — on more than just the roads. I was pretty happy to be able to wander off into the countryside, although a couple of times I managed to make it onto non-cyclist paths (and I was really trying to look out for the signs!) There were a few people really speeding about, which I thought was a bit ridiculous. (There were also a few mountain bikers wandering off into the countryside; it looked fun, but it’s not allowed. So I guess that’s something I won’t be doing…)

After seeing all the “Warning Deer” signs (but no deer), I was starting to wonder if they actually existed. Well, they did — a couple of herds (or whatever you call a collection of deer) were wandering about, I got a few photos:

After that I helped a guy who’s bike chain was stuffed, and headed out of the park. At the level crossing I ran into the same cyclists I’d seen before; I ended up following them back into the city — they were heading a different way, which I thought might be interesting. So I ended up in Hammersmith; then despite some very good directions, managed to get slightly lost, and end up in Notting Hill. Which didn’t matter too much — at least it’s pretty close to home, and I knew the way.

So all in all, an excellent afternoon out on the bike! (It’s fun to do something other than commuting…)