Going to see the Dinosaurs

Wednesday I finally got out on my long run. It was supposed to be Sunday… but well, these things happen. And I did do a short run then… I also have to admit that it involved very little running. Something that I’d planned as I knew I’d planned far too many distractions along the way, and the speed I go it doesn’t make a massive amount of difference! Anyway, I headed off for an adventure down South.

I know my patch is more North East London, but I’d decided to go and explore the South East a bit. I’d been promised bright sunny weather, but the threatening clouds hadn’t heard that. Sun only broke out occasionally, it was cold, and the pictures I took are not as good as I’d hoped to get. Never mind. I started off in Brixton, where I used to live years ago. It looked pretty much as I remembered it to be honest! From there I headed through Brockwell Park, and into the unknown. To think, when I lived there I hardly ventured out except to head North!

Dulwich turned out to be surprisingly pretty and posh. I cancelled my visit to the Picture Gallery though as they expected £5 to look at even their permanent collection and it didn’t appeal enough to me. Past Dulwich Park I took an unplanned diversion up Cox’s Walk to Dulwich Wood, then had to turn back to my next stop... The Horniman Museum and Gardens was even more distracting than expected. It’s an excellent museum, and I had a hard time pushing myself through in even twice the time I’d planned!

Then it was on over the hill to Crystal Palace. By the time I reached the top of that park it was heading towards dusk, the road was crammed with speeding cars tooting horns at each other, and there was no sign of a crossing. It took a while to get over, and then I had to decide which way to go to try for an entrance to the park. I decided to walk down past the transmitter, and eventually found a way into the North side of the park. There were no signs with maps, so I wandered along the top until I came to the North West entrance, where there were a few formal beds. Still no sign. I wandered down, taking in the terraces, great sweeps of lawn and sphinxes. All fenced in as they are dangerous till renovated. Still no signs. I was of course looking for the dinosaurs, but when I asked locals they seemed a bit vague. I was directed back to the corner where I’d first met the park boundary and told to turn right… Past a fence, I guess marking the parts of the park under renovation, with signs on about events, but no sign with a map… Onwards and ever onwards I was directed. Down and down (knowing at some point I’d have to come back up…). Past a weird windowless building thing in a lake (I eventually worked out it was a stage). I explored a maze (nice, though the branches were bare at this time of year), and on to the bottom of the park. At which point I realised I was going too far and trekked back across the corner of a open grass bit that turned out to be a near swamp. Finally I found myself facing a fenced area with lakes. And there was a map! I walked on… and on… those lakes seemed to go on for ever.

At last I found the dinosaurs… There were a lot more of them than I remembered (visited once as a small child…), and not just dinosaurs as well. There’s ancient early mammals as well. I also remember them being half hidden in vegetation, and being able to go up and touch and climb on them. Today they are, of course, fenced off. Still they are, as a group, impressive and a lot of fun. They’ve got good signage up too, with comparisons of the inaccurate way they were made, compared with modern versions. To be honest, on a one against one basis I think I prefer the Stonebridge Park serpent. But as a group they are well worth seeing.

I paused only to use the loos (graffitied, scrawl, not art), decided to give the information centre a miss and walked out. Past another sign I think. There were signs with maps all over the place down there… it’s almost like the guys who put the signs up had said to each other ‘look, let’s not bother climbing that hill, no-one will notice…’ and put all the signs down the bottom. Rather like those leafletters who leave leaflets all over the floor of the entrance of a block of flats thinking their boss will never know they haven’t delivered them properly.

Meanwhile, I headed off up the streets round the park and back up the hill… bloomin eckers it was steep. Then I decided I didn’t fancy walking back to Brixton and walked and ran to Clapham instead. Rush hour was in full flood, and you could feel the frustration like a dark miasma coming off the cars. Moments like that I’m so glad to be on foot. It was going dark as I walked along the crest of the hill. There were great views out over London, and the sky was a mass of steel blue and red. I tried to take a picture, but got the red light of a full card. Sunset pics rarely come out well anyway. After that it was a long slog on protesting legs (sometimes meandering slowly is harder on them than a fast run, and they were feeling my long day). It was gone 9pm by the time I got home.

I have now got a massive job writing reviews for Qype and editing all the pictures. I’ve been editing pics 2 hours already and a tonne to go… I’ll add the links and pictures in here later. Might actually get round to measuring my distance travelled at some point too, as I currently have no idea!