Get Walking Day goes East

Get Walking’s East London team did their bit on Ramblers’s Get Walking Day on Sunday 23 May.

 As 11am drew nearer, the crowd gathering by the sparkling lake in Victoria Park grew larger and the sun grew hotter… After a stroll through the park, with Get Walking’s David and John at the helm, we snaked our way along Regent’s Canal, causing one or two long bicycle-jams, but everyone was very good-natured…we think… We then headed for the 2012 Olympic area, which surpassed our expectations, with amazing views of the stadium and the rest of the site. The hottest day of the year, we’d definitely earned a break at the new Olympic café, before making the return journey. I confess, at this point, I became a true lightweight and sneaked of to get cool, leaving everyone else to enjoy the walk back!

It wasn’t just a walk – it was a Visual Poetry event too! Local artist, Charlotte Mew got us all to tie tags to objects of interest along the way so they could be photographed and later developed into a story. I caught up with a young mum and her son, George, who was so captivated that he used all my tags as well as his own and his mum’s!  It was clear that as well as enjoying the walk, everyone was spotting things they wouldn’t normally notice, from bizarre signs and beautiful flowers to graffiti and weird sculptures.

We are pretty sure we have tempted at least 60 people in East London to discover the joys and benefits of walking!

Jeanette Cole, Communications Officer

Posted: Tuesday, June 1st, 2010 at 10:28 am, filed under East London Blog, Featured News, News.
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