Epping Forest

My friend John asked if there was anywhere I would like to be driven to that was about 15 minutes from my house, and I came up with, on recommendation from another friend, Epping Forest, specifically Connaught Waters.  While I like the eco-friendliness of walking places, I do appreciate the extra range that a lift in a Range Rover gives one for walking spots. So off we went.

This was a very pleasant walk, albeit it could have been a nicer day. It was grey and decidedly cold (anyone would think it was winter or something...). But they have well "paved" trails which allowed us to enjoy our walk, and once we had escaped the vicinity of the car park, and the accumulation of kids and dogs, it was not too busy. But we were surprised to find the car parks full by 10:30am. Clearly we were not the only ones with this bright idea.

Anyway, the forest walk was well worth doing, even if there were not really much in the way of features to see - no grand views. Just woods. Not called a forest for nothing.

One rather surreal sight were these abandoned stuffed toys stuck in some branches. Some presents didn't survive Christmas long...

Finally we came across Connaught Waters, a decent stretch of water with a lot of wildfowl.

Pochard

Ubiquitous Mallard

It would have been nice to get off the main trails and wander through the woods. Nice, if we hadn't had so much rain recently. Anything off the main paths was a sea of mud, or in many cases, a sea of water.

This should have been a bench. Well it is a bench, but not likely to get much use being now in the middle of a pool.

A rather nice Tufted Duck which I had been pursuing for a while, but being a diving duck it tended to submerge as soon as I had the camera focused. Got him in the end though....

I do like a good bit of moss...

Did I mention it was muddy?

And finally we passed Queen Elizabeth's Hunting Lodge, actually built on the instruction King Henry VIII. Quite nice to come across a building more than 400 years old.