Theydon Bois.

Took a trip out today to the end of the Central line, as its bank holiday monday.  Its not the real end of course, that would have been Ongar but that closed sometime in the nineties, but for arguments sake this means Epping and its forest. 

We got off on the central line at Theydon Bois, (pronounced Boys) a place along with Upminster that I've always wanted to see, and to be honest it didn't disappoint.

Theydon Bois in its near entirety.

I used to think Hornchurch was the first signs that this was the country rather than London, Theydon trumps that.  And then some.  Its a small village transported that feels like its fallen out of middle of Essex and dumped onto the borders of London, and is a real culture shock, as there is nothing much like it on the Kent side (though to be fair they've never extended the tube that far, the bunch of sissies).  There's a Tesco express and a few shops but apart from that its like the country has reclaimed its own. 

Epping forest itself is really nice and busy, I saw plenty of cyclists and dog walkers along with a few picnicers such as ourselves. There was a lot of downed trees mainly Beech but with a fair few Silver Birch as well, also as my mum said a lot of temporary pools too. 

Pool Closed.

We stopped for lunch and I decided to take a few pictures of stuff, they had a Scarce Cardinal Beetle on one of the logs which is about 2cm long.

Pyrochroa Coccinea.

After lunch we made our way out of the woods and headed into Epping, which is a much bigger town it feels a bit like Ealing but much more rural.  They had a market on with various stalls selling stuff and one of the stall owners was lugging round a brown poodle which was endearing (sadly no photo).  They have a nice old church and another building which could be a former church but is now a Ford dealership.

Is that a satellite dish?

Looking around town and we decided to make our way back, and out to the not very well signposted tube station, which like Hornchurch is some way out of town. They had one of those Cancer you Cunt* posters as race for life was coming to the North Weald, and then home.

*Part of the shouty confrontational British Cancer Research campaign to beat cancer.  I.E. you run a bit for cancer research but only if you are a woman.  Seriously I've never seen one for Testicular or Prostrate cancer or for Movember, its as if women only get cancer.