A week before the event, we had 21 people signed up. Then the weather forecast came out: rain showers... And even possible thunderstorms in the wider area. On the day, we still had 11 enthusiastic walkers, but two pulled out in the morning, one Northener overslept, and a Southener who was still signed up went to Arsenal instead!

Lily joined us despite being new to GoodGym with just one good deed under her belt so far (welcome Lily, hope to see you at a task soon) and she brought along her daughter. So there were nine of us clutching raincoats, but the rain hardly came,the weather stayed mild with just a couple of brief showers lasting a minute or two. We didn't even get lost, except at the start where we couldn't initially work out how to get onto the river at all.

It went smoothly after that - we stopped briefly at Lee rowing club for refreshments and a comfort break, went past industrial areas, prettier places, the Camden Town Brewery extension, building sites and at one stage were chased along a narrow path by a Super Loop bus!

We completed the whole walk of nearly 18km in less than four and a half hours, finishing at the attractive old market town of Waltham Abbey. We were recommended the Angel pub, where we headed to covered benches at the back of the pub garden, and discussed the merits of salt, vinegar or ketchup on chips.

Then we split up, diverging to Waltham Cross and Theobalds Grove stations, still with plenty of time for evening activities.