About a year ago, I had to do a review as part of my work. As is usual these days, I had to set some targets for the year ahead.
At the time, I knew that we would be moving south to Hoddesdon, which is on the River Lea - which goes all the way to London. I decided that one of my targets would be to walk the footpath to London. Not an amazing feat, but a longer walk than I've done for a long time.
So - today was the day. We had planned to do the 21 miles in two days, and today we did 15 miles to Tottenham Hale Station.
15 was enough for today. Tomorrow we catch the train to Tottenham Hale and then walk the rest of the way, past the Olympic Park and to Limehouse Basin where the River Lea meets the Thames.
On the way we saw barges, rowing boats, cyclists, walkers, (many of them with dogs), anglers (all men apart from two women), as well as thousands of swans and geese and ducks.
I noticed that there were numerous men on their own - walking, barge-ing, (?) and cycling. So I decided to put barge-ing in with 'men with sheds' and also river fishermen. Men who just like being on their own.
I wonder if this is (probably this is well known to everyone apart from me) because men are hard wired from an evolutionary point of view to be solitary - hunting, gathering food, looking after sheep and goats etc .... while women were back at home with the children - much more social as a way of life.
Apparently women are more likely to use social media than men, so maybe there's something in it.
