It is said that some plants and trees give off volatile organic compounds (phytoncides) that protect them against attacking organisms such as bacteria or fungi. And that “after only a short amount of time in the arbour of a forest, stress levels are reduced. Walking among trees decreases the body’s stress response, which in turn lowers your levels of cortisol, the stress hormone. As a result, you feel calmer.” Well it worked! The group was very calm and friendly, walking through the autumn leaves and looking out for fungi.

I chose the date because I hoped the autumn colours would be at their best but, as we had had very little rain in the months leading up to the walk, I was thinking the leaves might have fallen by the time we got there. However we were not disappointed. There were some green leaves left on the trees but lots of yellow and orange leaves in a thick layer over the forest floor, often covering the fungi which were trying to pop up. Our eagle-eyed companions spotted many, especially small dark red/brown toadstools which peeped out from under the leaves. We roamed off the path amongst the trees to see if we could spot more fungi. Sadly we didn’t encounter the Fly Agaric fungus we had come across on the walkover!

There were not too many other people trampling the forest floor but, when we got to High Beach kiosk, hoping to buy refreshment, we coincided with a group of younger people 100-strong who had come up from Enfield Lock with Meet Up. The queue for drinks and sandwiches was rather daunting. We chatted to one of the participants in the queue and she scanned our QR code leading to our website in case she wanted to join one of our walks or even the club in the future! If anyone wants one of the visiting cards which Stuart and Gillian organised a while ago, which contain the QR code, to be scanned by potential walkers as Lan suggested, just let me know! We sat at a bench in relative calm and inbetween showers fortunately, to eat our picnics, before setting off again down through the trees towards Chingford but turning off back through the forest stopping at Strawberry Hill pond to throw bird seed to the mallards and mandarin ducks. Then on down to Loughton to round off the walk with tea and cake in the Wagon Boulangerie. A very pleasant autumnal day!

Additional notes: I haven’t found any information about the public hangings that were said to take place in the forest hundreds of years ago but sadly there is mention of other dubious goings-on in more recent times and not just the deeds of Dick Turpin and his like.

On the other hand I was interested to learn that when the residents of Loughton were forbidden by the Epping Forest Act of 1878 to carry on lopping trees for firewood or building (houses or ships) as they had been doing for centuries and the forest was thereafter managed by the City of London Corporation for general public enjoyment, a payment was made to the community of Loughton funding the construction of a building for the use of the community, called The Lopping Hall which we have been walking past for years on our way from the station to the forest without realising its history. I will save the arguments about the pros and cons of stopping lopping for another time!

Pam.  Photos by Julia, Nita, Joyanna, Maggie