by Julia Gregory IT S JUST under 1,000 days until the 2012 Olympic Games gets under way. The Olympic site is nearly twice the size of the Italian city if Venice but defin
IT'S JUST under 1,000 days until the 2012 Olympic Games gets under way.
The Olympic site is nearly twice the size of the Italian city if Venice but definitely not as beautiful - at least for now.
But as the site takes shape tour parties are already enjoying the chance to get to learn more about the site and its history.
Starting from Bromley by Bow tube on a Saturday morning the Blue Badge guides from Tour Guides Limited lead walkers on a gentle stroll along the waterways of the East End and to a look out over the Stadium which is fast taking shape.
Security means we're not allowed onto the site itself but this walk takes advantage of the Greenway, a public footpath which passes close by.
Blue Badge guide Jo Hoad is the antidote to any dyed in the wool Olympic cynic.
She is enthusiasm itself with enough facts and figures to fascinate and a real advocate of the planned regeneration the 2012 Games should bring to east London.
"We should be celebrating the Games," she said. "That's what this walk is all about. I don't want to hear anything else."
If you want to know how much water material has been recycled on the Olympic site or how the waterways are being cleaned or what's happening with the new shopping centre at Stratford Jo knows all the details.
Jo can remember exactly where she was on the day that London won the Olympic bid. She was guiding a group of teenagers who were on the last day of their 'another day, another city' European tour and took them to Trafalgar Square for a day they would never forget.
The walk takes in Three Mills Island and the recording studio where Boris Johnson joined rehearsals for the Olympic handover ceremony in Beijing and heads beside the waterway towards Old Ford where salmon smokers Forman found a new home when they had to make way for the Olympic stadium.
*Walks start at 11am every Saturday and Sunday, price �8, www.toursof2012sites.com
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