The London Loop

[Amarillo]

Unable to tour in our Cali, I've started a tour on foot - the London Loop.

London has three waymarked orbital footpaths.

• The Jubilee Greenway
  A 60 Km (38 mile) footpath and cycle route around central, east and southeast London
  It can be completed by bike in a single day
  It can be completed as a figure of eight, crossing the Thames as the Woolwich Foot Tunnel or Woolwich ferry, the Hilton to Canary Wharf Ferry and Westminster Bridge
  
• The Capital Ring
  A 126 Km (78 mile) footpath, more or less following the boundary between inner and outer London and the route of the North and South Circular Roads.
  I completed the circuit over six consecutive Mondays in February and March 2012. If I recall correctly it rained relentlessly during that period.
  It connects urban parks, playing fields and cemeteries via residential streets, canal and river tow paths and alongside rail lines.
  
• The London Loop
  A 242 Km (150 mile) footpath through London's Green Belt, I think wholly within the M25, but with forays out of London.
  It is not a complete loop as it is impossible to cross the Thames as a pedestrian at its start and finish point (cyclists are transported free of charge across the Thames at the bridge or tunnel at Dartford by the Highways Agency).
  
  

So, with lockdown permitting unlimited exercise, but wilderness areas of Britain too far to travel for a useful day trip, I resolved to start the London Loop.
Leaving home just before 9am, I walked to the local railway station and took a nearly empty 10 carriage train to the start point at Erith. The walk didn't start well. On leaving the station I saw a helpful waymark directing me up the hill. It took me about 500 yards to realise that some waggish chap had moved the lamp post pointer to send me in the wrong direction. The sort of thing I can imagine I might have done on a drunken night out several decades ago, and an issue I should have remembered from the Capital Ring eight years ago.

Once on the right track, I found myself on the Erith riverside. Erith is not the most attractive of places: scrap metal merchants and waste sorting depots, with a backdrop of the Queen Elizabeth II bridge.

As I left the town, tarmac footpath soon gave way to gravel track, and apart from cormorants and shags on posts in the mud I was alone on the levee along the Thames.

At Dartford Creek I left the Thames, following the River Darent for a short distance to the confluence with the River Cray. Settlements upstream of both tributaries are protected from tidal flooding by the Dartford Creek Barrier. I followed the River Cray as it meandered through the centre of Crayford, shielding me from most of the town, and into the beautiful Hall Palace Park and Gardens. After the park, my route took me up to the A2, alongside the A2, then down again and under alongside the railway line.

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

goo.gl

Across some brownfield wasteland, back to the River Cray and into Old Bexley and the first stage of the London Loop was done. I wasn't.

At the beginning of Stage 2 I got lost again. Again by a misdirection of the waymarks - I really don't learn very quickly. Next time I must remember my map and to bring my glasses rather than rely on the waymarkers. I probably wasted 30 minutes trying to find the right route, and in the end I decided to trot along the main road to Footscray Meadows, or Five Arches as it is known locally. The meadows were heaving with families splashing about in the river, and alarmingly several different families mingling as one group. Throughout the lockdown, we have been absolutely meticulous about maintaining distance from our friends, family and neighbours. There is no likelihood that a group of four women in their 30s and seven children can be from one household. Hey ho!

From Footscray Meadows, into Sidcup and past the Coca Cola bottling plant, made famous for its copying Del Boy and bottling tap water then marketing it as "pure water".

However, it's the most popular bottled water in the US.

Across the A20, and into Scadbury Park, a place I regularly walk with the boys and Meg. I took the bus home at 3.30 from the Chislehurst side of Scadbury Park.

About 22 Km (14 miles).

 

[kurienp]

Very informative Tom. Thank you for sharing. Is it possible to do all three on cycle?

Looking forward to the next instalment.

 

[Wongo]

Unable to tour in our Cali, I've started a tour on foot - the London Loop.

London has three waymarked orbital footpaths.

• The Jubilee Greenway
  A 60 Km (38 mile) footpath and cycle route around central, east and southeast London
  It can be completed by bike in a single day
  It can be completed as a figure of eight, crossing the Thames as the Woolwich Foot Tunnel or Woolwich ferry, the Hilton to Canary Wharf Ferry and Westminster Bridge
  View attachment 59926
• The Capital Ring
  A 126 Km (78 mile) footpath, more or less following the boundary between inner and outer London and the route of the North and South Circular Roads.
  I completed the circuit over six consecutive Mondays in February and March 2012. If I recall correctly it rained relentlessly during that period.
  It connects urban parks, playing fields and cemeteries via residential streets, canal and river tow paths and alongside rail lines.
  View attachment 59927
• The London Loop
  A 242 Km (150 mile) footpath through London's Green Belt, I think wholly within the M25, but with forays out of London.
  It is not a complete loop as it is impossible to cross the Thames as a pedestrian at its start and finish point (cyclists are transported free of charge across the Thames at the bridge or tunnel at Dartford by the Highways Agency).
  
  View attachment 59928

So, with lockdown permitting unlimited exercise, but wilderness areas of Britain too far to travel for a useful day trip, I resolved to start the London Loop.
Leaving home just before 9am, I walked to the local railway station and took a nearly empty 10 carriage train to the start point at Erith. The walk didn't start well. On leaving the station I saw a helpful waymark directing me up the hill. It took me about 500 yards to realise that some waggish chap had moved the lamp post pointer to send me in the wrong direction. The sort of thing I can imagine I might have done on a drunken night out several decades ago, and an issue I should have remembered from the Capital Ring eight years ago.

Once on the right track, I found myself on the Erith riverside. Erith is not the most attractive of places: scrap metal merchants and waste sorting depots, with a backdrop of the Queen Elizabeth II bridge.
View attachment 59929
As I left the town, tarmac footpath soon gave way to gravel track, and apart from cormorants and shags on posts in the mud I was alone on the levee along the Thames.

At Dartford Creek I left the Thames, following the River Darent for a short distance to the confluence with the River Cray. Settlements upstream of both tributaries are protected from tidal flooding by the Dartford Creek Barrier. I followed the River Cray as it meandered through the centre of Crayford, shielding me from most of the town, and into the beautiful Hall Palace Park and Gardens. After the park, my route took me up to the A2, alongside the A2, then down again and under alongside the railway line.

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

goo.gl

Across some brownfield wasteland, back to the River Cray and into Old Bexley and the first stage of the London Loop was done. I wasn't.

At the beginning of Stage 2 I got lost again. Again by a misdirection of the waymarks - I really don't learn very quickly. Next time I must remember my map and to bring my glasses rather than rely on the waymarkers. I probably wasted 30 minutes trying to find the right route, and in the end I decided to trot along the main road to Footscray Meadows, or Five Arches as it is known locally. The meadows were heaving with families splashing about in the river, and alarmingly several different families mingling as one group. Throughout the lockdown, we have been absolutely meticulous about maintaining distance from our friends, family and neighbours. There is no likelihood that a group of four women in their 30s and seven children can be from one household. Hey ho!

From Footscray Meadows, into Sidcup and past the Coca Cola bottling plant, made famous for its copying Del Boy and bottling tap water then marketing it as "pure water".
View attachment 59931
However, it's the most popular bottled water in the US.

Across the A20, and into Scadbury Park, a place I regularly walk with the boys and Meg. I took the bus home at 3.30 from the Chislehurst side of Scadbury Park.

About 22 Km (14 miles).

You might be wrong about the family grouo, big traveller community down there.

Great post, please keep them coming, the Capital Ring is much less frequented than the London Loop so take secatuers!

 

[Amarillo]

Very informative Tom. Thank you for sharing. Is it possible to do all three on cycle?

Looking forward to the next instalment.

Only the Jubilee Greenway is planned as a cycle route.

The Capital Ring and London Loop are walking trails using open land, footpaths, bridleways, byways and roads. They could be cycled, but there are kissing gates and stiles to negotiate. The initial section along the Thames and Dartford Creek that I walked yesterday was also designated NCR1, the Deal to Shetland cycle route.

When Andrew Gilligan was Boris Johnson’s cycling commissioner for London there was a plan to create a north and south circular cycling route. I’ve heard nothing of those plans since Sadiq Khan became mayor.

 

[Amarillo]

You might be wrong about the family grouo, big traveller community down there.

Great post, please keep them coming, the Capital Ring is much less frequented than the London Loop so take secatuers!

You have the Capital Ring and London Loop the wrong way around, surely? I had noticed the shoulder high nettles yesterday!

 

[Wongo]

Yes, of course as Captain Mainwaring said ‘I was waiting to see who spotted that’

You have the Capital Ring and London Loop the wrong way around, surely? I had noticed the shoulder high nettles yesterday!
[/QUOTE

 

[Amarillo]

I was able to continue my circumnavigation of London today. I have now completed the local bits of the walk, the next stages will be far more difficult in two ways. Firstly travel to the start and from the end points will be significantly more time consuming, and secondly I will have little or no local knowledge of the area.

Leaving home at 8.50 I arrived by bus at my finish point yesterday at 9.30. I immediately set off in a familiar wood, the National Trust's Petts Wood and Hawkwood Estate. I think this woodland must form the watershed between the Rivers Cray and Quaggy, the former meeting the Thames at Dartford and the latter at Deptford, some fifteen meandering miles apart. As well as two rivers, two distinct four track mainline railways cross here, one to Victoria and one to Charing Cross/Cannon Street/Blackfriars and beyond, and with connecting lines between the railways, it is quite a junction. My route took me over three separate pedestrian railway bridges and into Jubilee Country Park and the end of stage two of the London Loop.

Here I made another elementary mistake. Between stages there are London Loop waymarked signs to the nearest transport link, in this case Petts Wood Railway Station. These signs are identifiable from the main signs by the word "link". I missed that and for about 100 yds I was following the link towards Petts Wood station. Once back on track I was swiftly through the Jubilee Country Park and into the 200 acre Crofton Woods, a place I have never before visited. A little suburban walking, over the A21, and into Farnborough Village. Across High Elms Country Park by a route I did not know, popping out of Bogey Lane onto a path I was very familiar with.

I was under the flight path to Biggin Hill Airport, busy as ever with private jets and close to the home of Charles Darwin. Down to Downe then up the Vale of Keston to Holwood House the home of Pitt the Younger, today with a burgundy helicopter parked on the driveway.



At the top of the hill I sat, as I usually do, under the Wilberforce Oak, where the Independent MP and the Tory Prime Minister discussed a way to abolish the slave trade. This eventually resulted in a transfer of 5% of British GDP to already wealthy slave owners.

Then onto Keston Ponds, the source of the River Ravensbourne, where my path was blocked by ducks.


Keston Village, another stop, this time to buy and drink water. I only carry a 750ml bottle, in my hand to avoid a backpack, and on warm days I find I need at least one refill.

Down the Hill to Coney Hall and the end of Stage 3 of the London Loop.

Stage 4 went across Sparrows Den into Spring Park and out of the London Borough of Bromley. Here my route briefly joined the Waterlink Way, a mostly motor traffic free cycling route between Greenwich and Eastbourne, a trail I had followed many times. From there it was a short walk to Upper Shirley Road where I ended my second day.

The only passenger on a free to use Bus to East Croydon Railway Station, empty ThamesLink train to London Bridge on the much improved untangled cross London Line, and then a nearly empty train home. The entire journey home took 90 minutes, and this is the problem I face in doing the remainder of the London Loop. As I go to ever more distant parts of London, travel to the start and from the finish of each section could take as much as five hours.

I have no idea when I'll be walking the next bit of the Loop.

 

[Amarillo]

I managed to get away from home two days last week.

On Tuesday I walked the final 2/3 of section 4 of the loop and all of section 5. Mostly across the hills to the south of Croydon, part of the North Downs.

Great view over the two business districts of London from Addington Hills.



The City


Docklands

The other highlight of the day was Happy Valley, which I'd never before visited and Farthing Downs which I knew very vaguely from once driving across.

On Wednesday 3rd I completed sections 6 and 7 of the Loop between Coulsdon and Ewell. Both sections were short and mostly unremarkable, including much on section 7 along a residential roads past very expensive looking homes (Zoopla gives the average value of houses on Sandy Lane, Cheam at £1,250,000). My route also took me past the ruins of Nonsuch Palace, costing £24,000 in 1541.

Today I walked sections 8 and 9, a grueling 17 miles, plus an extra mile at the end to the tube station and an extra miles each way between home and the railway station - making 20 miles total.

Section 8 was a delightful section following the Hogsmill River to the Thames, a tunnel of trees through suburban London from Ewell to Kingston-upon-Thames. Completing Section 8 means that I had completed a monstrous arc across SE and SW London, leaving an even more monstrous horseshoe across W, NW, N and E London (there are no S or NE London postcodes).

Section 9 was my first section north of the River Thames. It started by crossing Bushy Park which I may have cycled across once before, but which was unfamiliar. The deer seemed exceptionally tame.


My path then took me to the River Crane, another avenue of trees through suburban London and across the unkempt Hounslow Heath, dumping me on the A30 at the eastern end of Heathrow Airport. On the Picadilly Line train home it occurred to me that I had walked from the River Cray to the River Crane, next to each other in an alphabetical list of rivers but opposite ends of London.

 

[kurienp]

That's just great Tom. No better way to get to know your neighborhood than to walk (or cycle)

 

[Amarillo]

Very informative Tom. Thank you for sharing. Is it possible to do all three on cycle?

You can do a fourth one:

Road cycling route around London – 180 miles loop around the whole of the capital - Cycling Plus Magazine

www.cyclingplus.com

The real challenge would be to do it in 24 hours.

 

[AlisonF]

I’m enjoying this thread. Thanks @Amarillo

 

[Amarillo]

I completed another three sections today:
Section 10 Hatton Cross to Hayes & Harlington 3.5 miles
Section 11 Hayes & Harlington to Uxbridge 7.5 miles
Section 12 Uxbridge to Harefield West 4.5 miles

Following the River Crane under Heathrow's flight path, I saw just one aeroplane landing, an Emirates plane but unsure what type. I saw many more planes as I passed under Biggin Hill flight path three weeks ago, the latter a favoured airport for private jet owners and chartered jets. My route took me along Waye Avenue, under 1500 yards from the end of one of Heathrow's runways, and directly under the flight path. The noise must be nearly unbearable and relentless in normal times, but the windows looked pretty thick, triple glazed(?)

My route crossed the A4 then M4 with the River Crane, then dumped me on the Grand Union Canal at the end of section 10.

Pretty much all of the next two sections followed the route of the Grand Union Canal and River Colne. On the canal section I dreamt of the layout of my ideal canal boat. I think I'd like an area at the stern sufficiently large for outdoor dining, and an outdoor area at the bow. Apart from that, a lounge area that can be used as a double bed for guests, kitchen, WC and small bathroom, four bunks for children, WC and shower room, master cabin. What luxury compared to a Cali!

There were a few boats being moved about on the canal, and many moored but occupied. I wondered how many were permanent and how many were day visitors. I saw a good few wrecks too.

My walk ended at Harefield - pretty much as far away from home I can get, and still be in London, over 25 miles away. The route home was a bus, two tube trains (Metropolitan Line and Jubilee Line) and a train. I just missed a bus, and waited for the next - it arrived 20 minutes later and was signed to Harefield Hospital, the wrong way. As soon as it left I realised that I was on a spur on the bus route, to go to Uxbridge tube station I needed a bus to the hospital which would then turn about and return to Uxbridge missing the spur. So I then had another 20 minutes to wait. I'm really not used to these semi rural bus services.

Google Maps tells me on my timeline that I spent 1h49 travelling to my start point, 6h11 walking and 2h47 travelling home. It gives the distance walked as 18 miles, including to and from the local railway station and the long haul from Hatton Cross to my start point along the A30.

 

[willwander]

I'm enjoying this too. Sort of relaxing, reading your little write ups. Thanks @Amarillo

 

[Amarillo]

Another three sections today.
Harefield West to Moor Park - 5 miles
Moor Park to Hatch End - 3.8 miles
Hatch End to Elstree - 10 miles

First I went to drop Amarillo off for its "inspection service". I was sent away, and told to come back in 6000 miles for a proper service, and to check out YouTube to learn how to reset the "Inspection" indicator, so instead of travelling by train, I drove halfway around the M25 to park Amarillo at my end point in Elstree. I found a parking bay near the station, paid my £5.20 parking fee, and went to get the train to my start point. One train, two tubes and a bus later it was after midday when I started on my walk. It was after 7pm when I returned to Amarillo, so 18.8 miles in 7 hours.

The first two sections were among the best so far - deciduous woodland and open farmland on gently sloping hills above the Colne Valley, and lots of golf courses.

The third section was flatter, and more urban, crossing the mainline into Euston and the M1, and yet more golf courses. I think I crossed or passed six golf courses in total today, including a fairway where I noticed just in time a line of golfers taking careful aim at me.

One section of about 500m my route took me along a narrow path between some residential gardens and fields, with stinging nettles to my armpits. So painful was one sting that I thought a bee had got me - I checked my knee expecting to see a bee's backside sticking out - but nothing. I decided I was being a bit of a wimp, and carried on, and sure enough the sting faded. It wasn't until back in Amarillo that I had another look, and I had a visible bump which oozed blood when I touched it. It was a bee sting after all.


There is farmland in London


British registered Shanghai police car, complete with blue lights. Why?


Stinging nettles to the armpits.


The M1 across an open meadow near Elstree Road.

 

[Amarillo]

Two sections today
Elstree (Allum Lane) to Cockfosters - 10 miles
Cockfosters to Enfield Lock - 9.5 miles


Timeline Screenshot

A simple trip to the start point: train to London Bridge change platforms and another train to Elstree. With the ongoing scandal of Crossrail, the success of the Thameslink Project is often overlooked: it was delivered on time and on budget, and it has transformed the commute for a million passengers per week entering or exiting London Bridge railway station (not including the tube station). It had some teething timetable problems once the redevelopment was completed, but the work as the station is an engineering marvel. The lines which feed into Charing Cross, Blackfriars and Cannon Street have been untangled before they reach London Bridge, and three terminal platforms at London Bridge have become through platforms, giving four (2 up 2 down) Charing Cross Platforms, two Blackfriars platforms and three (one reversible) Cannon Street Platforms. The usual delays as trains approach London Bridge have been eliminated, and up to 48 trains per hour now run between Blackfriars and St Pancras International. It was one of those 48 trains which took me from London Bridge to Elstree.

My walk began at 10.34.

First a long tedious walk along roads, before plunging into open countryside and woodland amid building heat. My path chucked me out onto the six lanes of the A1. Rather than walk 600 yards south then 400 yards north along the A1 to reach an underpass I dodged the traffic by crossing the A1 directly, helped by the fact that southbound traffic was limited to one lane due to roadworks. Once across, the workmen tried to send me back, claiming the pavement was closed. I wasn't having any of it and skirted around in the undergrowth.

The woodlands were pleasantly cool and the open spaces blisteringly hot but with some breeze. Once over the Great North Road, here the A1000, the landscape was mostly urban to Cockfosters.

However, Cockfosters to Enfield was almost entirely rural and delightful, following Turkey Brook. This tributary to the River Lee must be the most picturesque of all of London's rivers. And the path which followed it was perfect, upgraded to a National Cycle Route NCR12, it is compacted sand for most of the way.

I arrived at Enfield Lock at 6.04.

7h30, 19.5 miles.


View towards central London


Same picture zoomed in on The City. Contrast with the photo taken from Addington Heights with The Shard on the left: Post 8


Turkey Brook (My photo doesn't do it justice).

 

[Amarillo]

Four sections yesterday.

Section 18 - Enfield Lock to Chingford - 4 miles
Section 19 - Chingford to Chigwell - 4 miles
Section 20 - Chigwell to Havering-atte-Bower - 6 miles
Section 21 - Havering-atte-Bower to Harold Wood - 4.3 miles

I was on familiar ground at Enfield Lock, having cycled the tow path along the River Lee Navigation many times, but soon my route took me away from the canal and onto the hills overlooking the Chingford Reservoirs and the various channels of the River Lee.

The first two sections were so short that they seemed to be over before they had begun, and I was soon pondering Dick Turpin and Charles Dickens who frequented Ye Olde King's Head in Chigwell (now owned by Alan Sugar and leased as a Turkish Restaurant.)

The third section of the day was dogged by navigational errors. The LOOP is waymarked, and I also rely on directions printed out from TfL's website. But if waymarks are missing, and directions rely on a fence that has been dug out (along with the waymarks) and moved to form a new paddock, the result is me blundering around a horse paddock looking for "the old-style kissing gate" I was supposed to pass through - presumably binned because it was too old-style for the paddock owner.

Start 10.38am
End 8pm
18.3 miles 9h 22


Crossing the M11


Footpath through the barley


Local wildlife - mother and child I think.


Avenue of giant sequoia - these babies can live for 3,000 years and grow to over 300 feet!

 

[Amarillo]

Three sections today

Section 22 - Harold Wood to Upminster Bridge - 4 miles
Section 23 - Upminster Bridge to Rainham - 4 miles
Section 24 - Rainham to Purfleet - 5 miles

No navigational errors today. My route simply followed a small river and then the Thames.

I drove to the end point and took trains to my start point - including a brand new crossrail train between Stratford and Harold's Wood. These Crossrail trains are built for capacity rather than speed or comfort. Stopping at every single station, they barely manage to gain any speed before they decelerate for the next stop. Most seats are bench style either side of the carriage, leaving plenty of standing room.

I was on my way at 10.48, soon found the stream and following the River Ingrebourne through country parks and woodland, and the occasional uban district. At about 2.45 I was on the Thames looking at the glorious concrete barges gently rotting in the mud of the Thames, having been towed to Normandy for D-Day and used for form a Mulberry Harbour.


Concrete barges - here looking towards Erith and my start point on 27 May.


Concrete barges - here looking towards the giant incinerators that burn most of London's non recyclable waste. (Behind the camera is an enormous landfill site).


My final view of Docklands and The City skyscrapers before completing the LOOP.

150 miles over 10 walks.

However, I don't really feel that I have completed a loop, so I have two bonus sections of my own creation to complete the loop.

Purfleet to Tilbury
Gravesend to Erith

Between Tilbury and Gravesend runs a little know passenger ferry

 

[Amarillo]

Almost a year on from walking the London Outer Orbital Path (LOOP) I have set out to complete the missing link.

The LOOP is actually a horseshoe shape, beginning in Erith and ending 150 miles later just 800m away across the River Thames. There is no pedestrian crossing of the Thames at Erith. While cyclists are ferried free of charge over the QEII Bridge, pedestrians are banned.

The Dartford Tunnel Cycle Service bus has been replaced by a trailer towed by a Highways Agency car.

The only pedestrian crossing of the Thames downstream of the Woolwich Foot Tunnel is the Tilbury-Gravesend Ferry.

So to complete the LOOP my plan is to walk to Erith from Purfleet via the Tilbury-Gravesend Ferry, about 10 meandering miles along each bank of the river.

Today I completed the first leg: Purfleet to Gravesend.

10.33 miles.

Under the QEII Bridge

The path ahead

Lighthouse

Mega electricity pylon

Spitfire.

Glorious graffiti galore.

 

[bob_summers]

Nice! Brings back memories - I lived in London for about 12 years and did that loop (or close to it, mainly by road) on my fixed gear bike one day in about 2005! Always surprised at the quiet green spaces you can find so close to the city, or indeed in it. I lived on the New River and often walked into town along it, you could often forget you're not in the countryside.

 

[Amarillo]

Nice! Brings back memories - I lived in London for about 12 years and did that loop (or close to it, mainly by road) on my fixed gear bike one day in about 2005! Always surprised at the quiet green spaces you can find so close to the city, or indeed in it. I lived on the New River and often walked into town along it, you could often forget you're not in the countryside.

I have completed all three circuits:
Jubilee Greenway - all urban
Capital Ring - parks, some woodland, urban rivers and recreation grounds.
LOOP - green belt: golf courses, farmland and rivers.

 

[The Blue Merle]

Almost a year on from walking the London Outer Orbital Path (LOOP) I have set out to complete the missing link.

The LOOP is actually a horseshoe shape, beginning in Erith and ending 150 miles later just 800m away across the River Thames. There is no pedestrian crossing of the Thames at Erith. While cyclists are ferried free of charge over the QEII Bridge, pedestrians are banned.

The Dartford Tunnel Cycle Service bus has been replaced by a trailer towed by a Highways Agency car.

The only pedestrian crossing of the Thames downstream of the Woolwich Foot Tunnel is the Tilbury-Gravesend Ferry.

So to complete the LOOP my plan is to walk to Erith from Purfleet via the Tilbury-Gravesend Ferry, about 10 meandering miles along each bank of the river.

Today I completed the first leg: Purfleet to Gravesend.

10.33 miles.

Under the QEII Bridge

The path ahead

Lighthouse

Mega electricity pylon

Spitfire.

Glorious graffiti galore.

That’s a very cool pic of spitfire

 

[Amarillo]

That’s a very cool pic of spitfire

The fact that it has been painted on a corner giving it a 3D effect shows some talent. Some people are very scathing of graffiti, but I find that it can brighten up otherwise dreary walls. The Environment Agency seems to turn a blind eye to the graffiti on its flood defences here; there is mile upon mile of it.

 

[The Blue Merle]

The fact that it has been painted on a corner giving it a 3D effect shows some talent. Some people are very scathing of graffiti, but I find that it can brighten up otherwise dreary walls. The Environment Agency seems to turn a blind eye to the graffiti on its flood defences here; there is mile upon mile of it.

Hoping they may get a banksy!

 

[Amarillo]

Hoping they may get a banksy!

There’s a nice Banksy a little upstream at Trinity Buoy Wharf.

Google Image Result for https://live.staticflickr.com/3442/3258195345_e92232a3a8_b.jpg

 

[Amarillo]

Set out today to complete the final leg: Gravesend to Erith, keeping as close to the River Thames as I could. I didn’t make it. Route finding was harder than I expected as some paths were unmarked and others were closed. It was also considerably further than I expected, and I had to be home by 4.30 to take the boys swimming.

I made it as far as Dartford.

13.7 miles plus 2 miles to/from the local railway station.

I walked about a mile from the main road gambling that there would be a right of way through a riverside industrial area. On this occasion my gamble paid off.

The ultra tall pylon taking power over the Thames. Last week I saw the same on the north bank.

The Queen Elizabeth II crossing.

Says it all.

And 86m off shore evidence that what they warn is true.