16/11/13 - Loopy for London

Distance - 8.5 Miles
Geocaches - 17 and few that were not there.
Start - Erith
Finish - Bexley
Walk Inspiration


On 28/9/13, I completed the Capital Ring.  On 29/9/13, I booked the tickets for my next Circular capital adventure, the London Loop.

This is a little longer and a little further out but an identical concept.  It becomes another long term goal to tick off in 24 bite sized chunks.  Mrs Mappiman has expressed an interest, so a day trip to the smoke is undertaken.

The great thing about booking in advance, is you can get an absolute bargain on the trains.  Birmingham International to Erith for £9.50.  The problem is you have no idea what the weather will hold but on this leg, we struck monumentally lucky.

You also have to get up early to get the cheap deals.  So 5:30am alarm clock and we are at London Bridge by 9am.  Sonia comes up with the great idea of getting an organic sausage sandwich from Borough Market.

The price of two comes to more than it costs to travel 140 miles on British trains.  Still, it did come with onions.  And the option of cheese.  Sonia spills most of it down her light blue soft shell and updates her facebook status to say that she "has got sausage juice all down her front".  I can only assume that Jane Jacques is off-line.

Navigate London Bridge (just where is Platform 1?) and arrive at Erith.  Line up for the traditional start of an adventure shot and we see that another couple are doing the exact same thing.  We follow them, but the geocaches mean they are soon out of sight.

Not the only loopy people out

Now I love walking with Sonia.  We have developed this shared purpose of adventure and she buys into these wacky schemes.  However, after a long journey, she always provides me with the challenge of finding her toilets.  It did give us the opportunity to explore Erith.

The guidebook promised the grandeur of attempts to turn it into a Victorian holiday resort.  It is one of the bleakest places I have ever been to.  And last week I was in Tipton on the Brummie Ring.  Toilets nearly become a challenge too far, but fortunately, there is a Morrisons at the start of the walk.

After sorting out the Sausage Juice, we can get on our way.

Thames Side

The start of the walk is a shocker.  We are in an industrial wasteland of wreckers yards.  Boy racers charge past us in souped up M3's, scaring the beejesus out of us.  Two men are pushing a wheely bin down the main road with a purpose that can only be described as "removing evidence".

We wonder what we have done.

There is good news.  There is a cache trail that comes very frequently.  There is further good news after a mile and we work through the last industrial complex.  We pick up a path on high bank that runs with the Thames on our left and Salt Marshes (between wreckers yards) on our right.  It is like nowhere I have walked before and strangely beautiful in its own way.

Our Path

Better to the Left

The caches are frequent, although could do with a bit of TLC.  Many of the logs are too wet to sign, some are missing but I am still pleased with the high volume of numbers.  Its been a slow start to November.

Dartford Creek becomes our turning inland point.  We are in the shadow of the Dartford Bridge Crossing and a strange flood defence construction that looks like a Stalinistic take on Tower Bridge.

The horse is guarding a GZ of a former DNF.  We didn't want to disturb him.

Marshlands.  We are strategically placed to block out the Power Station.

The walking is similar, river side.  At a junction, we follow the River Cray, which brings us to Crayford.  This is the first civilisation on the walk and we around 6 miles in.  Its 12:10pm and can only mean one thing.

First pint on the Loop.
 

The half a cider that my fellow adventurer imbibed led the the suggestion that "we could catch the bus Bexley and no one will know".  Tempting, but we would be cheating only ourselves.

From a walking perspective, we would not have missed out on too much.  Its a meandering journey across sports fields, along the river Cray and under the A2 (thankfully an underpass exists).  The caches have dried up, but there is one that involves crawling 20ft up a storm tunnel, that is so small, you have to crawl out backwards.  I can see the headlines now, so pass up.

Through some strange woodland and we arrive at Bexley.  I have done my research and my favourite pub website has most of them rated at 3 out of 10.  This is not promising.  We use Google Maps and they are mainly in the highstreet.  The reviews were correct.  I am always put off by any establishment that boasts of its XVth century credentials along with a long list of behaviours that will not be tolerated.

However, the pebble dashed church is rather nice.

Footpath brings us to Bexley Church

Bexley High Street - My life mission is to find a nice pub with "Railway" in the Name

Despite being starving, we find nothing suitable at lunchtime, although there is an interesting row of Morrocan, Indian, Italian and Greek restaurants.

We head back to London Bridge and see what the metropolis can provide.

Next leg in Early Jan 2014.  I wonder if it will be a solo engagement.