LOOP Day 1: Erith – Bexley

A new walk begins today, but I start with a strange feeling of déjà vu. I had definitely been here before. Almost two years ago to be precise when I started the Thames Path (Extension). So I arrive on a overcast but largely dry Sunday morning at Erith railway station. The train disgorges me right by the exit gate from the station, so I’m able to get going straight away.

The first task is to negotiate the roads near the station and get myself to the small riverside gardens. There seems to be attempt after attempt to beautify the town, but they all seem half hearted attempts and the abandoned swimming pool building, with windows smashed out, doesn’t help. Later I come across the new retail development that has found its way here since my last visit. But even this doesn’t seem like to retain is youthful looks for long.

The gardens are a short lived affair, but it provides the first opportunity to see the Thames, which at this point is very wide and feeling like the seaside. Then there are more road junctions to tackle, followed by a long slog down a road that leads to lots of riverside industrial site, many linked to gravel extraction. But soon some green looms up ahead and the salt marshes around Crayford Ness are in touching distance. Down another track and onto the to raised walkway that will take me to the mouth of the River Darent. There’s not a soul around, bar a group of five or six yoofs sat on a bench. A couple of them have bikes, one the pedal variety, the other a large engined scrambler. I can hear the sound of motorbike engines as well, but it’s a long way off and fortunately turns out to be on an organised course on the opposite bank of the Darent.

At the mouth of the Darent the path heads ‘inland’, then shortly after the same path follows the River Cray, which will form the focal point of the route for the rest of today and for much of stage two. The tide was out all along this stretch leaving a little bit of water at the bottom of a deep muddy channel. Soon, its time to negotiate some more industrial areas and then roads again. In between there is some willow lined riverside walking, but this is short lived as there are more roads and major junctions to cross at Crayford.

Eventually, just after a Mazda garage, I arrive at a park. A lot of Sunday morning football games are underway, and I skirt round and head back down to the river Cray. The book that describes the London LOOP explains that nearby you can visit Hall Place and Gardens, but there’s lots of development work going on here and it's clear that restoration work is well underway. So I continue, over the bridge and towards the railway line. Now I need to cross the railway and pass under the A2 which involves a protracting weaving around line and road bridges. But eventually I’m through, and now on a very pleasant woodland walk, the most attractive part of the whole walk. In the densely pack wood, there is a good crop of bluebells in full bloom. Then it’s a short walk down a walkway into the centre of Old Bexley, past the church.

A quick trip home via Bexley railway station proved impossible. No trains due to engineering work! So it’s a bus trip back to Erith, just as the rain starts to pour.