Day by day around south London
20 July 2001: Erith to Petts Wood. 15 miles.
A fine sunny day, though clouding over late. Erith station is a few hundred yards from the river,
with a big new supermarket near the pier if you want to stock up with sandwiches.
You can walk along the pier, and should, although do not expect amusement arcades; this is a working and fishing pier.
From the pierhead, look over to Coldharbour Point, where you will finish the loop,
perhaps in ten days, perhaps (like me) in nigh on two years.
The Point is being reclaimed from industry now, and one day will look attractive.
Rainham Marshes, beyond,
are an important nesting site for migrating birds.
The Loop strikes off eastward along the Thames, with views of the Queen Elizabeth bridge ahead.
Beyond Crayford Ness turn south along a tributary, the Darent, and just over a mile further on a tributary of this, the Cray.
You will be beside it or close to it for more than half a day, sometimes scruffy, sometimes manicured, sometimes natural.
Old Bexley makes a good half way stop, and the King's Head proved to be one of the best pubs on the Loop.
Leaving the Cray at Foots Cray, ascend through the grounds
of Sidcup Place,
and then cross the A20 to Scadbury Park nature reserve, leading into Petts Wood.
Try to find the memorial to William Willett,
campaigner for daylight saving; it is just off route. South of the wood proper, many railway lines converge.
Cross them on footbridges, from the third of which a path leads off left to Petts Wood station.
5 October 2001: Petts Wood to Coombe Lane, Croydon. 13 miles.
Sunny periods with a light breeze. This is perhaps the most countrified section on the Loop, brushing the Kent boundary.
It does not start like that though, with the first few miles split 50-50 between suburban housing and wood- or park-land.
Things change at Farnborough village, which still looks like a village, just about: there are fields and farms hereabouts,
and the Wilberforce Oak, where the reformer hatched Britain's abolition of slavery in conversation with then prime minister Pitt the Younger.
After this highlight the suburban mix intrudes once more, but there is a good broad valley to enjoy around Wickham Court,
and there are wide views from Addington Hill.
Coombe Lane is a tram stop with easy access to the main station of East Croydon;
or do what I did and shop for outdoors gear in Croydon town centre.
30 November 2001: Coombe Lane to Banstead. 15 miles.
Grey and overcast.
South of Croydon, there is farming country once more, but even this is eclipsed by the chalk downland
of Happy Valley
and Farthing Downs in the vicinity of Coulsdon. There is fine open walking here, with good views all around,
including some of the best distant views of central London.
It ends by the busy A23 and railway lines, alas, follwed by a long pull up a dull street with a golf course to the right
and although there is more open country after here it cannot match up to the downs.
The final stretch to the station, in gathering gloom, passed the walls of Highdown Prison.
Trains from Banstead are infrequent, and you are out of the Travelcard zones here; check times in advance.
18 November 2002: Banstead to Kingston upon Thames. 11 miles.
Bright and sunny. A golf course has to be traversed first (not helped by my wrong turning),
and another forces a lengthy deviation through the prosaic streets of eastern Ewell, so not a good start,
but the grounds of Henry VIII's Nonsuch Palace
compensate (well, just about). From Ewell proper, you pick up the Hogsmill River at its source, a pond in Bourne Hall Park.
Just as you followed the Cray upstream, you follow the Hogsmill downstream, in this case for its whole length to the Thames.
Like me you may find Kingston's shops worth a detour on your way to the station.
15 March 2002: Kingston to Hayes. 12 miles.
Rain till mid-afternoon. You set off through Bushy Park,
where you might see deer. There is a road stretch before reaching the river Crane, beside which you stay for almost all the stage,
with one major diversion across Hounslow Heath.
Just to prove that following a river isn't always easy, I missed a bridge after my mid-day pub and bashed through undergrowth beside a canal.
I had to work out where I had got to from the bus stops. Aircraft noise is a companion around here, sometimes deafeningly so,
as you are close to Heathrow airport. The stage ends beside
the Grand Union Canal,
of which more (much more) next time.
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