Erith to Bostall Woods

I walked another segment of the Green Chain in South London yesterday, about four miles. Once again I started at the river, but this time in Erith, southeast of where I was last week in Thamesmead. The Erith area is somewhat industrial, as shown by this old crane and the broken-down wharves.

The Thames is supposedly much cleaner than it used to be, but there are still a distressing number of shopping carts, bicycles and other items visible in the soft mud beneath the riverside walkway. There are signs all over warning people not to try to walk on the mud -- apparently it's really soft.

The ducks like it. They were shoveling their faces right in there, scooping up who knows what. Clams, maybe? Shrimp?

At nearby St. John the Baptist's Church, a commemorative plaque dated the church wall to 1887. I checked out the cemetery there before continuing on.

Here's a short residential street in the Belvedere area. That's a "resource recovery" plant (incinerator) in the background along the Thames. Some of the houses in this area have quite dramatic views over the Thames Valley.

I found myself back in Lesnes Abbey Woods, where you may remember last week I visited the ruins of the abbey. This time I spent more of my walk in the forest. The area above is called the "tumulus," or earthen mound. (I couldn't readily see a mound but I think that's because I was basically on top of it.) That guy in the photo was walking his 16-year-old staffy, who isn't in the picture because she was waddling beside me.

I stopped at the abbey ruins for lunch, a cheese panini and coffee from the cafe. Some kids from the The Hundred Club -- a local creative club for 7- to 11-year-olds -- were giving away a colorful free newspaper, and that kept me busy during my meal. The club uses "arts and play to explore social justice issues," and I got a kick out of their artwork and writing on ecology and other matters.

I continued on through the woods and around a pond with a weeping willow growing in the middle (above).

In Bostall Woods, where my walk ended, I found a tangle of feral nasturtiums, probably escaped from someone's garden. They were quite well-established and had a lot of flowers.

I had hoped to continue on and do another segment, but by this time it was 2 p.m. and the light was already beginning to wane. The days don't last long at this time of year! So I caught a train in Plumstead and headed home, where I had just enough time to take Olga to the cemetery before darkness fell.