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Day 1 (23rd August 2003)
Erith to Jubilee Park (15.75 miles, plus 0.75 miles of station links)
Good bits: Starting a new long distance path; Bad bits: Horrendously hot; trying to find a train to Erith, How hard is it to walk? 1/10 in normal circumstances;
in the heat in which we tackled it though it was more like 8/10. I think
we were pushing it a bit…
The walk(a) Erith to Crayford (6 miles, plus 0.25 mile station link)
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It feels wonderful starting a whole new long distance path. We'd felt it starting the South West Coast Path last year, and I was just as excited to be starting the Loop. It didn't matter that it was close to home, through suburban scenery and would only involve day trips. It was being out on the trail that counted, and being involved in a fresh challenge. There was also a distinct cachet involved in walking a relatively new path that few other people had heard of, let alone completed! Actually, I'd discovered the Loop completely by accident. I'd been looking in a bookshop for the Aurum Press guide to the Minehead to Barnstaple section of the coast path, which we were due to walk in the autumn. Next to it I came across their guide to the Loop. I picked it up, fascinated at the idea of a non-wilderness path, and was quickly hooked. The previous year my brother Jim and I had done several long circular hikes in the Chilterns as hill training preparation for that year's section of the South West Coast Path. They'd got us very fit, but had left us with no real sense of achievement. This year we decided that we would train on the Loop. While this wouldn't necessarily give us the full hills-and-fitness experience of the Chilterns, or for that matter give great views, we would at least feel the achievement of partially completing another long distance path… little did we then realise how much we would be drawn into it! After a very early start for a Saturday (the bus to the station to get into London left at 8am) it proved far harder to find the start of the path than it did to find the book about it. The book said you could catch a train out to Erith (the start of the Loop) from Charing Cross, London Bridge or Waterloo East, and that 4 trains an hour arrived at Erith. Sounded easy, and we were therefore shocked to find on our arrival at Charing Cross that the only two trains to Erith both ran at about 7.30am. We were despondent, and there was talk of abandoning our mission. We revived our spirits with a quick reworking of Gompie's "Alice" ("Cos for 24 minutes I've been looking for a train to Erith - Erith? Where the **** is Erith?") and established from a helpful chappy that the best station for our needs would be London Bridge. At London Bridge we purchased a bag of freshly baked cookies - a grand idea which was immediately established as a tradition to be followed on all Loop walks. We felt happy now and headed for Erith. However, due to the delays we had engineered, it was well after 11am by the time we started walking. From Erith station it's a short walk down to the River Thames. It's an impressive sight, but to walkers it's also an impressive barrier, across which you can see the end of the Loop - Coldharbour Point. There used to be a ferry across the river here, but nowadays without it the Loop is incomplete, broken here by the impassable river. It seemed funny to think that at some point we would be looking back to Erith from the other side, and probably feeling slightly depressed to have finished the Loop yet be unable to get back to Erith. That time seemed a long way off, and we stopped looking at the end of the walk and started walking to Coldharbour Point - the long way round! Erith waterfront has been redeveloped and is actually rather nice. There's a little pier you can walk out on that kinks at right angels - I assume that it used to be a landing stage. All in all the start of the Loop is very pleasant, and put us in the mood to explore the rest of it. Unfortunately the Loop is all too soon forced inland through half a mile of dusty, noisy industrial estate. But persevere - if you can dodge the speeding, rumbling lorries the Loop eventually heads out on an embankment around the edge of the Erith marshes (immortalised in Dickens' "Great Expectations), with glorious views of the stately Thames, the magnificent new Queen Elizabeth II Bridge for the M25 at Dartford, and - joy of joys - Shetland ponies grazing on the path. Shortly after the Loop passes the iron girder masts of Crayford Ness it turns away from the Thames to follow the River Darent which strangely flows through the Dartford Creek. The entrance to the Creek is guarded by a flood barrier that looks like a temple to concrete and far too big for the meagre creek that it defends. We were sweating horrendously already; there was a clear blue sky and temperatures were predicted to reach 29 degrees centigrade - not ideal for the longest hike of my life to date! We were desperate to stop for water, but the only shade for miles around was in the form of a pole surmounted by some sort of little old beacon. Deciding that a four-inch wide strip of shade was better than none at all, we stopped there! Here a dogwalker passed us, and then turned round and walked back from whence he came. "Quitter" we called after him (but quietly, so he wouldn't hear). We've subsequently had much to both blame and thank him for, for from this brief encounter we developed our Rule 1 - "No Quitting" - which has forced us into much unnecessary but enjoyable walking! The landscape here was bizarre, and like nothing else I'd seen before. It was completely flat all around, with more than a hint of marshland. The trench cut a steep-sided meandering trench across the view. On one side of the creek cows grazed, and hundreds of birds wheeled about - I'd guess the marshes were some kind of nature reserve. On our side crouched the scrap metal dealers, the sun reflecting off heaps of twisted automobiles and industrial detritus. It was peculiar to see such contrasting land uses so close together, only held apart by the no-mans land of the LOOP. We soon turned away from the River Darent to follow instead the River Cray up Crayford Creek. We'd follow this river for much of the remainder of the section. At first it looked even more creek-y (sorry, that's terrible English!) and surreal than the Darent, but it soon lead us into an industrial estate and into the welcome shade of a railway bridge. It was horrendously dusty, smelly and noisy from passing lorries, but frankly any shade at all was now welcome! We crossed a main road to rejoin the Cray and suddenly - miraculously - the river changed. Gone were the winding spooky creeks, and in their place was an idyllic reed-lined little river. Granted it was clearly a straightened man-made channel held within raised banks and looked more like an old canal than a river, but it was so lush and verdant after the marshes - the change was remarkable. And the landscape had changed to match - no more sporadic heavy industry, instead semi-detached houses could now be glimpsed at each side; we'd clearly entered suburbia. The guidebook stated that you might see spectacular giant hogweed here, and they weren't kidding - starting at the bottom of the river levées, some 4 or 5 feet below us, it still towered well above us. I'd guess some plants were well over 12 feet tall, and certainly lived up to their name. A old local chap waved us over and asked if we were walking the LOOP - on of the few signs we saw on the whole route that the locals were even remotely aware of the path's existence. On receiving our affirmation, he said that since the path opened hordes of walkers had come through every day. He said this with a certain grim satisfaction, as if he'd warned the council that if they put the LOOP through his life would be ruined by the steady tramp of passing hiking boots, and our presence had just proved his prediction right! Needless to say, we saw no sign whatsoever of other LOOP-ers, but I guess that could be because everyone tends to do it in a clockwise direction. The river led us all the way into Crayford, which we entered through
a bijou but delightful and bench-filled riverside park, where once again
we took a water break. I was starting to get worried that we would run
out of water if the heat didn't ease off.
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