Weather: Windy, sunny and
warm.
Distance: 32km
(19.9miles) Total Distance:
2236miles
I
had originally planned to go walking for two days but I changed my mind part way through the
day. It was not a thrilling days walk so
I decided to walk hard for the day and come back to Coventry that evening.
I
parked the car in the supermarket car park in Rainham. I had originally parked in a council
car park marked for walkers of a footpath, but then I saw notices saying that
parking was limited to four hours there so I moved it to the supermarket car park
itself. Obviously the council thought that alking more than four hours may damage your health.
I walked through the town but
decided not to take the path down to the Thames because it looked very
uncertain if there was a path all the way along the embankments to Purfleet, so
instead I took the B-road to Wennington.
I was amazed by the fact that there was farmland dotted around this
close to London. A large house at the
end of the village, almost on the very busy A13, had a pond and a heron feeding
in it.
There
then followed a pretty horrible mile and a half along the A13 itself, some of
it without a footpath. I suppose I should be thankful it was a Saturday and
not a weekday. I was very relieved to
turn off the A13 and get on the road down to Purfleet. I was wearing my worn out trainers and had
put new insoles in them, but was having trouble with one foot so had to take it
out. Would this mead bad blisters by the end of the day I wondered.
I
was also disappointed to see on the way into Purfleet a sign to a footpath
along the riverbank back towards Rainham. I probably could have walked it
after all but it was not an official footpath.
I had a glimpse of Purfleet before finding the footpath that took me
into industry and down towards the Thames for the first time that day. Going through a oil depot type place I came
to a paper recycling type mill but it looked like the way onto the Thames
embankment had been fenced off. I had to backtrack a bit and discovered that
the fence had been torn down and I got to the river OK.
I
then had a good couple of miles along industrialised Thames, ducking under the
occasional jetty and pipeline. I was
stopping at quite regular times to have a drink. I was relieved to get to Grays that looked to
have a lot of riverside development going on.
I cut up into the old town, bought a drink and a packet of biscuits for
lunch and headed out along the side streets towards Tilbury, cutting inland to
avoid the docks. The builders of the new
road were kind enough to put a cycle and footpath along it. Lorries were still aplenty even on a Saturday
heading for the freight terminal. I had to laugh because when I rang up to
inquire about trains, Tilbury was one of the places I asked about – I was told
that there were only buses from Tilbury Docks that day free of charge. I could
see why – they were ripping up the lines!
I
had been looking forward to a drink in the pub marked on the map but when I got
there it had been burnt down. I was putting sun block on by this stage – it was
getting hot. Past the large power
station things got a little greener.
Past Coalhouse Fort I asked a man with a
dog how far I could get and he confirmed I would have to cut back into East
Tilbury. This I did and then phoned
Margaret to get her to cancel my Youth Hostel booking. I had a pint in the pub there and carried on
along the roads to Stanford-le-Hope, getting back onto footpaths for the last
half mile. I stopped there and walked up
into the town to the station to catch a train back to Rainham.
As I was paying I must have left my map there
– it took me some days to realise what I had done and phone them up – or should
I say the operating company – you are not allowed to phone the actual station
these days!
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