Walk 12 - 15.0 miles - Total 174.1 miles - To Go 825.9 miles

London Loop. Section 1 Erith to Old Bexley, Section 2 Old Bexley to Petts Wood.




Today we finished the 150 miles of the London Loop!!. We were both quiet and exhausted at the end and realising we have much to do to raise our fitness to what is necessary for Offa's Dyke in May. I think tomorrow morning we will feel better about it and can celebrate properly but this afternoon we were wiped out.

We started at 6.30 this morning heading for Erith on the Thames Estuary and Sarah Cox is asking for requests to be a dj after the 6.30 spot. She positions her request with 'whatever you are doing at 6am on a Saturday morning give me your requests...you might be milking the cows, returning from a night shift, delivering milk or a new mum....'. I look around me and see completely empty roads and realise not a lot goes on at 6.30 on a Saturday morning. But today we are going to complete the Loop so the early start is good and we might get back in time to watch some football on TV as well.

We tip toe out of Mario and Klea's house, our wondeful hosts for the past 2 days. With sons Andrew and Demos and Andrew's fiancee Nadia, they are a lovely family. The food was GREAT and even their 2 dogs welcomed us into their domain. Thank you all for your superb hospitality.


We leave one car at Petts Wood and Rob jumps out to make a contribution to Tony's effort down to the Med for MS (see yesterday's blog) and drive to Erith. We head off from Erith along the Thames Path. It is a scene that reminds us of The Road (by Cormac McCarthy) which I recommended to Rob and he finished last night. Don't read it if you can't deal with misery but if you like Sibelius it is an amazingly good book....both deeply sad and uplifting (I cried at the end).Rob thought the ending was unrealistically uplifting and had some other, far more depressing ideas on how it should finish in keeping with our surroundings by the river. If you want a view of what the world looks like close to the end, as in the Road, with desolation all around, dark grey skies and a bitter wind biting in to your face then do this part of the Loop by the Thames on a miserable February day. It really is desolation well done. Occassionaly the sun provided a distraction through the clouds with shafts coming down on to the Queen Elizabeth bridge at Dartford. We tried to capture the scene in difficult lighting conditions and took a number of shots. Our best effort is shown here and we leave you to judge.

We eventually move along the Cray River. After five miles we are ready for a cup of tea but don't know where to go in this wasteland. Rob asks a local and we are told there might be a place half a mile up the road. Rob tells me that means half a mile off the track and half a mile back....do we want to do that with the risk it might not be open.
As we talk Pete Rutherfood pulls up behind us on his bike and asks us where we are walking to. He is completing his 27 mile Saturday morning bike ride. He tells us the place we are thinking of for tea is closed on the weekend and suggests we head to a cafe in a couple of miles. We give him a leaflet and say a big thanks for the advice.

We walk along Cray River and after another half hour Pete catches up with us and tells us he has read our handout and insists on giving us a contribution. All these people who have been touched by our cause really motivate us and give us good thoughts about human nature. There are some wonderful people out there. Pete walked along with us by the Cray and told us the tale of the man who looks after that part of the river. There is a one winged Swan who has a mate and last year was able to raise a Signet there with the help of this local protector.
We say farewell to Pete and stop at his recommended Cray Cafe. I shock Robert by ordering a full English and he shocks the waiter in the cafe by photographing it. What is he doing he asks?.....I think...he is doing the same as the fisherman throwing his caught fish back in to the lake....'I don't get it'.
The rest of the walk is a blur. To try and forget the pain we try to imagine how Bridge and Terry avoid the handshake and the songs the fans can come up with to capture the moment. After ten miles into our third successive day of walking tiredness is having its effect. We want to end......

Then we do. We have finished the London Loop at Petts Wood. Hoooooooooraaaaaaay. We done it - 45 miles in 3 days. A long way to go but it feels good to have got to one milestone. We have transversed London and seen many things and had many experiences. Rob will capture his recollections on The Loop overall in another blog. We say well done to each other in a very understated English/Greek way and look forward to the remaining 800+ miles ahead.