London Loop Leg 15b: Rainham to Purfleet

Weather: Overcast and Cool

Just realised that I haven't written about the final four miles of the LOOP. As is now traditional, I was joined by my if and two walking buddies for the completion of the The weather was grey and overcast, not auspicious for a section that I was not expecting to be very inspiring.
The walk starts with a nice stroll through the Rainham marshes (if you ignore the section that passes under the busy A13). The grasses and reeds were tall and swayed in the breeze which made for an attractive vista. The path is marked here with attractive iron signposts that should last a long tie (as long as nobody takes them for scrap!)  Eventually the trail reaches the riverside with, on the day we walked, a great view across the mudflats to the far shore where eighteen months before I started the walk in Erith. The mudflats shone like beaten silver in the muted sunlight and were alive with sea birds including some oyster catchers.

The jetties that stick out into the Thames are ideal roosting spots for birds and hundreds of starlings, gulls and pigeons can be seen on them, each seems to have their own roost.

A little further on the remains of the concrete barges that once made up the mulberry harbour lie at strange angles in the mud. Some have started to break up and again birds have started to roost inside. Just a few yards further on a strange sculpture of a diver rises up from the mud, I wonder what it looks like at high tide?

The huge waste tip that occupies the interior of Coldharbour point is alive with birds and the ground between the tip and the shore path was littered with a wide variety of mushrooms and toadstools. Being sensible sorts we didn't eat any of them! There is an interesting dynamo powered information point at this location which tells you snippets of information about the site and recycling in Greater London. Our favourite snippet was the tale of a WW2 factory on the site that was making high explosives. However it seems they were a bit lax and had a very major explosion so they stopped making high explosives and instead switched to something far safer. Poison gas...

The path now runs towards the RSPB Rainham Marshes Bird Reserve. There are several parallel paths here and we took the higher one that gave us great views over the Thames as well as the marshes. In the distance we could see Eurostar trains running towards the continent, closer at hand we saw two kestrels perched on fence posts and trees beside the path. The reserve headquarters is a dramatic and attractive building but it was closed due to a power cut when we walked (shame as we really fancied a coffee and a slice of cake in the cafe). Civilisation comes up rather quickly and soon we were back on the main road and the station at Purfleet. No matter how hard I looked I couldn't find anything that indicated that this was the end (or start) of the LOOP which was a bit of a disappointment.

Really enjoyed the walk, out of the 140 miles there was probably only 10-20 miles of dullness and a lot more of exhilaration. Now I need a new challenge for the new year.