Day 12 Bexley to Petts Wood

So, to complete the section I skipped, it was back to Bexley and on to Petts Wood. The weather was still nice! My jacket is still safely scrunched in the bottom of my bag and I travelled without the ingestion of any painkillers for the first time in about a week. My feet have been hurting. Suncream and hat were the order of the day once more.

I do like angles & regular shapes & shadows & stuff

The book that is my guide does have some strange moments. For example, today it described a very early part of the way as finding oneself on a vast, high plateau. Now really, going up a slight incline and still being on a level with the trains going by is not equivalent to being on a high plateau. Get a grip or travel more. An old gravel working gradually reverting to nature, still with a red-brick pumping station in the corner is never going to be that romantic. However, the river Cray comes to the rescue and adds some watery diversions and delights. There was a heron for starters.

Five Arch Bridge & weir

I was pondering whether the Cray had a strange effect upon creatures. I was trying to stick to the riverside path and came across rather a lot of large chopped down tree trunks and was yet to see the way through when a runner popped up coming towards me. That's handy, he'll know a path. But no! He headed straight across the river, sploshing ankle deep and disappeared off up the other bank without batting an eyelid. I got through anyway. Next up, there was this little dog, female it turns out, brown like a Jack Russell/Corgi mix, galloping down the middle of the water chasing a low flying mallard. There was only ever going to be one winner. I found her owner and asked if she'd ever caught anything and he said, no, but it's great exercise and she loves it! Sure enough, back came the dog, found some more ducks and chased them back down the river. Absolutely hilarious.

Swan guarding another sitting on a nest nearby

There were more dog walkers, a group of school children and a couple of police officers (didn't check if they were regular or community type). Nearby I overhead a local lady relate what she would like to happen to the yoof we could hear out on [their/his/her] moped/noisy thing nearby. It wasn't kind but interesting to hear that you're not alone in wishing that perhaps these young people weren't churning up the local parks. It may be that the police officers were out trying to locate them - I did hear one of them say they hadn't been that way before.

Sidcup Place held the lure of being a pub-restaurant and hence the location of some toilets. Except that it was closed due to some gas problem. An interesting red-brick building and lovely parkland with a walled garden now hosting the Sidcup Community Garden, it was a shame to have missed having a look inside. It seems to have been built in 1743 with a mixed heritage since.

Sidcup Place

Sidcup Community Garden

Scadbury Park, another local nature reserve was definitely a place I'd never heard of but again, lots of history. The quirky thing though is the moated manor house which someone decided to start rebuilding in C20 and then stopped again. The whole place is now possibly a designated ancient monument. It's definitely subject to ongoing archaeological investigations.

Moat & remains

Random staircase

A few weeks ago, I was in the audience for a recording of The Now Show. One of the pieces was a chap going on (rather) about daylight saving. I wish I could send him these pictures :-)

I only count the sunny hours

In case you were wondering when it was

Remember that name for a pub quiz

Shortly after that apparently was a trainspotter's paradise of three footbridges going over lots of track. Takes all sorts.

The thirteen days promised in the subtitle to the blog has turned into fourteen as I have a football match to prepare for tomorrow evening. Spectating a play-off semi-final first leg is no small matter. So, tomorrow is Hamsey Green to Banstead and the final leg on Sunday will be Banstead to Berrylands.