The club's weekly walk for 20 November 2016 was heralded in the Autumn Programme as follows:

Sunday 20th November       Leader: John Burbage   OS map 177

Meet        :  Cannon Street Station 09.15 for the 09.33 train to Erith (Zone 6, arr. 10.08). 

Lunch   :  Choice of  pubs and cafes at Crayford, Kent. 

Tea   :  Probably

Distance : 10 miles following section 1 of the London Loop and the River Shuffle walk returning from Sidcup Station (Zone 5).

Fare   : Oyster card, Travelcard,and Freedom Pass options.

In the event John was under doctor's orders to lie low in preparation for his forthcoming surgery so Lizzie Cripps and Tony Finnegan tried to do justice to John's excellently planned walk be leading on the day.

A few of us had cameras but the vast majority of the photographs shown below are from the camera of our most regular contributor Antoinette Adkins.

Despite the worst efforts of the weather and the consequent disruption of the train service we got to a good start just 40 minutes later than we had planned

The above two photographs were taken from close to the start of the London Loop, a long distance path oround the outskirts of London. In the second photograph the view is across the Thames to where the Loop finishes. There can't be many long distance paths on which the end can be seen from the beginning.

The early part of the London Loop shares the footpath with the Thames Path, another long distance path that runs over 180 miles from this area to the remote parts of Gloucestershire

The helpful bollard sign leaves us in know doubt which way to go!!

The busy Crayford Dock area lies just beyond the Queen Elizabeth II Crossing Bridge whic was seen on both this walk and, from the other side, the previous Sunday's walk from Purfleet.

A solitary Wind Generator provides energy for the Erith Yacht Club. Ath this point the Loop doubles with the Cray River Path wich we follow as far as the lunchstop in Crayford.

Across the estuary in Essex we could see the Rainham Land Fill, now attractively grassed over.

A well loved feature of this part of the loop are the ponies grazing on the low ground alongside. Some of them are tethered like tis one.

As we leave the Thames and join the Darent River Way we come to the Dartford Creek Barrier, a part of the Thames Flood Protection system. When the Thames Barrier is raised the water levels further down th estuary rise and this is one of five supplementary barriers built to prevent inundation of downstream areas in these circumstances.

At this pont the footpath is on a high bank looking down on the swampy area on either side of the River Darenr.

Happy faces of our group.

The Darent, although a fairly well known river is a tiny trickle compared with the great Thames behind us.

Our first view of the River Cray, just beore our lunch stop and near the point where the great Roman road Wattling Street, crossed the Cray. 

We arrived at our lunch not long after we had intended Thanks to a brisk morning's walk led at a good pace by Lizzie,

Antoinette has the happy knack of taking photographs without intruding too much on the subjects so I did not know this photograph was taken until I saw it on my screen.

There are two of these columns, decorated with shells, in front of big garage. Originally they supported the canopy of the Crayford Cinema  and are now all that remains of the Cinema.

We walked along the side of a playing field towards Hall Place, a mansion originally built in 1540 from the using fragments of local monasteries following their suppression by Henry VIII.

Across the road from Hall Place we ascended the only hill on this walk with nice views of the surrounding countryside and lovely autumn colours on the trees.

Our Ramble List Compiler had joined us for the second half of the walk and at the top of the hill the local council have thoughtfully provided seating for people to rest after the ascent.

Continuing our walk along the top of the hill we were now on the Shuttle River Way, loosely following the course of our fourth and last river of the day.

Following our descent from the footbridge over the A2 we had our first view of the Shuttle, fuller and flowing much more rapifly than usual.

Before long we were walking through the Bexley Woods, resplendent in Autumn colours and with the Shuttle at the widest we will see it on this walk

On 7 February 2017 I received some more photographs taken by Frances on the day. Slotting them in at the correct stage in the walk would require a bit more technical knowledge than I have but they are really worth sharing so I will insert them here for everybody's enjoyment