Weekend of 25 April 2009

A Rare Event

Kirsty decided to break the habit of half a life-time and, with Alastair, visit her father for no special reason and fortunately the sun defied the meteorologists’ forecast and the rain stayed away.

After exhausting the entertainment possibilities of the garden and the DVD player we took a walk (and a bike ride) to the Thames to soak up the delights of the container terminal and the Ford motor works on the opposite bank and the Crossness ‘water treatment’ works which has replaced Sir Joseph Bazelgette’s Victorian ‘cathedral of sewage’.

Kirsty cycled through the brambles and nettles and rested under the main road to Dartford before being gently pushed up the hills.

Bexley council had, as one might expect, wasted vast sums of taxpayers’ money on erecting disabled-unfriendly obstructions at frequent intervals throughout our lengthy walk and after some four or five miles a rest was called for.

We passed at least six tethered ponies en-route which were much more interested in chewing dandelions than in our attempts to stroke their heads. At the end of our journey we diverted to the 12th century ruins of Lesnes Abbey…

…from which it is an easy downhill ride home. Alastair estimated, having observed the footpath signposts, that we had covered some 6½ miles and we were all close to a state of collapse.

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