Friday 26 January 2024

It’s Friday afternoon, I finished work at 12.30 in Suffolk, by 1:30 I was home, and by 1:40 we were in the road. By 4pm we’d arrived at London’s Abbey Wood campsite and had a super quick set up. The sun was shining and we were both super excited about the weekend ahead.

We’d chosen to stay at the Caravan and Motorhome Club site at Abbey Wood this weekend, a change from our normal base, their sister site at Crystal Palace. Not only is it marginally closer to us, it’s immediately obvious it’s quite a bit quieter.

Our adventure this weekend were based around the River Thames. We were finally ticking a walk off that had been on my list for years- The Thames Path from the Thames Barrier to London Bridge. But before that, on Friday night after a quick pasta meal at Gandalf, we nipped into Canary Wharf.

Just 4 stops on the wonderful Elizabeth Line from Abbey Wood took us right into the heart of Canary Wharf and number 7 of the 13 point Winter Lights festival that runs each January for two weeks. It’s free to attend and the installations ranged from arty to just really lovely and bright.

Jazz, our dear old doggie, attended the weekend with us and actually despite him being 12.5 and us having visited London more than any other place in the world (granted we both lived there for a while – Keefy 38 years!), I still can’t get over the fact that we haven’t yet taken Jazz – until now. As the crowds around Canary Wharf grew, we popped him into his doggie rucksack where he promptly became the start of the show for many- the endless people taking pics almost began to become wearing!

Our favourite parts of the winter lights 2024 were the immersive dangling lights – a great place for a beer! Neuron, which was an intricate network of lights symbolising the neural connections of the human brain- and Sign which looked like a bonfire.

The view across the Thames towards the Shard from Canary Wharf was lovely – it’s always nice to see it from a different viewpoint.

We found a dog friendly bar – The Munich Cricket Club for a nightcap before making the easy journey back to Gandalf the Campervan.

Saturday – the main feature walk.

To get to our starting point of the Thames Barrier, we took bus number 180 – around 5 mins walk from campsite- to Greenwich Trust School Stop, which is then just a short walk to the barrier itself.

I was surprised to learn that the Thames Barrier is actually closed 4 times a year, and whilst looking like it needs a bit of TLC – don’t we all?! – it’s clearly doing its job!

It’s my hope that we can complete the Thames Path Trail – although it will be in segments maybe months apart, at some point I’d like to be able to say we’ve done it in successive parts.

Obligatory photos done of the start of our journey along the Thames, the path took us through a tunnel, alongside the gates of the Barrier and then u scrap and industrial yards. It’s not the prettiest opening, but a reminder about how many companies still rely on the river for their business use.

Luckily the greyness doesn’t last long and before we knew it we could see the Emirates Skyline cable cars which feed into the O2, London City airport, and of course the 02.

Before we knew it we were approaching 5 miles and Greenwich- and the closer we got to Greenwich, the more pubs we saw, which was a good thing as it was 11:30 and the sun was over the yardarm.

The following miles passed in a happy daze of walking a couple of miles and then stopping for a beer. We enjoyed it so much that we ended up far exceeding our original hope of walking to Tower Bridge, continuing on to the recently reopened since renovating Battersea Power Station (approx 16.5 miles)

If you haven’t yet been for a visit, it’s highly worth it. Such an iconic building brought back to its former glory. And the trip up the chimney in the lift is absolutely exceptional. (We did this previously)

We ended up doing a total of 19.6 miles including getting to and from start and end points and back to our campervan in Abbey Wood Campsite.

We absolutely LOVED the walk, there was SO much to see! We loved walking under the Thames in the Greenwich foot tunnel, and had some lovely historic pub stops, plus fish and chips in The Prospect of Whitby.

Pub stops (all dog friendly)

🍺 Enderby House after the O2 but before Cutty Sark. Dates from 1830s

🍺 The Cutty Sark – about half a mile after Enderby House but grade 2 listed, and a great view of o2 so we couldn’t resist!

🍺 the Ferry House on the Isle of Dogs, oldest pub on Isle of Dogs

🍺 the Grapes, Limehouse, once visited by Dickens and now owned by Sir Ian McKellan who lives nearby

🍺 The Prospect of Whitby, flagstone floor is over 500 years old and has the original ancient Pewter topped bar still in place

🍺The Anchor, Bankside, a tavern has stood here for over 800 years

🍺 Battersea Brewery – the perfect place to finish!

Getting back to Abbey Wood campsite was easy; the northern line to Tottenham Court Road, and then Elizabeth line to Abbey Wood and after some soup and nibbles we had a brilliant and quiet night’s sleep.

On Sunday, we woke up to glorious sunshine, so we did a walk from the Exploring the Elizabeth line book- which was right from our campsite into nearby Lesnes Abbey Woods. We clocked up 3.3 miles before making our way back to Norfolk.

It really was a brilliant weekend!