For third time in a week, I headed to Bexley to undertake a circular walk via Joyden’s Wood and alongside the River Cray. The previous two visits were for walkovers but on the first I got lost so I was unable to complete the circuit! The second was more successful after I downloaded an excellent map of the Woods showing all the paths. Still a bit apprehensive, I met up with nineteen members at the station and then we proceeded through the attractive village High Street, past some fine houses and the church with its unusual cone & pyramid spire. On the approach to Joyden’s Wood, we passed numerous stables as the area is popular for horse riding. Fortunately, there were no problems with way finding this time and we enjoyed the tree cover providing shade from the strong sunshine. We stopped at the scheduled ancient monument of Faesten Dic and admired the wooden replica of a Hurricane plane, commemorating the bailing out a pilot there in the war. Leaving the woods, we crossed over to the fields fringing the River Cray and stood on Five Arch Bridge looking at the wildlife in the water. Next, we headed for the White Cross pub for our lunch stop where the sausage sandwich was particularly tasty! Finally, a stretch of the London Loop brought us past a match in progress at Bexley Cricket Club and back to the station for our train home.

Danny

Photographs courtesy of Nita and Gillian.