We started this section as close to the River as it was possible to be, really - you'll see from the above that with the tide out on this stretch, we were able to wander right down onto the foreshore, and at one stage I was even standing just in the water itself - the first time I've ever done that, I believe! There were people wandering with metal detectors - the word "Mudlark" refers to people who scour the foreshores of the Thames for treasures in fact - and others walking a dog, (River and Rover interacting?) which appears to be having a fabulous time! For us though it was time to go and find one of these...
The boat on the pointy end of the signpost is a Thames Barge -these would have been a familar sight on the river in years gone by, but we've not seen any at all, so far, although our next stretch - through St Katherine's Dock - will change that. Far from boats though, this time one of the most striking things we saw was architecture - there have been a huge number of housing developments taking advantage of the golden sales line "River Views" and inevitably the designers of these have capitalised on said views by giving the apartments as much window area as possible...
And those particular flats would have a rather excellent view of the Battersea Heliport - used regularly for both commercial and sightseeing flights, there were flights coming and going all the time, I didn't have to wait for long to get this lucky load of sightseers heading off for their aerial view of the City.
Although cold it was a gorgeous sunny day - the views along the river were stunning - this was looking across to Chelsea...
...and we weren't the only ones enjoying the views either - yes, I confess, I did wait to get the London Bus crossing Battersea Bridge in the background of this shot!
Just a little further, and time for possibly one of the most striking bridges over the Thames - The Albert Bridge. Definitely up there with Hammersmith, and of course Tower...and helpfully empty of traffic when I wanted to take this photo!
There are more bridges on the stretch we walked this time than we will encounter anywhere else on the walk, and, in fact, when we set off on the next stretch from Tower Bridge, we'll be turning our backs on the final Bridge across the London stretch of the Thames - from then on it's all tunnels until you reach the Dartford Crossing - and our walk will finish before that!
A little further and we reached Vauxhall - another area chock-full of new development. These rather expensive looking buildings caught my eye...
...and then, looking past the Bridge - a familar sight - the MI6 building. Remember seeing this getting blown up in Skyfall? I can assure you that "no buildings were harmed in the making of that film" and here it is all in one piece...
We chose to cross to the South Bank at Lambeth Bridge - much loved by London drivers wanting to head from North, to South West London, this one, as it's the easiest, most traffic-free route by far across the water. On foot though, and heading East, we were soon into one of London's most touristy areas - the South Bank - home, of course, to this...
Now regular blog visitors may remember that I've had an ongoing project for several years now trying to document the Eye with shots from as many different angles as possible. As time goes on this gets more tricky, but I did get a few different ones this time - I'll share some more of those in another post, I think.
Weekends on the South Bank also mean the famous second hand book market. MrEH, needless to say, had to stop for a rummage, and I used the time to do a bit of street photography - not a subject I do much of but this is a great place for it and I can rarely resist when I'm in the area...
Time to stop for the final cups of tea from our flask (and some doughnuts bought from a stall - tasty they were too!) before the final stretch....
Arriving at Tower Bridge just as the light starts to fall is never a bad thing - MrEH commented that the last time we'd stood and looked at it, it was wearing its Olympic Rings - in fact I believe it was the day of the Cycling Road Race which I blogged about.
We decided in the course of the day that Tower Bridge was the perfect place to finsh this stretch - it was clearly going to be getting fairly late by the time we got there, and the transport links mean it's an easy spot to get to and from making it idea for the start of the next section. So, that's it - section three done and dusted. From Station to Station (Putney Bridge to Tower Hill) we walked a little over 10.5 miles this time - the longest section we've done, and it's a credit to my still fairly new walking boots that it didn't feel that far at all. The next stretch will be at some stage during April - we've not set the date yet, but we're already looking forward to it!
Robyn
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