Walking with Linda: 6 or 10 mile, Rainham to Grays walk via RSPB Centre & QEII Bridge

Join Linda on this 6 or 10 mile, Rainham to Grays walk via RSPB Centre & QEII Bridge.

Please meet outside the front of Rainham railway station at 0950, ready to depart at 1000.  

We will walk through the Rainham Marshes to the north side of the Thames where we can see the Thames flood barrier wall that works in conjunction with the Thames Flood Barrier at Charlton, to protect residential areas all along the Thames from flooding.

We'll walk alongside the Thames barrier wall, viewing the concrete barges and the light beacon set up at Coldharbour in 1895, one of the nine navigation lights on the Thames.

We will continue along the isolated path, enroute to the RSPB Visitor Centre at Aveley Marshes, overlooking the Thames on the outskirts of Purfleet.

After admiring the view, we'll walk on to a Riverside pub in Purfleet for lunch at about 12:15 (at your own expense).

If a 6 mile walk and pub lunch is enough for you, you can go home from nearby Purfleet railway station.

After lunch we'll walk alongside the Thames sometimes on the protected side of the wall and sometimes on the same side of it as the River Thames! There are escape ladders to get over to the safe side of the wall every few hundred yards if necessary!

We will observe various cargo shipping activities from numerous jetties and walk underneath the QEII Bridge en-route to Grays.  

The walk will end in Grays where we might choose to treat ourselves to a coffee or bar drink and dessert or ice-cream perhaps, in The Wharf pub before the making the final short walk to Grays railway station to catch our trains home.

Please bring drinking water, money to buy lunch and any other drinks and snacks you may want. 

Please dress for the weather on the day (and bring a golfing umbrella if it is expected to rain!).

Please check your transport times, and for any engineering works, at least the day before the walk and allow some contingency time for delays.  

The walk needs to depart on time for the comfort and enjoyment of those who have arrived on time. Thank you.