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andyp
I had a great ride out yesterday.
I'd been meaning to go to North Kent for a while and check out the Great Expectations marshy region between the Thames and the Medway. I set off via East London and Tilbury, which took in some lovely sites - suburbs, neglected horses, a lot of dead end roads, industrial wasteland and HGVs. The passenger ferry at Tilbury was a nice exception. There were a couple of old former sailors sitting in the waiting shelter talking to a young Polish woman who was waiting to cross about the history of the docks and their trips to Australia. When the ferry came they didn't get on it - their day out was just sitting watching the boats go by.
I made the mistake of trying to follow the Saxon Shore Trail instead of the bike path from Gravesend - the bike path is nice flinty gravel, the route I chose alternately muddy, sandy, and marshy, though it did take in a police firing range and an old ruined fort.
In a farm shop tea room in Cliffe I found out that the village Great Expectations was set in was one I had narrowly passed by, so I did a little loop back. A great day's riding all in all, not all of it was the best roads or scenery but I feel like I've pieced together a few more places I'd only seen on maps before, and earmarked other places I definitely want to return to when it's warm and sunny.