Capital Ring: Woolwich - Woolwich

Early Morning Walks: Woolwich - Woolwich

The Capital Ring is a 78 mile circular walk around London, and so is very similar to the 150 mile London Loop, except this time runs more in Inner London rather than the outskirts, hence, the shorter length. I didn't really plan on doing it after London Loop as some small parts of it followed previous walks that I had come up with, but I was always intending to do the first section as it went to places I wanted to visit for a while. However, after looking at the route in closer detail, I thought I'd give the entire thing a go, although it may seem strange that I decided to do a longer circular walk around London before deciding to do the shorter variant. The walk starts in Woolwich, right outside of the portal of the southern entrance to the foot tunnel that runs under the Thames, and which provides a good view of the Free Ferry service running across to the north. I also decided to do this on the 28th September 2019, as it marked exactly a year since I started the London Loop in Erith. This was during the time that I was intending to travel on all the night bus routes in London, so after I did Route N53 terminating at Plumstead Station, I made my way over to the start of Capital Ring, looking out across the Thames at a beautiful sunrise, noticing how on the direction boards here, it still suggested that on the other side of the foot tunnel lay North Woolwich Station, which now no longer exists. It may have been a bit of a push to be travelling all night, and then decide to do a 11 mile walk in the morning, but I was willing to try, as I noticed the ferry starting up service for the day, walking first alongside the River Thames towards the Thames Barrier and the towers of Canary Wharf beyond. Although the route comes off of the Thames before you hit the barrier, I did get to see some statues of cannons pointing across the Thames towards the sugar factory on the other side, which makes sense considering the Royal Artillery Barracks is housed in Woolwich, as well as a rather brave fox plodding along in the early hours of the morning. A selection of parks comes next when you leave the Thames, including Maryon Park, which surprisingly had a whole bunch of animals within, such as ducks and chickens, which was a pleasant surprise, as well as Charlton Park, Hornfair Park, spotting a rainbow, and Woolwich Common. The next part was where I wanted to visit anyways, even if I didn't decide to do the full Capital Ring walk, as you enter Eltham Common which features Sevendroog Castle, having no idea that a castle even existed in South East London, Oxleas Meadows, which has a great view from the cafe on the top of the hill, and Oxleas Wood, which I've wanted to walk through ever since I did Route 89 passing through this area, almost 3 years prior. Falconwood Station is nearby at this point after the first 7 mile section, but there doesn't seem to be any wood nearby with the same name, instead being called Sheperdleas Wood, before I continued through Eltham Park, the very edge of Avery Hill Park, before cutting over to Eltham Palace, a English Heritage building, which I had also wanted to go and see at some point, so it was great to finally see it. Coming up to the end of the walk now as I crossed the final few meadows until I approached Grove Park, the end of the first 2 sections and a whopping 11 mile walk, which I was surprised I managed after being out all night. Although less rural than the London Loop as I'm more in the suburbs of London, it was still really enjoyable seeing so many new areas, and I liked getting to see so many different parks that I wouldn't have gotten to see otherwise. It was a really good first section, and I would recommend if anybody is unsure whether to give Capital Ring a go, try out this first walk anyways because it's really good, and then figure out if you want to continue. Luckily, I knew that I did want to continue at a later date, but unluckily, there was no trains from Grove Park, so a bus saved me. 

Because Capital Ring is about half as long as London Loop, I didn't want to go out for walks as often as I did the year prior, as I still wanted to stretch this challenge out to the following summer. Therefore, a month and half later, I made my way back to Grove Park for an 8.5 mile walk as part of Section 3 of the Capital Ring, and it seems that the Green Chain Walk, another long distance pathway in London, follows this section essentially the entire time. I spent the night at my cousin's before coming out here, so both Capital Ring walks so far I did the night after I didn't spend at home. Starting off on the walk, having to avoid a car which was weirdly parked up on the pavement, I headed into the local nature reserve to cross over on a rather long railway bridge. A pathway shrouded in trees next behind people's houses that leads through to Beckenham Place Park, somewhere I had been before after chilling at one of my favourite places, Epsom Downs Racecourse, all day. However, it was great to come back here again, as it is one of the largest parks in South East London and a lot of things to see within its grounds like a lake, woodland, a garden and a mansion. A bit of road walking next beside a beautiful little church and New Beckenham Station and into Cator Park, one of several local parks that Capital Ring allows me to experience for the first time. A couple of local parks later, and passed both Penge Stations until you enter the grounds of Crystal Palace Park, another place I spent the day at before to explore, so I was already well aquainted with this park, but is genuinely one of my favourite ones in London. This park features a couple of lakes, dinosaur statues, a stadium in the middle a maze, a music venue stage, and of course, the old ruins of the said palace, with the empowering transmitter tower, and so is genuinely worth a thorough explore, and has reasons to be one of the best parks in London. It was great to be back here again, especially as it was starting to get dark as well as slightly raining, so there was a gloomy feeling whilst exploring, which added to the experience. This was another fun section of the Capital Ring to walk, maybe not as exciting as the first one, but Crystal Palace and Beckenham Place are always brilliant parks to get to explore, and as I made my way over to Crystal Palace Station, I was excited to come back here again for the next walk as it's always worth coming back here.

It was actually about 3 months later in February 2020 that I returned to Crystal Palace for the third walk along the Capital Ring, and I did this on the third day of back to back adventures. These 3 days of adventures started me down in Bexley, and from when I did Route B12 to Joydens Wood, it made me think if there was an actual wood with the same name, of which I was delighted to find out there was, so I went down there to give it an explore which was great. I also made sure to give Dartford Heath an explore a few stops up the B12 route, and afterwards caught another bus to Slade Green to try out the pathway that connects up the first section of London Loop at the River Darent and follow it all the way back around to Erith. That was a lot of fun but it was at this point that I made the unfortunate discovery that Littlebrook Power Station had been demolished as I was shocked that I couldn't see it near the Dartford Crossing, so I looked up if anything had happened to it, only to discover it was now gone. I did however get to chill at the legendary spot of Erith Pier, before going home to catch a small nap as I was out that night for night routes N41, N133, N155 and N44, ending up over at Epsom Downs Racecourse, another legendary spot for sunrise. Sleeping throughout the day, I was out again the following night for routes N55, N72, N74 and N2, finishing up over at Crystal Palace, where I was then going to start Capital Ring. However, I really wanted to wait for sunrise sitting on the old steps of the palace, but it was still quite a while away, so I caught a bus down to Penge McDonald's which was open, and I desperately needed to get warm as I was dangerously cold, and I mean it. I managed to catch sunrise back at Crystal Palace, which was amazing and definitely one of the better spots in London to see it, before I finally set off on the Ring. I was still rather cold as I set off for the walk, but I soon warmed up when I started walking and keeping my hands stuffed in my pockets, passing through some small parks named Westow, Upper Norwood, Biggin Wood, Norwood Grove and Streatham Common, which were all rather boring unfortunately. This 4 mile section ends here at Streatham, where I picked up some Greggs breakfast from the high street, and carried on under the rather grotty railway junctions here, where the tracks split and merge to go in four different directions, and on towards Tooting Bec Common. I was rather intrigued to explore this common, as there's a few in this part of South London, but unfortunately they are rather few and far between, so a lot of road walking is needed to get between them, like what I had to do to get up to Wandsworth Common, where the railway runs alongside of. You then walk along another long road section beside a cemetery to reach Earlsfield Station, where you go over the River Wandle and through one last recreating ground to reach Wimbledon Park Station, the end of this 9.5 mile walk that feels very far away from Crystal Palace. I'm surprised I managed to make it this far as it is definitely not recommended to do almost 3 days of adventures with not much sleep, especially if they're long walks, you start off extremely cold, and you are really tired throughout. It didn't help that this just wasn't the most interesting of sections to walk anyways, but I was glad that I could now say I've been to some new parks and commons in South London, especially as the next section looked like it was going to be much more interesting. 

If you noticed the date of my previous walk, you should be able to make the connection as to why the next walk on the Ring was a whole 4 months later. Because of the big no no C word, I decided the Ring was the perfect thing to do for my first thing after lockdown, and for the first time, I actually left my own home the morning of the walk, as I made my way back to Wimbledon Park for the next section, which I was very much looking forward to. It's interesting that the last 2 stations on 3 branches of the District Line are named after the same place (Upminster, Ealing and Wimbledon), and the name sake of this station is where this walk begins, which ended up being really fun to explore. Wimbledon Park features a waterfall garden and a large lake, as well as it being very nice and open, and the other side of the park is the infamous tennis courts, but unfortunately the walk doesn't get up close enough to see them. After a short road walk, I entered the vast expanse that is Wimbledon Common, an amazingly large green area in South West London, which I had briefly explored before, but because it's so expansive it was great to be in again and see more of it, especially the tall windmill, a rare sight to see in the 21st Century. Upon leaving Wimbledon Common, you enter immediately into Richmond Park, another large expansive land, which is the largest of the royal parks in London and also apparently Europe's largest urban park, so you can definitely spend an entire day just wandering around here, of which I've also done before in this park. The road you cross from Wimbledon Common to Richmond Park has an equestrian crossing, of which a button to stop the traffic is very high up so that people on horses can reach out to press it, which I had never seen before. At the entrance to the park grounds, there's actually a bus stop with a route number of RP1, obviously standing for the area we're in, but isn't a standard TFL bus service, and only runs on Wednesdays, so never counted as part of the challenge, but maybe it would be interesting to do one day. I knew from my previous explore that this park has loads of wild deer roaming free, and it was great to come across some chilling in the undergrowth, with the towers of Roehampton behind, which I waited in the ground floor of for Route N74 the night before I started Capital Ring at Crystal Palace because of the cold. There's a really nice pond that you walk by, filled with geese, ducks and swans, and then all the way over the park towards King Henry's Mound. Unfortunately, the Ring's path doesn't directly go to the Mound, but I wish I strayed from the path to see it as it is a special place within the grounds as you can look right across to St Paul's Cathedral, as nobody is allowed to build buildings to block this view, which is why some skyscrapers in the City of London are deliberately built at an angle as to not disrupt it. Leaving Richmond Park, you cross over the Petersham Meadows over towards the River Thames, the first glimpse of it since leaving the start at Woolwich. Seeing a working water fountain, which I need to see in more places and something I took advantage of, as well as an interestingly looking tunnel under the road over to Terrace Gardens, I finally made it to Richmond Bridge, where this 7 mile section ends and I was surprised to see just how busy it was on the riverside here. Richmond is a place I've always had a quite fascination of, and I was glad to have a little bit of Thames walking continuing past here underneath the railway line to Richmond Lock and Weir, of where I was supposed to cross over on a bridge to the other side. Unfortunately it was closed to apparently aid with social distancing, so I was forced to go back to cross over on Twickenham Bridge. It would have been handy though to have an information sign back at this bridge to tell me the Weir bridge is closed, so I didn't have to go all the way down there just to be forced back. Once on the correct sign of the Thames, I stay alongside it for a while until I crossed over the Duke of Northumberland River just before it meets its confluence with the Thames, and at this point, there's a couple of rather nice looking riverside pubs with an island on the river, creating a lovely idyillic spot beside the water here. This is a genuine beautiful spot in Isleworth, and soon after leaving, you enter Syon Park, featuring a large mansion that was apparently the Duke of Northumberland's residence, so it makes sense a nearby river is named after him. I had actually been in this park once before on New Year's Day in 2018, when I went exploring a few places in West London like Syon Park, Osterley Park and my first visit to Hounslow Heath, where I found all them strange places in I've mentioned before. Leaving Syon Park, I soon came across the Grand Union Canal in Brentford, and for the rest of this walk, I would be following this canal, a section of it I had never walked along before, and was excited to do as I had approached Boston Manor, where I would be finishing, from the opposite direction along the canal before. There was a hilarious sign here by the lock notifying people to clean up after their dog, as well as a bonus note to dogs that reads 'Grrr Bark Woof.' There's a strange place on the canal here with an old iron canopy that looks like it could fall apart any second, and I'm not entirely sure what this place would have been, but looks like it may have been an old dock on the canal. Underneath the railway line and the Great West Road, you can hear the roar of the M4 nearby now as it passes over Boston Manor Park, and an opportunity arose to cross over a lock to go into this area. I was really happy that I chose to do that as I found a brilliant spot under the M4 where there is a bridge running over the River Brent, before I headed back to finish this walk heading under the Piccadilly Line tracks, and then across the meadows to the station. The entire walk was 12 miles, but with the diversion of Richmond Weir and the addition to the M4, it probably ended up being nearly 13 miles, which probably wasn't the smartest move to do after 3 months of doing literally nothing, but it was definitely a very exciting walk, my favourite on the Capital Ring so far, and I was enjoying South West London more on this than I did on the London Loop. When I had finished up at this tube station after a walk along the canal 2 years ago, I had taken a photo of myself in front of a roundel on the platform, and when travelling through here the following year, I took another one to show the difference in hair growth in that time, as I hadn't got it cut at all, so it was the perfect opportunity to take a third one, even though I had it trimmed in that year gap, so it's now an annual tradition to take a photo at Boston Manor Station.

I was aiming to finish the Capital Ring on the 11th of July to mark one year since I finished the London Loop, as I started both of them on the same day too. However, because of the lockdown, this of course put this finale date into jeopardy, so I wasn't going to try and rush it to finish it then. So a couple of weeks later, I was back at Boston Manor to walk back over to the Grand Union Canal through the Elthorne Park, noticing a sculpture in the shape of a deer. I've mentioned that I've been on this section of the canal before, but I didn't go to check out a foot crossing over the old railway line down towards Brentford Docks, which I thought I'd do, before heading off down the River Brent, which comes off of the canal. I followed this beside the Ealing Hospital to the Uxbridge Road, where I thought I'd catch the 483 bus a couple stops to a new destination of Windmill Lane, Three Bridges as it got extended from Ealing Hospital, and Three Bridges is always a good place to go and see, even though the terminus is in a rather industrial area, so I can see why they extended the route to serve here. Going a couple stops back to return to the Ring, I continued up the River Brent until I saw the amazing Wharncliffe Viaduct, which I've seen from the grounds of Ealing Hospital before and wanted to see up close, and I'm glad I finally got the opportunity. A viaduct is always stunning to see and this one is no different, carrying the Great Western Main Line above, another Isambard Kingdom Brunel structure, just like Three Bridges nearby. The other side of the viaduct leads into Brent Lodge Park, a rather interesting place that features Hanwell Zoo, somewhere I didn't know existed, as I only thought London had one zoo, the obvious one that's actually called London Zoo. It also features a maze, much like Crystal Palace, and even if it's closed as it was, it's still a nice place to visit, especially with the viaduct nearby, as you can walk all the way along the tiny River Brent further up through Brent Valley Park and Perivale Park to South Greenford Station, which is actually London's Least Used Railway Station. One small park later, and I've made it to Greenford Station, 5.5 miles later at the end of this section, but of course, I was going to continue further. The next section takes you immediately out onto the Grand Union Canal, not the same one as earlier however, as this was the Paddington Arm, and after that, you enter Horsenden Hill, a place I wanted to visit for the longest time so I was happy to finally get the chance. There's a good view from the top, but it's not the best one I've seen in London. There's a bit of road walking next up to the two Sudbury Hill Stations which sit in close proximity with each other, before you head up towards the infamous Harrow School on top of the hill. Entering the Harrow School Playing Fields, I made a mistake as I wasn't paying attention to which way I was supposed to go, so I got trapped as there was no way out onto the road I needed access to, so I had to clamber my way through the bushes to climb over a fence. The final part of this walk though took me underneath the Northwick Park Hospital grounds into the park with the same name, which I had always been a little intrigued to walk through, and this took me through to South Kenton Station, where this 11 mile section ended. I didn't enjoy this section as much as the previous, but it was still great to see some new places I wanted to see for a while like the viaduct, Horsenden Hill and Northwick Park. 

It was a couple of weeks later that I returned to South Kenton, coming off of the oldest running train on the London Underground that runs on the Bakerloo Line, to start another section of the Capital Ring. There's an abandoned pub immediately across from the tube station, and the walk starts off taking me through a local park towards Preston Road Tube Station, served by the Metropolitan Line, before taking you underneath the Jubilee Line tracks until you enter the vicinity of Fryent Country Park. This was another place I wanted to come visit for a long time, and I'm really happy that I finally got the chance as it was really good. You start off walking up a meadow, turning around to get a good view of the tube trains running along at the bottom. Entering some woodlands that leads through to Barn Hill Pond, where strangely the signposted walk wants you to do a full circuit of the pond, but it's worth to do so as you a great view of the infamous Wembley Stadium Arch. This reminded me of London Loop Section 3 a little bit, where at a triangular shape of pathways, instead of taking the direct path, it tells you to follow the V of the triangle. Fryent Country Park continues to remind me of London Loop as the other side is full of fields and meadows that just keep going, something which is lacking on the more urban version of the city circular walk, so it was a nice change of pace, and strange to think that so close to Wembley, you can feel like you're in the middle of the countryside. Upon leaving the country park however, you get a whopping reminder that you are actually indeed in the middle of the inner suburbs of London with some road walking by the same type of houses you seem to find in every street in North West London, until you get to another hidden gem known as the Welsh Harp Open Space, right beside the expansive Brent Reservoir, where you get a brilliant opportunity to walk right along all the way. But then it's back to reality as you come across a real boring section as you cross over the grim West Hendon Broadway, and then over the Midland Main Line right next to the M1, and then all the way up another road to cross over Hendon Way and the Northern Line tracks north of Brent Cross, which is already an area I really dislike as it's literally just main roads and roundabouts and has nothing appealing about it. This is actually where this 6 mile section ends at Hendon Park, where I was going to continue and do the next which has the same distance. However, I was out doing this walk on the day of my cousin's wedding, which I was invited to before the big no no C Word said no, so I sat in Hendon Park watching a livestream of it, which was an experience. When I eventually set off again, I came across the Dollis Brook, of which I would be following a lot of this way, which was fun, especially seeing a weird, rather long, tunnel underneath the North Circular Road, but at the same time, I could hear the roar of the traffic from this road most of the way. I was north of the Hampstead Garden Suburb at this point, which would have been nice to walk through and see in more detail, but unfortunately the route just passes over the top of it, until it gets to East Finchley Station. You can use both entrances to the tube station as a cut through, which I did, noticing that there was a lovely painting in the ticket hall of a Northern Line train, and a statue of an archer who points their arrow towards the longest tunnel on the tube network all the way from here to Morden. The final part of this walk takes me through three woods named Cherry Tree, Highgate and Queen's, which was actually a really nice finish to this section, despite it being very steep in this area of London. Highgate Station is where this 12 mile walk ended, and although parts of it wasn't the best like with Hendon and the North Circular, it was still nice to see new areas I wanted to visit like Fryent Country Park and the Brent Reservoir, and it felt like I passed by a lot of tube trains. 

It was near the end of July that I returned to Highgate for the penultimate walk on the Capital Ring, which is my local section, and now over a year since I finished the London Loop. I was very familiar with the first few miles of this section, and this was one of the reasons why I wasn't thinking of doing the Ring as I didn't want to return to do old sections of old walks, but now that I was here, I was very intrigued to return to do it again. That's because the first couple of miles goes all the way along an abandoned railway line that used to run between Finsbury Park and Alexandra Palace, and would have formed part of the London Underground Northern Line. I was to walk the section between Finsbury Park and Highgate, where the railway would have headed underground to serve above ground platforms at the current Highgate Station, which are still there, but hidden behind locked doors and high walls, but the great thing is that the entrance to the tunnels are still visible to go right up and touch, but you can't actually get in as it is now a bat sanctuary. It's definitely a hidden gem of London though, and the entire abandoned railway, now known as the Parkland Walk, which is now technically London's largest linear nature reserve. It's always great to walk an abandoned railway, especially when there's things to see along the way, like the first station upon leaving Highgate, Crouch End, where amazingly, the platforms are still there and you have free roam to walk on. The station building, now a cafe, with the stairs which still exist going down to the southbound platform are both still there, but you may be waiting a while for the train. In the arches, deep in the embankment of the railway line, there's weirdly some sort of gargoyle or goblin thing that looks like it's creeping out of the wall, so there's definitely some very interesting things along here. Stroud Green Station is next, and although there's no platforms that still exist, I can still see the station building down on road level again, and underneath the road lies the London Overground line between Gospel Oak and Barking, which reminds me very much of Three Bridges that we saw earlier in West London. The railway continues until it links up with the main line that still exists before Finsbury Park, and I was meant to actually walk across a bridge over this railway into the park with the same name, but because the bridge is rather narrow, it was closed to aid with social distancing like Richmond Weir. However, the diversion was extraordinary long, forcing you all the way down to Finsbury Park Station, but there was no way I was doing that, so luckily I was able to squeeze through a gap in the locked gate. It was a little disappointing to see that the play park I used to play in all of the time in Finsbury Park had been demolished to make way for a new one that didn't look as interesting. It was a shame because childhood memories just completely shattered seeing that it doesn't exist anymore, as I loved it so much. Finsbury Park, although the actual neighbourhood is grim, the park is great, and upon leaving it, there's a direct route along the road by Manor House Station to Clissold Park, but I wanted to go the longer way around which was much more interesting looking. That's because it follows the New River, seeing what looked like old factories on the other side, and runs through Woodberry Wetlands, a new development beside the water here, and was a lot of fun to explore, especially with the nearby reservoirs. You do finally get out onto the road that leads down to Clissold Park, my next port of call, but not before passing a cool looking castle that is now a climbing centre. Clissold Park is another childhood park of mine, so I was very familiar with it (I did mention it was my local Capital Ring section), but is another brilliant park that features a paddling pool I spent a lot of time in, a deer enclosure, and a brilliant play park I've spent hours in before. It was great to see again though as I hadn't been in there for a few years, and walking down the Stoke Newington Church Street, which features a lot of privately owned cafes and book shops, a type of street I always like to walk down, until I entered Abney Park Cemetery. This is one of the great cemeteries of London that has a lot of 100+ year old graves, shrouded by trees and a lovely chapel right in the middle of the grounds. Leaving the cemetery is where this 5 mile section ends, the road works disrupting the peacefulness of the cemetery beforehand, and I was ready to continue on the next section after a large portion of road walking. Springfield Park is next though, and I've wanted to visit here for a while, as it leads right through to the River Lea, catching a glimpse of the marina, as I get ready to join the towpath which I'll be staying on for a while. The River Lea crosses Walthamstow Marshes, which was really beautiful to experience, as well as passing underneath a railway line, spotting the new Standard Express train in its first day in service rumbling overhead. This leads through past the River Lea Riding and Ice Centres, and then a riverside pub which I've sat outside of before with family. That's because I have family who live nearby, so Hackney Marshes, where I was headed for, I am extremely familiar with as this is where we would always go to walk the dog, so I was excited to get the opportunity to walk through here on a walk. Just before I reached Hackney Marshes however, beside the Lea here is a nature reserve where there's a lot of old structures within as it used to be a place to filter water, and it's a genuine interesting explore around, of which I've done at night before too with my cousin whilst walking the dog. Into Hackney Marshes now, finding out the fact for the first time that this place holds a record for the most number of football pitches. I was always aware that there was so many football pitches here, but I didn't know it held this record. Taking a break in the Marshes, I contacted my family nearby who came over to say hello, which was a pleasant break from focusing on the walk, especially getting to see the dog too. Continuing on my walk afterwards, I carried on the River Lea, seeing for the first time, the amazing new development beside the water called Here East, which even has a building with old arcade machines in. I've walked down here before with my family too, and so I remember them constructing this development but it was my first time actually getting to see it open. This 4 mile section ends at Hackney Wick, still beside the river here, and for the first time, I was actually going to continue on a third section for the day. This third section starts off passing Old Ford Locks, the first lock I've seen on the River Lea so far today, noticing how there was a water bus logo too, which I don't think I've ever seen running, and of course, never counted as part of the buses challenge. You finally come off of the River Lea now, to turn on the Greenway, which I had also walked in its entirety before all the way through East London, reminding me of the Parkland Walk because of its similarity even though it isn't an abandoned railway. The Greenway runs between near to Victoria Park and the retail parks around Beckton, and I started off seeing a brilliant view of the Olympic Stadium, which is now the West Ham Stadium, as well as the Orbital, now a giant slide which is amazing to go down. I actually got really lucky when I had the chance to ride the Orbital Slide as my family had enquired at the front desk how much it is, and that's when a group of people, who had several tickets for people who didn't show up, sold us a ticket for only a fiver each, so of course we took that opportunity. I really wish I got an opportunity to explore this area around Stratford and the Olympic Park before the redevelopment, and although it is rather nice to explore, it would be great to have an idea of what it was like beforehand. The Greenway continues underneath Pudding Mill Lane Station, probably the best DLR name, apart from Mudchute of course, and over Stratford High Street, seeing a brilliant fast slide from the top of the path here down to a local park, which of course, I had to try out. This area used to be really industrial, obvious when you consider there's a whole bunch of rivers merging and splitting, and when you realise a place called Three Mills is nearby, so there was still some old buildings lying around, and you can even see what looks to be abandoned railway tracks that formed a part of sidings. The Greenway can be rather smelly however, when you walk it high up on an embankment, as well as crossing over tube tracks north of West Ham, as I believe it's on top of sewage pipes, but if you ignore that, it's still fun to walk along. However, the walk has to finally end, and I decided to do it halfway through this third section, which will make sense why in the final section, coming up next, at Prince Regent Lane, after a full 12 mile walk. Although this walk went to a lot of places I've been before like the Parkland Walk, Finsbury Park, Clissold Park, Hackney Marshes, and the Greenway, it was still a lot of fun to revisit, especially with new places like Woodberry Wetlands, Abney Park and Walthamstow Marshes, creating probably one of my favourite sections of the Capital Ring to walk. It was hard to believe that I only had one more walk on the Ring to complete the circuit around London. 

I started the first day of Capital Ring at Woolwich after doing some night routes, so it was poetic that I did the final day after some night routes too. However, they were actually the final night routes, finishing up the challenge of riding all of London's night routes with the N551 to Gallions Reach Shopping Park. After this, I caught an early morning 262 bus to Prince Regent Lane, to get back on the Capital Ring, which is the reason why I stopped the walk at this specific location last time. Not only was I about to complete two challenges in one day, it was also the 22nd of August 2020, and four years earlier, I set out to ride London bus routes 1 and 2, so it really was a poetic conclusion to the culmination of riding all the daytime and nighttime bus routes, London Loop and Capital Ring. The final walk started off back along the Greenway a little bit more during sunrise, cutting off to visit the Beckton District Park, which was really pretty because of how deserted it was at half 6 in the morning with the lake and the sun. I was a little bit worried that because I was starting the walk really early in the morning that local parks I was visiting wouldn't be open yet, and on the entrance gate, it did say it opened at 7AM, but luckily it was already open. I would have hopped the fence anyways, if it was small enough to climb. Standing underneath an imposing pylon, this section of the Ring ends, which might seem like a really small walk, but of course, I started midway through. It was finally time for the last section of the Ring, starting off briefly on another abandoned railway line that ran through Beckton, and then through New Beckton Park. Crossing the bridge over the DLR tracks at Cyrpus Station, which is strangely situated in the middle of a roundabout, and then through the university grounds out to the docks. The view from here is so good as you get an amazing look across the docks to the grounds of London City Airport, actually getting to see all the planes parked up with some taking off or landing, especially as they're heading towards the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf, even better when you consider sunrise was still occuring over to the right. Walking along the docks, and around the Gallions Reach Roundabout, until I reached Gallions Point, what felt like an abandoned spot beside the River Thames, but actually where another old railway line ran out to. I always liked that both the London Loop and the Capital Ring start and end with a Thames walk, and it was the case here as I started walking beside the water. You do get a great view of Crossness Pumping Station and the Barking Creek Barrier, which looks exactly the same as the one at Dartford. At Gallions Point Marina, there's an actual lock where the water from the Thames runs through into the large docks surrounding the airport that I saw earlier. Walking along a new development beside the Thames, I took advantage of the low tide to climb down a ladder to be right beside the water, which you are allowed to do. Leaving this new development, there was a gate blocking me from the path continuing along the Thames, and it took me a minute to realise I needed to press a button to unlock the electronic gate, something I've never had to on a public path before. The final part of the walk took me beside the Royal Victoria Gardens, but because of a construction beside the river, I was forced onto the road that leads down to the Woolwich Ferry, noticing the abandoned North Woolwich Station, which is always a great thing to see. I couldn't believe that I finally reached the end of the 78 mile Capital Ring walk, finishing on the opposite side of the Thames from where I started, but because I had the opportunity to link up the route, unlike the London Loop as there's no crossing from Purfleet to Erith, I walked the Woolwich Foot Tunnel, always a little bit spooky no matter how many times I walk it, to finish where I started. It was a really beautiful 6 mile finisher, taking 8 days, and insane to think I finished two major challenges in one day, 4 years on from starting the buses. I would definitely recommend the first section from Woolwich, as well as this last section, Wimbledon Park - Boston Manor, and Highgate - The Greenway. I said to myself at this point that I wouldn't be doing any more long distance pathways in London like the Green Chain Walk, as I had done most of these already as part of other walks, so I would just make up my own walks from now on. I really enjoyed my overall experience on the Capital Ring and it is definitely a good way to see more of London.