Only a few days after finishing the third section, I’m back out again to polish the rest off. As it’s not very much distance, I decide to walk from Fenchurch Street to King’s Cross rather than take the tube. That adds 4km.
Back on the Regent’s Canal, it’s a similar diet of backs of industrial units, offices and apartments. The tow path is at least less mucky than last time though.
I’m barely back on the canal when it disappears into a tunnel – a tunnel with no tow path, necessitating picking my way through the streets above. Amazingly, an information panel actually tells me exactly what to do, which I didn’t expect.
I emerge from the back streets at Angel and find my way back to the canal quite easily.
The sameness of the canal is starting to get to me now though, and I’m looking forward to getting to Victoria Park.
The signs start to tease me with the distance to the end falling in 1/2 miles for what seems to be every actual mile I walk.
Finally, I’m at a sign where the path splits – one way east to the Lea Valley (which I walked in Part 1), one way back the way I’ve just come, and thirdly down the Regent’s Canal to Limehouse, where I started the walk 4 years ago.
That’s also the easiest way home, so I retrace my steps south towards Limehouse.
At Mile End, I’ve had enough of the canal and detour onto the Mile End road to walk down through Whitechapel to Fenchurch Street for a train home. It’s further than I thought.
So ends the Jubilee Greenway, and whilst it’s had its highlights and points of interest, I’m glad to cross it off after so long.
At the start of this project I envisioned working my way out through each of the London rings – the Jubilee Greenway, Capital Ring, London Loop and London Countryway, but that’s not going to happen either. I decided long ago that I wasn’t going to bother with the Capital Ring – my wife’s been walking it and finds it a bit dull, and I’d already suspected that it wouldn’t be that good.
I may at some point re-walk the London Loop, which was a great walk, but I’ve got plenty of other projects that I ought to do first. When I do walk it, I’ll probably do it in the “correct” order from Erith clockwise round to Purfleet, instead of the way I did it last time.
Anyway, the next project is egging me on to get started…
