King Charles III England Coast Path: Canvey, Wallasea and Two Tree Islands and a walk from Greenwich to Gravesend.

Walking the King Charles III England Coast Path before fully open, will lead to a snagging list of paths to clean up later. Often high tides, coastal defense works, and housing developments, mean the paths are inaccessible, but in many cases I just missed bits out on ferries and short cuts. It was time to clean up, using a few spare days to walk 100km around Canvey, Wallasea, and Two Tree Islands, and then walk from the O2 stadium in Greenwich to Gravesend. I am glad I did, as these paths contain nice surprises.

Canvey is like a bath tub, floating in the Thames Estuary, full of immaculately clean lego brick static homes, lined in tidy rows. The roof tops must be several metres below the high tide, protected by a sturdy concrete sea wall, built after the disasterous flood of 1953, where 58 people lost their lives. I have noticed communities who are threatened by the sea, respond with noticable defiance. It is the same in Lincolnshire, Norfolk and South Yorkshire, evident in the notices, murals and conversations – a common cause, man vs. nature.

I walk clockwise, past the gas works, alongside the sea wall, to the natural landscape of the estuaries full of bird life. I pass by the Lobster Smack, which has the same vibe as the World’s End pub on the opposite shore. Cuckoos call and then can be seen, warblers of all persuasions chirped away in the rushes, and oystercatchers and dabbling ducks peck away in the mudflats. It is a quiet overgrown path, but an obvious route to the road bridge and the northern section of the island, passing the ominous flood defence gates on the way. At the eastern end, the marina contained the new and the old, a motley collection of rotting hulks and shiny new fibreglass vessels. The yacht club gave way to the sea wall, with a nice collection of murals depicting scenes relevant to the residents of Canvey – fishing, heritage and social life. It is a nice 22km, but I had energy left.

Two Trees is much smaller, hosting a model aeroplane airfield and a few bird hides. It only took 40mins to circumnavigate, but there are plenty of views to Southend and the creeks that encircle this island. The bird hide is perfect to watch terns and avocets breed on the gravel islands and the shrubland held many passerines, doing their best to hide from view. I could now drive through Southend (not a pleasant experience at school ending time), to my campsite adjacent to my next objective.

Wallasea’s coastal path was closed when I encountered the island a few years ago, but now it is an up and coming nature reserve, expanded and developed with the spoils of the Crossrail tunnel works. I set off late, to catch the evening light, and wish I had taken warmer clothing, as a stiff north-easterly keeps the wind turbines of the Dengie marshes turning purposefully. The fields are full of Hares, the size of small dogs, bouncing in the undergrowth. The path leads east into a remote and open landscape, towards Foulness and an area of England that is unseen, hidden from view – a perfect place for an RSPB reserve. Without binoculars I can only identify gulls, avocets, terns and ducks in the lakes, with an occasional marsh harrier and grey heron. At the eastern tip, a steel tunnel boring machine blade, with the names of the engineers welded into its form, serves as reminder of the materials that created the artificial islands. This soil emptied on the surrounding mudbanks to create managable water lakes drained to the depths preferred by each bird species. A fingerpost sign holds pointers to numerous bird migration destinations – brent geese have left for the Taymyr Peninsula in Siberia, some 2,932 miles away. This is a bird new paradise, and worth a day’s exploring , siting and watching. The return route to the campsite followed reed bed paths under the seawall, with occasional views of the River Roach. The circuit is just over 14km, a very pleasant walk on a May evening, were I did not encounter another soul.

It took me almost two hours to drive to the Isle of Grain, somewhere I could see easily from Canvey. Crossing the Dartford Bridge to Cliffe, I could park and walk around the new KCIIIECP path from the fort to Allhallows-on-Sea. I would have continued on to Grain and Strood, but time did not permit. Nevertheless the sea wall route was superb, with even more cuckoos calling and lengthy warbler concerts in play, amongst the world war explosive factory buildings and gravel pits. The sea wall is remote, and I did not expect to see anyone, until I met Gary and Helen, also KCIIIECP walkers heading for Gravesend, and then another pair, Tim and Jane, walking the coast on a sponsored walk.

The walk was typical east coast: sea wall, marshland and mudflats – a scene that is almost unchanged since Gilbraltar Point to the north. Yellow mustard plants lined the paths, more harriers, more cuckoos and and confusions of warblers in the hedgrows. On the shoreline: shellduck, Egyptian geese and ducks various with the occasional squeak from a redhshank. On the opposite shore is the immense container port of the London Gateway, with a Maersk monolyth docking with its cargo stacked high on her decks. I decided to head home at Allhallows campsite, taking a nightmare journey of connecting buses back to Cliffe – which either failed to arrive, or timetabled exclusively for schools. I should have got off the bus at High Halstow and walked through the RSPB woodlands with a chance to hear a nightingale. I shall return to do that when the path around Sheppey is complete and I can spend an afternoon walking from the campsite to Rochester.

This only leaves a walk to Gravesend from central London, a route I have partially completed by walking the Thames Path to the tidal barrier in 2012. I would walk east from North Greenwich tube station, which stops for the O2 Stadium on the south bank. I am glad I added this pre-walked section, as developments over the past 10-years have transformed the riverside. New public art from Antony Gormley, Damien Hirst and others, has been placed along the Jubilee Greenway – all spectacular works worthy of a trip alone to Greenwich. I reach the Environment Agency Information Office at the barrier, but it is closed. I hoped to read more about the 2100 flood defence project for the estuary – a common theme for all coastline around Kent and Essex.

At Woolwich, a further sculpture of male forms looked like another Gormley, who has used his body template in many of his works, but no, this one is by Peter Burke – 16 cast iron negative forms, 188cm high, not in conversation, somehow lost and aimless. The Dame Vera Lynn and Ben Wollacott ferries dosie doe across the river, full of cars and lorries, as busy as I remember from my student days in a Silvertown squat. Ben’s name a poignant reminder of a life lost, a young man from a long line of watermen, who manage the dangers of the river. I walk on to the Dartford Creek Barrier, which protects the River Derwent and Cray from flooding the reclaimed low lying areas of Dartford and Crayford. It is a haven for the birds, with extensive reed beds and mud creeks. Unfortunately, it take almost two hours to reach the opposite bank, and since a full walk would be 48k, I break by walking to Dartford station and a journey home, given a meal and a bed is easily worth the return fare vs. local accommodation.

I return the following day an walk along the eastern bank, listening to Cetti’s, Reed, and Sedge Warblers, but wonder where the Dartford Warblers are? I thought I may have heard one near the scrap yard as I departed the town, but the sweet song of the birds (and Marsh Frogs), was replaced by what I thought to be a crop scarer, but was actually a private firing range. I paused to watch the river traffic at lunch before walking under the Dartford Bridge (and over the tunnel), which seems to have been built without consultation with an architect, as it has no aesthetic value at all – a very brutalist, functional structure with no beauty. The same applies to the collosal distribution warehouses for Amazon, Lidl, and Ikea. Only the Swanscombe Pylon, carrying transmission lines above the Thames impressed, perhaps the largest structure I have seen since Hinkley Point C in Somerset.

Ebbsfleet marked another rail tunnel (HS1), and the famous football stadium, founded 1905. This led to the cement works, and a path through the collection depot and a lovely wartime memorial to those workers who signed up for King and country. exited the works to the amazement of someone who asked if I worked there. I said there is a path, the England Coast Path, and it runs for 2,700 miles when finished, and if you set off in that direction, you will return after several months from this direction. He was flabergasted, that it even existed, let alone followed our coastline.

Gravesend connected me with the ferry terminal I used in 2023, now no longer running. Also, missing is the LV21 lightship, the art hub that docked nearby. It is sad to see both now gone. There was some compensation. A visit to see the statue of Pocahontas, the famous native American who married an Englishman 400 years ago, the first women of that huge continent to convert to christianity. She is buried at the church, but it is not known where, as the current church replaced the one that burnt down in 1727. Gravesend has a rich history, and a station, with the fast HS1 service to St. Pancras and home.

Many of these walks would make excellent expeditions from London. An opportunity to leave the metropolis and connect with nature and experience the majesty of the Thames Estuary.

Next stop, the Solent Way, and the northern shores of the Isle of Wight.