Yesterday I tried the Waterlink Way as a route up to London. It's not bad - rather like some of the better bits of the Wandle Trail. It's part of NCN 21 and I picked it up at South Norwood Park, about a mile from East Croydon Station. The surface is pretty good - some tarmac and some gravel - and it's continuous and traffic free from Croydon to Greenwich. There's even an interesting cycle bridge over the railway at Lewisham, where you ride up a spiral, cross over and then spiral down again. Not many of those about ...
From Greenwich you've got plenty of choice: there's the Thames Path East or West, the Foot Tunnel under the Thames to Canary Wharf, the Thames Clipper commuter boats will take four bikes and go up and down the river every twenty minutes or so and the Overground will whisk you back to Croydon in about twenty minutes. It takes bikes between ten and four and at weekends.
I rode West and picked up the CS7 Superhighway at Southwark and then the Wandle Trail from Colliers Wood - an easy and pleasant Autumn ride.
Mark
1 comment:
Mark, I have to concur with your choice of route it's been a favourite of Bob Starey's for years. I first traversed it with him some four years ago when Brian his brother was still active. At that time we were having a joint Tuesday off road ride with the SRCC. We went past Cutty Sark and then through the foot tunnel to Canary Wharf. You can also go that way to the Olympic site along the river Lee. I remmember on one occasion when Giono Ratti was with us and he failed to observe a flight of granite steps on the embankment after Canary Wharf and mistaking them for a ramp rode strait down and came a real cropper badly shaken but not hurt apart from his pride. A very good route!
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