Kent: Gravesend to Cliffe 17/5/2010***

 

Geranium brutium   Heads or tails?     Alexanders

We caught the train to Gravesend and walked down to the ferry terminal to begin our walk along the south bank of the Thames.  The path is called the Saxon Shore Way and is occasionally signed.  It passes through the industrial foreshore of Gravesend and by the wharves of Denton, strewn with rubbish as expected, with some interesting alien plants, including false cleavers, although dominated by buddleia.  Here we found bladder senna and a garden geranium Geranium brutium.  At the end of the built-up area we followed a grassy embankment dominated by spotted medick and hoary cress. The flora is impoverished by horse and donkey grazing.  Inland is a military firing range, but a marsh between the fence and the embankment where there were brackish pools had both brackish water crowfoot and buttonweed.  On the banks above was a profusion of brown sedge.  We saw the odd heron, cormorant and little egret, passed the WWII Shornmead Fort, and then reached Shorne Marshes Nature Reserve, currently shorn of waders except the odd vociferous oystercatcher.  At the corner of this bay, where a spit of land runs to Cliffe Fort between the marsh and a large lake created by sand extraction, we went down to a little rubbish-strewn beach of gravel where we could sit on a white driftwood log to have our lunch.  A pair of mute swans passed by, one close behind the other, with booming wing-beats.  As we followed the spit of land we passed masses of bur chervil in flower and sunny interludes brought out green-veined whites with very distinct markings.  By the old disused fort there were current sand and gravel diggings and dinghies sailing on the lake.  Rounding the fort we walked into a storm of rain and went inland along Cliffe Creek, at the end of which was the RSPB reserve Cliffe Pools and a path to Cliffe village, by a quarry with early forget-me-not, and along another narrow spit of land and scrub between large lakes.  On the northern side was a large colony of shelduck.  The scrub was alive with songbirds, especially chaffinch, but also whitethroat and a nightingale with a powerful chugging song.  The land here was impoverished and bare, with hound’s-tongue, teasel and Alexanders.  Leaving the water behind eventually we found ourselves at the NW corner of Cliffe with a church, just south of which was the Six Bells pub (for beer and lemonade) and the bus terminus.  We had nearly an hour to wait here, but fortunately it was now sunny again and we could absorb the rays sitting on a pub bench. The bus took us to Canal Road, Strood, with a short walk to the railway station to catch the return train. View across Thames to Tilbury Buttonweed

Saxon Shore Way   Denton Wharf     Green-veined white