Eridar two

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Not much to add to Daisy’s full description, which contains a comprehensive list of steps and hazards.

Walked Dartford to Erith, Saturday morning.
Loved the creekside path out from Dartford, with views to the M25 Dartford crossing (photos 1,2,3).
Was less enamoured by the A206, but happily this is a short stretch. Fly tipping (photo 4, as described by Daisy in her review) impeded but didn’t prevent access to the raised path at Crayford Creek, (photo 5), which is where you may encounter the rowdy dirt bikes.

The dirt bikes were just getting going (10.30 am Saturday). They may come up to the raised footpath, although I got the impression that whoever was in charge held them off coming onto the footpath until I had passed through, there’s plenty of space elsewhere for them!

After that it’s more conventional suburban streets and parks through to Erith.

I enjoy these London borderlands Slow Ways very much, and I think this one gets a good balance of avoiding busy roads and finding interesting ways through.

After testing the other EriDar I wanted to find a Slow Way which incorporated some of the Thames Path or walking along the River Darent, the riverside and marshes make this area very special. This is the best combination with a good balance of green, (fairly) direct, easy to navigate, quiet roads and the reed beds along the River Cray creek and the riverside walk from where it joins the River Darent all the way into Dartford.

It would have been the quietest by a long way too if not for the dirtbikes. But they aren't there always there, this was the first time I'd heard them and I'd recently been along the north bank of the Cray on a weekday early evening visit and occasional over the last decade or so which were probably at the weekend. The noise was wearing, perhaps a bit more so than the predictable thunder of heavy HGV traffic on Thames Rd, but worth risking it for the scenery and the quiet footpath into Dartford. It did fizzle out after crossing to the other bank of the river on the road bridge.

I didn't test this walk in a single go because I went back to the area a few times looking for better versions of this some other nearby Slow Ways.

Once through Erith town centre the remainder is along quiet residential streets except a couple of brief busier bits. It cuts through two smaller green spaces in Slade Green, apparently you might see lizards if you are lucky.

Slade Green has bus stops and over a footbridge, a train station, small shop and food outlets.

There are long but shallow steps over the railway footbridge (and the one used in EriDar 1), steeper steps up to Dartford station, those dirtbike "bumps", kissing gates. There are ramps up from the paths onto the Bob Dunn roadbridge and concrete blocks to stop flytippers' access to the fields. (They just dropped it there instead.)

As long as the dirtbikes aren't out this is a great walk in an upromising area, still good with them, particularly the peaceful approach into Dartford town centre along the river.

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