Wooabb two

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I walked this from Abbey Wood to Woodwich on a sunny afternoon. It had rained earlier in the day.

The first third is along quiet residential roads, first following the railway (photo #1), before heading north (photo #2) towards the Ridgeway. It follows this for the middle third (photo #3, #4), and is lovely, with interesting views of old industrial bits, and new residential (photo #5) bits north and south. Crossing underneath the flyovers at Plumstead was easy enough. And then the last third was along more (new) residential streets (photo #6, #7).

A good route, but too much urban walking to my liking.

Overall I enjoyed this route, it was easy to navigate and either no- or low- traffic except a short bit between the Plumstead underpass junction and the beginning of the residential developments at Woolwich Arsenal . The surroundings were diverse enough to keep my interest and I always enjoy using green routes through urban areas. At the Plumstead Ridgeway/underpass junction there are a lot of options and turnings which is a bit of a pain but this way through is the simplest of the options I think.

Starting at Abbey Wood the residential roads were greener than expected and very low in traffic despite it being school pick up time (for a surprisingly dense population of schools). i considered a different route between the housing as it looked greener on the map but I think it would be quite maze like and this is easier to follow.

The Ridgeway path is green and quite wild (not overgrown though) which gives some sense of distance from the sometimes noisy industrial sites either side, they are currently mixed in with wild brownfield sites but that might not last. The flip side of that is isolation which is probably not great at night, I felt perfectly safe until I started thinking about it, but there's no lighting and exits are quite widely spaced. The only other woman I saw (at around dusk on a winter afternoon) was moving fast on her electric scooter.

Road towards Woolwich Arsenal is terribly easy to navigate. It does have a bit more traffic but is still quiet for the area, as the only destination beyond is the residential developments. It starts out passing some commercial buildings, but that gradually shifts to new development which has built around (gentrified) buildings from the historic naval/industrial era.

The approach to the meeting point (buses and National Rail station) goes right past the DLR and new Elizabeth line stations so you're spoilt for public transport options.

Note for exiting the Ridgeway path. All the exits look fairly similar so if Abbey Wood is your destination take the first one once the south side becomes residential. At the Plumstead end, if you (like me) miss the last turn off then you'll end at the high level end point which leads onto the roads, where you could get a train or buses but it isn't terribly pedestrian friendly and you'll have missed the onward route via Mallard Path, so take the path down and back to the right which soon turns again to the low level exit. It's probably easier than following the official route.

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