If I am *really* picky, I still found the route a little rough in places....

Derick Rethans

After leaving Swanley, which required some residential streets, the route soon gets through Swanley Park, with fields and woods. The walk around the golf course is quite nice (photo #3), especially the woods to the north-east (photo #4), with lots of birds....

Derick Rethans

This was overall a good route, but there were a few places you can't really walk (across the golf course, and the south west corner of Swanley Park). I also found the route to be hard to follow, as it was crudely drawn. I'm therefore flagging this, and adding a new variant....

Derick Rethans

Agree with the previous reviewers a good walk mostly alongside The Shuttle River. After a wet winter the ground was soft and quite muddy through Bexley Woods. But a pleasant walk mostly away from traffic....

Strider

Martens Grove is beautiful, hilly, and is paved but covered in a thin layer of dust and leaves....

Strider

A good route between these towns making the best of the little green spaces....

Strider

The residential streets used are not optimal for quiet traffic particularly at the Bexleyheath end with heavy traffic on the A207....

Daisy C

Both times a fine route, plenty of off road paths, direct....

Jane Taylor

Best part for me was Martens Grove park, a little outcrop of ancient woodland and modern parkland....

Jane Taylor

On leaving Chieveley Road I turned left to reach Bexleyheath Broadway....

JohnMyerson

Leaving the busy high road soon behind (photo #1, #2), the route first mainly follows residential roads....

Derick Rethans

When you come out of the park, and after another short stretch along residential roads, the path trough Marten's Grove was lovely (photo #1)....

Derick Rethans

The route goes right at the end of this track and then there's a metal gate giving access to the golf course. After crossing Birchwood Road you can go through the gap in the hedge but it's easier to go west 50 metres and use the track to get to the footpath next to the fence. The route then passes the Dawn to Dusk Day Nursery building and the track to the overflow car park to reach the park exit to Moreton Close....

JohnMyerson

Mainly an OK route with reservations at the Swanley end and one or two details. I've uploaded an alternative. It's an extra 900 metres from Bexleyheath Station to the Broadway....

JohnMyerson

The kiosk in Danson Park does drinks and ice cream but little food (no cakes!). The back streets into Bexleyheath Broadway are fine....

JohnMyerson

The route follows a signed cycle path to Falcon Wood through Eltham Park South although there's some noise from the A2 road. After a short section of private road and by taking Lion Road you reach Bexleyheath Broadway....

JohnMyerson

I started at Dartford Station (toilets) and shopped for lunch in Crayford Sainsbury's (in Roman Way with cafes and toilets)....

JohnMyerson

I put in a photo of the uphill copper beech avenue in Hall Place park, which Daisy mentions in her route description. The A223 at Bourne Road by Hall Place took a lot of patience and a little assertiveness to cross safely....

Jane Taylor

After that it was straight into Lamorbey park, picking up the river Shuttle (photo 1), and then Bexley Woods (photo 2), a gloriously deep shady green beech woodland. It does look like mud and maybe flooding could occur in Bexley Woods, but nothing like that at this time of year....

Jane Taylor

It’s a very good route in the main, easy to follow, but there are a couple of sections where the urban walking is unnecessarily long winded and that made me a bit grumpy! My other grump came at Bexley, where the route goes along the busy Bourne Road rather than the more direct and quiet Albert Road. The other place I had a problem was the footpath south east of Birchwood Road, which is overgrown and impassable (photo 8)....

Jane Taylor

The route passes Bexleyheath station; the meeting point is some distance away but with good bus links including the Super Loop bus...

Jane Taylor

After leaving Bexleyheath's centre (photo #1), the first part of this route is mostly along quiet residential streets (photo #3, #4), with occasional highlights such as the Bexleyheath Cemetery (photo #2)....

Derick Rethans

After rounding the church at Lamborey (photo #1), you head straight into the lovely park with the same name (photo #2)....

Derick Rethans

Nice route Well planned out No problems...

Scott Johnson

very nice bridge walk over motorway!! cool vibes...

aleks

At the Abbey Wood end there is a lot of walking through some lovely green and wild places, then quiet residential roads punctuated by a station and some shops. I wasn't happy with the vague line that AbbBex 1 took through Lesnes Abbey Woods, which can be very disorienting even if you are following an actual path, or that it missed Bexleyheath Station when there isn't a station at Bexley town centre....

Daisy C

in West Wickham OS the mapped line doesn't fit the rather curving and sometimes steeply sloped paths, there is no line of sight to help you either....

Daisy C

It was clear which route to take through Martens Grove and although there was no trodden path in Barnehurst Op Sp, you just follow the scrub along the side of the park....

Daisy C

Joyden's Wood was especially atmospheric, with delicate icicles festooning spiders webs and hazel twigs, and whole trees fully silvered by frost, a natural Christmas Grotto. Along the way there were stiles, a couple of anti-motorbike and/or anti-horse width restrictions, a kissing gate, prominent tree roots and non-drop kerbs, but it avoids muddy sections despite the bridleways and so many local stables using Joyden's Woods. Down the eastern edge of the wood the route line is a bit vague, use the footpath close to the edge. There are many other ways through Joyden's Wood on smaller paths including the Faesten Dic trail. After Joyden's Wood the route joins SidSwa 2 along footpaths: beside fields, a golf course (another eating option - it's open to anyone) and a garden centre. Joyden's Wood to Bexley was rechecked in late spring 2023....

Daisy C

In early November it was muddy in places, particularly between Hall Place and Crayford and then on the footpath through the wetland (Thames Rd / Maiden Lane)....

Daisy C

This is a lovely route which mostly follows the Shuttle Riverway which is waymarked, so navigation is quite relaxed. The Shuttle is a large stream now and the Riverway isn't a fully off-road route but a green/blue chain of small parks and some wilder areas with only a few short and quiet links on roads....

Daisy C

A very direct route with two decent sized green spaces but also avoidable road walking with busy traffic. Eltham Park North blends into shady Shepherdleas Wood but again noise from the A2 cutting. At the end of the woods don't take the footpath ahead, turn right on the road bridge to Falconwood station, then Lingfield and Millbrook, it's fairly obvious just that it's the only section of the route which is not perfectly plotted. Edited 1) to add photos 2) I might walk the route again, with Bexleyheath amendments, but for pleasure and purpose combined I'd use EltSid 2 and BexSid 2. 3) A more accessible version with hard surfaces and no sharp slopes would use Eltham Park South and the path to Falconwood Station which is on that side of the A2 but it has more A2 traffic noise....

Daisy C

Fairly urban walk, but felt effective and was easy enough to follow....

ShortLegsLongWalk

This was a good route for the area, mainly using smaller quiet roads and going through two parks which I hadn't visited before. I did not do the last section (to bexleyheath high street) as I went from the park to the train station so I cannot comment on this section....

Alex_D

There's a 20p toilet half-way on Crayford Waterside, as well as a micropub....

Richey1977