Today we continued our training for the big walk. We knew the weather would be hot so was a good chance to test our endurance.

Paul, Mike and I started from Hornchurch and walked through St Andrews Park 7.5 acres which won a gold award in Park of the Year, London in Bloom 2019.

Next up was the ex-RAF Hornchurch which was operational 1928 to 1962 and is now Hornchurch Country Park – numerous pillboxes, command bunkers and gun positions still exist. The airfield is said to be haunted and was the subject of a paranormal investigation in 2004

 Over the Rainham Marshes, via the Concrete Barges. These are concrete, iron-rod reinforced boats from WWII. Apparently these were made because steel was in short supply and were towed across the channel to create artificial harbors for the Normandy landings – each one weighed 160 tons! In 1953 they were used to shore up the flood defenses in the Thames estuary and have remained there ever since.

 The building on the other side of the river is the Dartford Creek Barrier. Paul and I discovered this on a walk last February. There is no bridge on the creek so it requires a detour of almost 6km to a bridge and then 6km back to the other side of the creek. As it was very windy and wet it was an interesting detour. Today we just looked at if from afar!

End of the outward leg was the RSPB nature reserve of nearly 5 sq km (an ex Ministry of Defence test firing range). It did seem though that all the birds (thousands of them) were in the river rather than the reserve!

Then back the way we came taking a detour through Upminster and skirted a cricket pitch which was in use.

Finally back at the start where the words from Noel Cowards song “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” were never more relevant as the day was, according to Robin Williams in Good Morning Vietnam, “Hotter than a snakes ass in a wagon rut”.

But 39km done in 30+ degree heat was very satisfying, if draining.

Less than 3 weeks to go now.