6 on a cloudy breezy day The morning stretch was indeed interesting as was the walk round the reserve. We sat in the hides. There were some ducks and stuff, none obligingly close, and a flappy swoopy thing I took to be a lapwing. But what do I know.

The visitor centre was crowded. Some may have got coffee but I think it was mainly a picnic oriented lunch.

We all took the route back to Rainham which 2 of us found a bit grim. A lot of it along the service road for the landfill site. The distance back to Rainham from the reserve could have been clearer. It was misinterpreted as being 3km when what was meant was “3k more than the distance to Purfleet”. So more like 3 miles, then.

C2c had halved the number of trains. Four raced ahead to get the 3:33 . Two lumbered along and just missed it. A visit to the Phoenix ensued . Noisy, crowded with wall to wall sports tv. We sat outside. I’ll stick to the Purfleet end in future. Even if it does cost £1.95 more.

Walk fully updated after a walk check yesterday. Please don't use directions printed off before now, as some things have changed.

Bird sightings last week: 11 types of waders, 4 of raptors, 8 of wildfowl, 2 of heron, 9 of small birds.

13 and a small dog set off on this foray. A day miraculously sunny and dry after a gloomy, wet outlook. Not the most rural of walks but plenty to interest nonetheless. The group split on entering the marshes into mainwalkers and Thameswalkers I followed the latter group through what seemed like a hogweed forest and along the river. A route peppered with mysterious, mildly witty signs and mock gravestones. (I don’t know either). We passed some concrete barges left over from D-day. People kept stopping to look at ducks through their ‘bins’ (I could have told them what they were. Ducks)

Refreshment was taken at the RSPB centre. More people with ‘bins’. Some of us stayed for a look round the reserve some planned a circuit back to Rainham and others, including yours truly went straight to Purfleet.

There was a bit of a flap there with trains cancelled for what looked like another hour maybe longer. We had just about given up all hope when one turned up unannounced and whisked us away. The second miracle of the day.

1. Just me on this walk, on a day bright_enough_to_give_slight_sunburn. The designated train wasn't running, so it was necessary to take one bound for somewhere else as far as Barking, then a bus. Possibly others did something similar before or after me, but I never saw them if they did.

The RSPB cafe was much as these things always are, save that it was rather cramped due to the erection of a Christmas Fair in the restaurant, with most of the tables in course of diversion to the display of craft wares of that rather earnest kind most likely to test recipients' skills in feigning gratitude when they appear as Christmas presents in two weeks time.

The Royal Hotel 500m beyond the RSPB is so beaten up that it looked abandoned from the river. The impression was reinforced in the car park on other side of the building, where the first car had a completely flat tyre and had obviously travelled nowhere in some time. The grass was unmown and the plants in the window boxes look like plants in any window boxes I have ever owned, ie dead. The sign announcing the name and owner had been removed from high up on the wall, leaving its outline on the paint. The place was in fact open, but looked so frayed that I didn't dare venture beyond the lobby. I suggest it is removed in the walk notes until someone braver than me determines that it is as a viable lunch stop.

The notes have this walk just right. It's not a country walk, but it's a distinctive corner of the country that I'm glad to have had the opportunity to see.

I planned to do the walk as well today, but started at the previous stage of the LOOP (Upminster Bridge), adding 4 miles to the walk. I got to Rainham station and saw that no trains were running, so decided to return to Barking and southeast London. I've walked the LOOP four times, so know the Rainham to Purfleet stretch very well. I recommend doing the extra four miles from Upminster Bridge tube station if this walk is done again. It's mud-free, so can be done any time of year.

I managed to speak to Thurrock Council recently and they informed me that the vast amount of illegal fly-tipping adjacent to the Thames Path near Purfleet that made the national news back in January this year has now been largely cleared. However this is still a challenging part of the eastern sector of the Thames path and in my view the general environment has badly degraded since I started intermittently walking it in the mid 1990s. You will need a high tolerance of rubbish, graffiti "art" and industrial desolation to "enjoy" this 5 mile stretch. So, do it if you're hard enough!

My comments re fly-tipping etc relate to the Purflet to Grays section of walk 203, not to any part of walk 172

Just 3 on this walk. The weather was in two halves: in the morning w= murky-cold-and-drizzly and in the afternoon w= brighter-and-mild. We reached the RSPB cafe about 12.15pm and it was already filling up. We had tasty basic snack meals: baked potatoes with fillings and lots of excellent salad and soup and bread and cake. None of us wanted to do a circuit of the reserve but an RSPB volunteer allowed me to look through his expensive telescope and pointed out some black tailed godwits and a large flock of lapwings.

We all agreed not to do the short distance back to Purfleet but retraced our steps to Rainham where towards the end we took a different path back to Rainham so we could experience just a little light mud for the proper SWC winter walk experience. We upped the pace for the last 1km to catch a homeward bound train at 2.40pm as it arrived in the station. A gentle and pleasant winter outing by the atmospheric Thames