Weekday walk #11

I've been washing some of the treasure I picked up from the Thames foreshore at low tide yesterday.

Gill and I were walking from London Bridge to Limehouse, along the north bank of the river, but had barely walked 100m before we were enticed onto the muddy shore by a very low tide, some friendly archaeologists from the Museum of London, and the sight of hundreds and hundreds of old clay pipes and other interesting bits of historical debris.  We pottered along the beach, exclaiming at all the things we could see.  Anyone is allowed to use their eyes only to look for treasure on the foreshore, as long as they don't dig or scrape the surface in any way.  You must not dig or use a metal detector unless you have a valid license from the Port of London Authority.

And then we decided to explore further, and we walked under the large pier that you can see behind Gill in the picture above.  This is what it looked like when we walked in.
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We weren't under there for long - maybe 20 minutes - but we were totally absorbed in what we were doing, and crucially we kept walking further in, while we were looking at the rubbish around our feet rather than at the river in the distance.  I suddenly heard Gill shout and I looked up at her, confused.  She thought we'd got lost because she couldn't see which way we'd come in - then in a split second we both understood that the river was rushing in and that our way out had almost disappeared under the incoming tide.  The water was hitting the wall at the back of the pier; on the right hand side in the photo above.

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We have never moved so fast in our lives!  Gill got a wet foot, and we both scraped our arms against the wall and got covered in slime, but we made it out.  I think another 60 seconds and we would have been trying to wade out, or shouting for help.

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We were both shaken and felt rather stupid - we had no idea the tide could come in that fast.  But we know now, and will be much more careful in future!  We came up to street level and sat outside the Tower of London for a restorative cup of coffee and a chocolate brownie.

We quickly left the crowds around the Tower of London behind and came to St Katherine's Dock and Wapping, which is one of my most favourite parts of East London.  You are close to the river all the way, along Wapping High Street and surrounded by beautiful historic wharves, pubs and warehouses.
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We stopped for lunch in a little park, overlooking the headquarters of the river police.  Just as we got out our sandwiches about twenty policemen, all wearing full body armour and carrying guns, ran down the gangplank to their jetty and got into two black speedboats.  I think it was a training exercise, but it was still extremely unnerving - I don't like seeing armed police - and I was glad we hadn't needed them to rescue us from under the pier at London Bridge an hour earlier.  They would not have been impressed!
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By now we were thoroughly spooked by the way our day was unfolding, and we finished our lunch and set off for the final short walk to Limehouse station.

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There were glorious views of the widening river to cheer us up, and bright kayaks tied up in a green lock near Limehouse basin.
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When I got back home I was horrified at the state of my poor hands and only slightly less horrified at how lucky we'd been to come away with one wet foot and some dirty, broken fingernails.

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But I still think it was worth it for this amazing treasure.
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