Saturday Ride by Bob Drake

Just in from short slow ride down to the London Gateway Logistics Park. You may think that’s a strange place to go for a bike ride but it has its advantages. For a start it has the best cycle paths by far in the area and the traffic at weekends is very light and cycling is safe. For anyone interested in industry the size and scope of this place is enormous. But for me it’s the nature that abounds there that is fascinating. There are several unused as yet areas that are at present flooded and have been taken over by visiting wildlife. This morning I spotted several species of wild duck, green plovers, snipe, swans, kestrels and to top it all a magnificent Marsh Harrier one of Britain’s largest birds of prey, He was hunting along one of the dikes by the side of the cycle path and eventually settled on one of the high lighting poles there. Unfortunately he flew off just before I could get my phone out for a pic. I saw more interesting stuff than in two visits to nature parks  last week,  and all within three miles of home. Wots not to like. 😋