Yesterday was a rather good day that turned out to be very different to how I expected it to go. It was so good that it featured some jubilant feasting...or maybe I just had a valid reason to feel hungry. That extra eating did mess up my blood glucose and weight this morning, but before then I had a pleasant surprise when I got on the scales. It was all because I ended up walking far further than I predicted I would. When I set out I had doubts I would go any further than Ladywell...
   I did have a desire to follow the Waterlink Way to the north, but I didn't think I would take it to it's conclusion by walking all the way to Greenwich ! I did a little exploring along the way, and diverged from the Waterlink Way just before the final quarter of a mile (or less) to do a bit more exploring. I had mobile date, and wifi turned off on my phone, and I have every reason to believe that the 5.008 miles recorded on the outward journey to be accurate. I must confess I didn't want to be masochistic and walk home again, and so I caught a 199 bus back to Catford. The walk from the bus stop to home was 0.452 miles. I therefore claim my entire walk was 5.46 miles long yesterday.
  One of the signs I was following. This one marked the point where I was entering terra incognito, or whatever the proper name is for territory I was unfamiliar with. This point is just around the corner from Ladywell Station, and this section of the walk is mostly through sidestreets until it comes out near Lewisham station.
  It seems that around Ladywell the art of painting on the usually dirty and dingy sides of bridges, that carry the railway across the road, has been taken to new heights. This bridge over a side road is probably a little less than a quarter of a mile from Ladywell station.
  Another park to add to my list of parks visited, and also one that needs exploring at some time in the future. I did explore one tiny corner of it when I saw that it was easy to climb up onto the remains of a railway embankment that crossed the south end of the park. The railway, the Nunhead to Greenwich Park line, closed in 1917, and after all this time there is nothing to show that what looks like a very small and compact hill had anything to do with railways.
  Broadway Fields - another park for my list, but this one is a lot smaller, and is rather bland. It looks like it was a spare bit of previously "brown field" land left over as the area was re-developed, and the Docklands Light Railway (which forms one side of the park) was built.
  I have definitely been to one gig in The Birds Nest pub, and maybe two, but I never imagined I would ever walk there - particularly via a less than direct route. The bus is a bit of cute eccentricity by the pub. The left hand side of the pub is a scummy rock gig venue, and the right side, including the bus, is a clean, and almost posh restaurant with extra seating inside the bus.
  This picture, taken through the windscreen of the bus, came out better than expected (although I did clean a small area of the glass to take the picture through). The bus style seats are genuine, but half have been turned to face each other across a table. One thing I am unsure about is whether the bus is still capable of independent movement. I think not because it seems to be built into some of the buildings either side.
  By the old railway lifting bridge (on the line into the present Greenwich station) there is an adjacent footbridge across Deptford Creek (the very last bit of The River Ravensbourne).  It provides a good look down onto the slimy ooze either side of the main channel. I spotted these geese and a couple of goslings rooting around for food on that green slime.
  Prior to 1917 there was a second railway station on Greenwich. This plaque is mounted on the end pillar of what was once a railway bridge that carried Burney Road over the now filled in cutting to the site of the old station a hundred yards or so further on from this bridge.
Bastards, bastards, bastards... The cherry on the cake, the final reward for walking that 5 miles, was to have a look at The River Thames, and take some pictures of the river, but it was out of bounds because of Covid-19. The real stupid thing is that by closing this large area it just made the crowds in the town itself dangerously dense. I really had to keep my wits about me to try and keep as much distance as was possible in the middle of Greenwich, but there were plenty of places where 2 metres was just impossible. It felt good to get away from the area.

  I kept daring myself to try and walk back at least some of the way, but with a bus stop right by me I gave in and waited for a bus. I was happy that the bus was very lightly used, and there were probably no more than 4 people on the top deck. The ride back to Catford was almost pleasant in the bright sunshine. I deliberately got off the bus one stop early so I could walk past the Tesco Express store on the high street. I had been lugging around a ruck sack all day because I wanted to get some shopping.

  I found the Tesco Express store to be almost deserted. There was no queue, and I was ushered straight in. With no queue I felt able to spend time, just a few odd seconds here and there, to think about what I wanted to buy. I came away with a reasonable selection of food, but there were a few things I very slightly regret buying. Those things were sandwiches - very nice, but I shouldn't have eaten them all yesterday. Another contentious item was a 500ml tub of Halo Top ice cream - the brand that is a bit lower in calories and sugar than most other brands.

  When I got home I put my food into the fridge, and then stripped off my outdoor clothes down to just my underpants. Then I got on the scales. Wow, I haven't seen a reading that low in countless years. Of course it was mostly because of dehydration, but even so it was still lower than last time I was dehydrated after a long walk. Having got that ritual out of the way I tucked into the ice cream. It went down a treat, and I only felt a very tiny bit of guilt. The guilt came later when I scoffed the sandwiches !

  I then rested for a bit, but I now realise it was for less time than I imagined. I thought I had a half hour snooze, but the times don't add up. For some reason I thought I had got home a lot earlier than I actually did. I note that my last walk, from the bus stop to home was just after 2pm. Including the time I spent in the Tesco Express store, I was probably home by 2.30pm. I seem to recall that it was not long after 3pm that I finished my rest. I couldn't have been resting that long, although I did have another couple of short rests before I went through the pictures I had taken on the walk.

 It wasn't all that long to wait until dinner time when I started to eat the sandwiches. They were like crack cocaine - just one was enough to get me hooked ! When dinner time finally arrived I had to try and keep my salad, with some slightly dubious reformed chicken slices, as simple as possible. After dinner I went almost into relaxation mode again. It turned out that I was too relaxed to watch much TV, and ended up muting the sound on Star Trek to read some stuff on the internet.

  Before I went to bed I watered the garden. That was a little after 9pm and sunset. It was still light outside, but it was fading when I came in and went to bed. Initially I just lay on my bed reading, but as 10pm approached I thought I ought to try for some sleep. I turned out the light, and for maybe 10 minutes I thought I had made a mistake about feeling tired. Nothing happened for that 10 minutes, and then, seconds later, I was fast asleep.

  I was having a dream about walking home from work somewhere in north London when I woke up at the stupidly early at just after 4.30am. I did have ideas about getting up sort of early, but not that early ! It was light by then, and it seemed I would not be able to get back to sleep again. That lasted for probably no more than 5 minutes. I woke up again just after 6am, and that seemed a better time to slowly get up.

  My excesses yesterday raised my blood glucose to 7.6mmol/l - that is still no problem, but it might have been a fair bit lower without those sandwiches. I have possibly put on some weight as well. I expected my weight to be a fair bit higher because I was not dehydrated, but it was higher still. On the other hand, I have yet to go to the toilet, and that could make a useful difference, or would if by then I hadn't drunk anything. Oh well, maybe I'll have to compare my weight again under the same circumstances as yesterday.

  I am not sure if it is a bad idea, but I have it in mind that I want to get on a train, and go for a countryside walk - which for simplicity would be my favourite Eynsford to Shoreham (Kent) walk. I definitely won't attempt it if I have not gone to the toilet properly beforehand, but assuming I do, I should arrive home again fairly dehydrated, and be able to do a valid comparison with yesterday.