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WALK 1

Rainham Marshes and Coldharbour Point

Start/finish Purfleet station (TQ 554 781) Distance 8 miles (13km) Time 3½hrs Maps OS Explorer 162, Landranger 177 Refreshments Royal Hotel, Purfleet; café at the RSPB centre Public Transport Trains every 30 minutes off-peak Parking Rainham Marshes RSPB centre, New Tank Hill Road, RM19 1SZ (TQ 547 787)

This is a walk around one of the best places in southern England to see its birdlife. The marshes east of Rainham were formerly used by the military, which kept other users away, and the recent refurbishment of the area by the RSPB is an object lesson in conservation. The walk starts with a circuit of the reserve, just inside Essex, before taking to the riverside, at London’s easternmost edge – industry hems in the path, but many species of gull, duck and wader rest and forage here.

The southern edge of the RSPB reserve

Turn right out of the station and walk along London Road to the Royal Hotel. Here turn left on a path for a few metres to the Thames, and turn right beside it, passing the Purfleet Heritage Museum housed in a former munitions magazine on your way to the RSPB centre. Here, get a ticket to enter Rainham Marshes Nature Reserve – it’s free for RSPB members and residents of Thurrock and Havering.