Capital Ring Section 3

A murder in progress in Beckenham.

Or "I was walking with a limp when I got home - and the following day too".

Section 3 of the Capital Ring runs from Grove Park to Crystal Place - at 7.8 miles, plus the half-mile that gets you from the former's station to the start of the section, it is the longest section of the route. In fact it's longer than some sections of the London Loop.

It's a mixture of parks and suburbia; in fact a good deal more of the latter. However, you're still pretty close to nature, as the roads are generally wide tree-lined avenues with semi-detached housing and expansive pavements.

(London has a lot of trees. It is estimated that there over eight million of the things in a city of around nine million people.)

Speaking of nature, you can also see rather a lot of birds, including the aforementioned crows... but you can also hear them. I've recently installed a bird identification app on my phone and one of the most frequent calls it identified was the ring-necked parakeet, which sounds like this:

Anyway, it all got a bit samey with the suburbia stuff, not helped by me doing something to my right knee just after lunch that increased my discomfort levels.

I had lunch at a café in Beckenham Place, a large park set around a medium-sized mansion built by a Quaker timber merchant. A teenage girl on a school trip described the place twice as "ragebait", but I didn't ask her what she actually meant.

One amusing highlight was seeing these signs on the railway bridge at Penge West.

The irony here is palpable - Connex was known for dirty trains and poor reliability; continuing to use slam door stock instead of buying modern stuff. Eventually they lost their franchise to Govia, who ran it until 30 May this year, it now being under public control ahead of becoming GBR Southern, with one unit already in the new livery.

The route finishes in Crystal Palace Park, with a section that takes you past a bunch of dinosaurs added in 1854 when the titular exhibition building (mostly destroyed in a 1936 fire) moved here from Hyde Park. The dinos reflect 1850s understanding of palaeontology and so, like a certain whale at the Natural History Museum, are not exactly accurate representations. However, they've been restored and are now Grade I listed.

I only got one curious dog, although one was blocking my path and needed the owner to coax it away. However, I got two curious people who asked me what I was doing and were interested when I explained the walk to them.

Speaking of dogs, I shall conclude with this video of a dog on their own barking at a squirrel in a tree.

No owner seemed to be near the animal, who was wearing a collar. I hope they're OK.