Today James McComiskey, an RSPB volunteer and I drove out onto the North Kent Marsh aiming to go beyond Lower Hope Point and look at the Blythe Sands area on the south bank of the River Thames.
The seawall continues on and eventually peters out a little way away from Egypt Bay. Climbing up the steep bank and looking over the wall I wasn't really sure of what I would see plastic wise, everything or nothing. What I saw was, unfortunately, everything. Everything I had witnessed before all those months ago at the latter end of 2017 that had motivated me to organise the three cleanups removing over two and a half tons of plastic from a fairly small section of the Thames.
My initial thought was 'OMG here we go again'.Here are some images to illustrate the point.
These images are you will agree are as shocking as those from 5 months ago a mile or two upstream.
A fourth cleanup will be arranged in the next few months or so and I will, of course, let everyone know well in advance of the time, date etc
So for the good news. Sitting in the Walnut Tree Car-park listening to the birdsong this morning I heard a sound I'd not heard for a handful of years, the oh so evocative purring of a Turtle Dove atop the old Walnut tree. Hastily I scrambled to get the camera out of the bag, get the lens cap off and the right lens on and fire off a couple of shots before it flew off towards Bromhey Farm, so here is the humble result.
The North Kent Marshes are a very special area and worth preserving at all cost.