I’ve agreed to step in to lead the annual Southwark Cyclists’ ride to the London Stone at Yantlet Creek in Kent. In bygone times, several stones marked the city’s geographical limits. We’ll be riding to the stone on the south bank of the downstream Thames.

The London Stone at Yantlet Creek

It’s an 80 mile round trip from the start at 9am on 18 June 2011 at Cutty Sark Gardens, Greenwich. Fairly fast roads to Gravesend then more of a wayfaring feel to the ride to the Stone itself, maybe taking in some unsurfaced tracks. It’s estuary country, natural and spoiled in equal measure, wild and strange. Distant echoes of Conrad’s seafarers’ tales and Wilko Johnson’s guitar from across the water on Canvey Island. Here’s Iain Sinclair. We’ll have a coffee on the promenade at Gravesend and stop for lunch at a pub in Cooling.

There is an option for train back from Gravesend for those who find 60 miles is enough for one day.

This is a ride that would have been led by Barry Mason had it not been for his untimely death last week. More details on the Southwark Cyclists website.