The Pelican Stairs

A blustery, showery puppy walk to Wapping.

WonderA had taken over leader-of-the-pack status, allowing me to skip around irresponsibly for the first time all week.

We headed first to the Limehouse shore, a turning tide cut short our mud-larking but not before we’d all collected treasure.

So, on toward Wapping, stopping for a romp with a happy gang of local doggos up for a rumpus. Tilly is Sumo-like, bowing then charging forward to wrestle and run rings round her playmates...a joy to watch.

Later, we stop for welcome coffee and treats in Wapping and then begin to retrace our steps, soon getting seduced by a narrow dark slot between buildings framing a view of the river, now at a brimming high tide.
This is Pelican Lane and Stairs, an ancient landing stage for ferries across to Rotherhithe.

We sit on a low step, just above the lapping wash of the tide, all of us staring out across the broad churning river...lost, hypnotised by the foreverness of it all, as Pepys, Dickens and Turner had before us.

We could have stayed all day...