The Rotherhithe Peninsula must be one of the most cycle friendly parts of the capital. Arrive at Canada Water station and pick up a cycle from the bikes for hire rack - and off you go.
But first watch the ducks bobbing about on Canada Water and sitting on the floating islands.
Then cycle along the path alongside Albion Channel - a waterway that has been created through the developments that were built on the docklands which once dominated the peninsula.
Albion Channel
The path is flat and wide - ideal for cycling - and leads to Surrey Water, where swans can be seen - one here resting in the middle of the water.
A resting swan
Turn into Dock Hill Avenue, a road that has few cars. The streets around here a quiet and there is little traffic, making cycling much safer and enjoyable. Then the road becomes a path and there are some attractive houses along here, one with a wather vane, built in the style of an English village.
A house with a weather vane
Country cottages
At the end of the avenue there is a steep flight of stairs leading to the top of Stave Hill and the path leads around the hill and into Stave Hill Ecology Park. Here in the park's young woodlands can be found birch, poplar, ash and oak trees, primroses and bluebells.
A path through the ecology park
There are homes provided to many different creatures here: crumbling walls for butterflies and spiders and wetlands fed from a chalk aquifer with water pumped up via a borehole for water loving insects and ducks.
Continue through and park and you arrive at Russia Dock Woodland. It is still possible to see the edge of the dock which was filled in and planted with trees.
The edge of the dock
There are poplars and willows which provide shelter for pipstrelle bats, hedgehogs and foxes. Amongst the flowers that can be seen hee are cowslips and bluebells - and Canadian fleabane, brought here as seeds on the ships that once docked in Surrey Docks.
Spring blossom on a tree beside Russia Dock
By discovering the countryside in the city, we also peel back layers of history. There are remnants all around here from when the docks dominated this landscape. Brick, concrete, wood and metal can be found.
An old dock wall
But the grey and brown colours will one day be covered in green: vegetation is already creeping over the top of this one.
And this area of marshland which was developed for industry will be returned to nature.
Canada Water Station