This is now a TEN MILE walk – largely because I now know that the pub is open on week-ends (though we did not have a chance to check it on our mid-week recce). Trains: As per programme – Charing Cross, 8.34, Waterloo 8.37; London Br 8.43, arr Chilham 10.08. Read more…
1 June. I am writing this post in penance for not being on the walk – which I was supposed to lead. Very many thanks to Daphne, who stepped in to lead, with support from Christine M and Tony. This is a walk through farmland, orchards and woods on the Read more…
This walk is much muddier than I expected for the time of year. You are advised to bring poles for navigating the mud – which makes this 9-mile walk feel more like 10. There are about ten stiles, two or three of them difficult (one almost impossible). Two busy roads Read more…
27 April. This was an unexpectedly good day for walking, with the rain keeping off till we had all piled into a bus at Alfriston. Coming to the top of the steep hill up from Polegate, and rewarded by the song of skylarks Then to Jevington, where they claim to Read more…
9 March. This was a slightly truncated version of my planned walk (probably about seven miles as it turned out). The mud, which is sabotaging all our walks this year, made us abandon the planned lunch stop in Underrriver. The final steep descent was impossible when I did the recce Read more…
13 January. A grey but largely dry day, and we avoided the worst mud. We skirted alongside the edge of Farthing Down in the Morning, through Happy Valley and up to Chaldon Church. This had been open when Christine M and I did the recce, but unfortunately it was closed Read more…
Trains: Please note the train is earlier than originally advertised. It will be leaving London Bridge at 9.59, East Croydon 10.17, arr Coulsdon South 10.25. The Walk is 7-8 miles through Farthing Down, Happy Valley and Coulsdon Common. It is undulating with some short but sharpish hills. These can be Read more…
2 December. It was a cold and foggy day as thirteen ramblers set off down the Darent Valley, under the railway viaduct to Lullingstone Castle. It was very muddy underfoot and four of our number preferred to stay in the valley, following the Darent to Shoreham, where they visited the Read more…
This is a change from the original programme. It will probably be rather muddy with some hills in the morning. Trains. London Blackfriars 9.10; arr Eynsford 9.52. Buy a return ticket to Otford. This is the Sevenoaks train, also calling at Elephant 9.13 and Herne Hill 9.22. The walk. A Read more…
28 October. This was the first walk I had led since a hip operation, and so I kept the distance to about seven miles, and we avoided the steeper hills around Penshurst, staying mainly on farm tracks and country lanes. For reasons known to Victorian engineers, Leigh station is closer Read more…