The Kent Coast and River Medway walks that we had embarked upon, the day out in Cambridge, and more particularly our recent week away, were all spaced out, but each left me completely drained, and whilst being mindful of not pushing myself into a full CFS relapse, I have still tried to get out and about, making the most of the good weather as well as having my daughter around as a walking companion, interspersing these bigger trips with some slightly easier walks.

At the beginning of the summer holidays we embraced the season with the Earth,Wind and Water Walk, one of a collection that I picked up in the Faversham Tourist Information Office a while ago, (and which can also be found at https://explorekent.org/?s=faversham). It starts from the picturesque and historic centre of Faversham, but you quickly leave the town behind as you head through the countryside and through a soft fruit farm.

In theory, walking through large expanses of polytunnels could be quite unattractive, but when they are full of strawberry plants and those strawberries look so ripe and delicious, it’s a different story and it makes me very glad that I live in the Garden of England.

We resisted the temptation to nip across and see if they tasted as good as they looked, and continued on to the hamlet of Goodnestone, where we stopped to look at the tiny Norman church of St Bartholomew’s.

We didn’t have the time or energy to follow the full 11 mile walk which goes out towards Seasalter before returning via the Swale Estuary and Faversham Creek, (nor the inclination to spend a considerable portion of it looking at the hideous new solar farm that is being built), so at this point we chose to take the short cut (which reduced it to 5 miles) through more strawberry fields until we reached the creek at Nagden. I loved the idea of this seed library that we passed on the way – it was disappointing to peek inside and find it empty, but then I wouldn’t have had anything to swap anyway!

We followed the creek back towards Faversham, stopping at Quints Retreat in the boatyard, a delightfully quirky little cafe with a lovely decking area on the edge of the water. Despite the threat of rain, we sat outside and enjoyed  a delicious banoffee frappe and a mozzarella and basil panini, looking at the Thames barges moored alongside. And the rain thoughtfully held off until we boarded the bus home!

We had a Swale Estuary walk on another day, although we approached it from a different direction. For a change, we caught the bus to Teynham, walked through apple orchards and fields of sheep to Conyer, and headed through the old brick works running alongside Conyer Creek, before reaching said estuary. Here we were still able to enjoy the unspoilt desolation and the fine views across the water to the Isle of Sheppey – no solar farms here!.

It was so quiet and peaceful, and until we reached the Oare Marshes Nature Reserve, we only came across one other pair of walkers who passed as we were sitting enjoying our picnic lunch.

For once I had remembered to bring my binoculars out with me. I am not very knowledgeable about birds (although I would like to be) and mostly use them to look at the scenery. On this walk though, as well as seeing what we could see on Sheppey, they were put to good use getting a closer look at the numerous frogs in a murky looking pond. They were initially very camouflaged amongst the weed and algae growing on the surface, but oh my goodness, once your eyes were tuned, it was positively crawling with frogs of all sizes!

We followed the Oare Creek down into the village of Oare itself. Although I am usually accompanied by my trusty flask, an ideal walk tends to feature some kind of food or drink stop, and we ended this one with a milkshake from the Cafe by the Creek. There was a huge choice as they could be made with any flavour of ice cream that was on the menu – not necessarily great for someone as indecisive as me! We both opted for the Kinder Bueno, and I can honestly say that it was the most delicious milkshake that I have ever had! It also provided the necessary sugar hit to get me back to the centre of Faversham, which in contrast to the peace of the rest of the walk, was all along pedestrian streets.

Somewhere we have been saying for ages that we must go again is the Wye Downs – in fact, we are filled wwith good intentions every time we pass on the train and see the chalk crown on the hillside. We finally managed to squeeze it in, and with a limited amount of time as my daughter was heading off on holiday in the afternoon, we chose a 4.5 mile walk from the AA Walks in Kent book.

The walk was initially on the flat. We followed the base of the ridge, with the crown, created in 1902 to commemorate the coronation of Edward VII, up on our left. It was nice enough route, but we knew that better was to come.

We were both pleased when we turned off through the entrance to the Wye Downs but rather surprised when we subsequently came across this sign on the gate ahead. Goodness! Nothing like a touch of jeopardy to spice up a country walk!

Luckily we didn’t stumble across any unexploded ordnance today, but as we walked through the Devils Kneading Trough – a dramatic bowl shaped valley cutting into the hillside – and wound our way slowly to the top, we were rewarded with some spectacular views over the Kent countryside. This was the path before us…

and we were huffing and puffing a bit by the the time we got to the top, but there was a well placed bench nearby and, although we did have to pace up and down at a discreet distance while we waited for the previous occupants to move on, we enjoyed the sense of achievement as we sat and looked back down at the way we had come. We were initially surprised by how much busier it was up here, until we realised that most of the people had just strolled over from the adjacent car park. (A small amount of superiority may have been in evidence, knowing that we had toiled up the hard way!)

We then followed the North Downs Way along the ridge of the downs, enjoying the amazing panorama of scenery below us, and watching the many kestrels hovering in search of a tasty meal. It was so lovely that we decided there and then that next year we would make a start on tackling the North Downs Way from start to finish! I can cope with two long distance footpaths at the same time!

There was an observation point directly above the chalk crown and we sat here and enjoyed a picnic lunch. We could see the trains chugging along in the distance, and it was good to know that the next time we are travelling that route, we will look up and remember the day.

Another walk that had been on our to-do list for a very long time was the Black Trail around Blean Woods – the longest of five colour coded and well marked trails of varying lengths which start from the main car park. With an additional 40 minute walk each way to and from house, our go-to is usually the 2 ½ mile red route, but for the 8 mile black route, we needed to set aside a more sizeable chunk of time – and a picnic lunch – in order for me to be able to tackle it.

Part of the Black Trail overlaps with the Big Blean Walk, and at the point where we reached the outskirts of the village of Dunkirk, and after a quick consultation with the map, we spontaneously decided to ditch the former and follow the latter to Victory Wood instead – a rather strange reversal of an attempt to follow part of the Big Blean Walk to Victory Wood a couple of years ago, when we missed a sign and a turning and got completely lost before finding ourselves on the black route and having to follow that back to the main car park rather than risk wandering about in circles forever. Whether we had just been too busy chatting and missed a key marker, or whether it had fallen off, we will never know, but this time, from the point that we joined it, we had no such problems.

The route was very clearly marked, and following the Heath Fritillary symbol it uses, we easily navigated our way. (It was clearly a very apt choice as, although it is one of the UKs rarest butterflies, this area of Kent is one of the few where colonies are thriving, and there were so many of these tiny creatures fluttering up around us as we walked through the grassy paths, that it felt as if we were in some kind of magical land.

Victory Wood covers a 350 acre site and was planted between 2005 and 2008 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Britain’s victory at the Battle of Trafalgar. We visited soon after it opened to the public and then a couple of times afterwards, but since becoming car-less in 2018 we had considered it to be less accessible, which is why it has sat on our to-do list for so long.

As this time we were walking, and not entering the site from the main parking area, we approached via a different entrance and were intrigued to come across some strange concrete structures dotted amongst the grass that we had never seen before.

They turned out to be part of a Cold War bunker, built in 1966 to monitor nuclear attacks and decommissioned in 1976. Amazing to think that all this was below our feet.

The woodland had grown up a lot since our last visit, and although we were walking along a ridge, the height and thickness of the trees and undergrowth meant that we were unable to enjoy the wonderful views out over the Swale Estuary (just realised that that’s the third time it’s got a mention in this blog post. I’m clearly obsessed!) until we reached the Link Sculpture – the perfect spot for a sit down and a picnic lunch, and the view was worth the wait.

We managed to continue following the Big Blean Walk without incident (we must have just been unlucky on that first attempt) all the way to the main road that runs through the village of Blean, at which point we debated whether we should catch the bus home because I was flagging. I decided that I would be ok to push on and then within 5 minutes regretted the decision but had to pretend that I didn’t as I struggled to put one foot in front of the other. We diverted onto the Crab and Winkle Way (the footpath/cycle path that runs between Canterbury and Whitstable, following the line of one of the first railways to be built in Britain) for the final leg, so it turned into a bit of a mishmash walk of three different footpaths. However, it is one that we will definitely now add to our regular repertoire. The full black route remains on the to-do list!