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This Week's Walks - Archive

Please see the Saturday Walker's Club This Week's Walks page.

This is an archive of walks done by the Saturday Walker's Club. You should only need to use this page if the SWC website is down.

Monday 2 January 2017

Bank Holiday Monday Walk South - "A walk of contrasts with lots of pubs"

SWC Walk 207 - Farningham Road to Sole Street
Length: 17.2km (10.7 miles)
Toughness: 3 out of 10

10.04 train from Victoria (10.14 Denmark Hill, 10.27 Bromley South) to Farningham Road, arriving 10.44.

Buy a day return to Sole Street.

For walk directions click here.

It is a new year, so why not try something different? This walk has attracted some lively comments in the past, but they seem to be all about paths overgrown with summer vegetation, which will definitely not be a problem at this time of year (it all dies back to nothing in winter).

It also features "lots of pubs", which sounded a good idea for a bank holiday - if one is busy, hopefully another will not be. And - most importantly given the current industrial dispute - it does not involve travel on Southern trains.

Otherwise, the walk creator is a bit modest about this outing in the gently-contoured countryside of North Kent, talking of "a walk of contrasts". A more enthusiastic write-up comes from a walk report this time last year: "Given the mixed reviews this walk was a very pleasant surprise! This walk was a lovely wander though the fields and villages of this not-so-distant part of Kent. The previously 'impassable' sections were all perfectly navigable and most of the field crossings were clearly marked."

More than that I cannot add, having not done the walk, but I can vouch for the Railway Inn at Sole Street station as a cosy place to wait for the next train.

Trains back are at 59 past the hour and take 49 minutes into Victoria.

1 comment:

Walker said...

N=20 refugees from the New Year's Day weather on this walk, including 2 late starters who caught us at lunch - all enjoying w=unbroken-sunshine. Any walk would have looked glorious on such a day, and this was indeed a fine day out. The rolling scenery had some fine vistas and charming corners.

Set against this were lots of big arable fields where clinging clay rapidly doubled boot weights, and more than a few electricity pylons. Paths across several of the arable fields had not been reinstated after ploughing or crop sowing, so might well not be passable in summer. On several occasion we used the GPX to resolve head-scratching over the directions.

We opted for the last of the pubs for lunch - Manor Farm Barn which was huge, modern, pleasant and efficient (though a little disappointed, I think, when we opted to order from the bar depriving the waiting staff of expected tips). We finished as a crescent moon and Venus arose in the clear night sky. The guard on the train said he had never seen so many people get on at Sole Street.