10.22 train from East Croydon * to Cowden, arriving 10.53.
* This train actually starts from East Croydon today. The railway planner suggests a connecting Thameslink train calling at Finsbury Park at 9.38, St Pancras Thameslink at 9.45 and London Bridge at 10.00, arriving East Croydon at 10.14. But Thameslink trains can be a tad unreliable and the Cowden train is only hourly, so you might want to leave a bigger margin of error to make the connection.
London Bridge may be rather busy today, since engineering works mean all Southern trains that normally start from Victoria are starting from there: so if you can buy your ticket elsewhere or in advance, do. The same engineering works mean there are NO direct trains from Clapham Junction to East Croydon.
Buy a day return to Cowden
What with rail engineering works, it has been a challenge picking a walk this week, so bear with me. Not that I think this walk is a substandard choice. Where better to be in the early springtime than the Weald? You are in delightful territory from the moment you step off the train at the completely remote rural Cowden station (not a house in sight...). I have no record of early bluebells or late wood anemones on this walk, but there may be some. There will be lots of little climbs and hidden woods, alive with the bright green of new foliage. Birds will sing. The mud will have dried (in case any have bad memories of doing this walk in winter).
It is Easter Saturday, and pubs may be busy/booked. Bring emergency provisions just in case, says I. There is a possible early stop at the Rock Inn in Hill Hoath, but the best placed lunch pub is the Leicester Arms in Penshurst. The cafe at the nearby Penshurst Place (not on the walk, but a short walk from the village) should be open. The Fir Tree House in the village may or may not be still in business: if so, it opens at 2.30pm.
Later tea and pub options are in Chiddingstone (particularly the scrumptious Tulip Tea Room) and there is even a shortcut route if you want to get there earlier (see walk directions). There is a pub in Hever village (a short way from the station). In fact, study the walk directions for all sorts of possible variants on this walk.
The longer 12.3 mile option is a circular route back to Cowden, which has at least one pub - the Kentish Horse - which is open all afternoon for drinks (and from 6pm for food).
Trains back from Cowden are at 00 past the hour, and from Hever at 05 past
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N=21 on this walk on a w=gorgeous-sunny-day. No winds. No clouds. Only a very few patches of stubborn mud.
The walk was very idyllic. There were some little and not so little bluebell woods, the best of them about half out, but most less. Patches of wild garlic (a tiny bit in flower) and other woodland wonders. Lots of eye-aching green foliage. Maybe not as many butterflies as I hoped for but a good number of orange tips. Thanks to the walk creator too for alerting me to two swallows sat on a telephone wire, the first I have seen this year. They looked a bit zonked from their long journey from South Africa. Or perhaps they were just enjoying the sunshine.
I did not have the highest hopes of getting lunch at the Leicester Arms, but kudos to them for adapting to the Easter weekend market. They had eight staff devoted to serving food on their garden terraces (the inside tables were deserted) and you could order at an outside bar. There was also a paella on the go and a van serving bacon butties and coffee. A very efficient operation.
In the afternoon quite a few of us stopped at the Tulip Tea Rooms, who have expanded their outside seating with a new back patio. It was then a lovely walk in golden light to Hever.
Here some people were in an inexplicable rush to get the 5pm train, but at least five people carried on to Cowden. Three of us stopped for a drink at the Kentish Horse in Markbeech, its garden bathed in evening sunshine.
Alas the mad urge to rush for trains soon overtook my two companions and they sped off to get the 6pm, me dragging my heels in the hope they would leave me behind so I could stay another hour in paradise. But they kept stopping to wait for me, so in the end I got the 6pm too - rather crowded (just a four car train for some reason) and so a rather jarring reintroduction to urban living.
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