Length: 18km (11.2 miles) for the East Malling Circular or 20.3km (12.6 miles) East Malling to West Malling T=swc.337
Buy a day return to East Malling (unless you want to continue to Maidstone - see ** below - when a day return to Maidstone East should be your ticket)
My memory of doing this walk on its last outing in May 2021 is having a roast dinner at an outside table in the pub in West Farleigh in the pouring rain (we were under an umbrella - sort of - but our bums got pretty wet) at a time when Covid rules only allowed dining at outside tables. I also remember quite a pretty walk in classic Kentish apple orchard country, with some charming villages.
Since that time, the walk author has added a new option of a circular route back to East Malling (11.2 miles), or a nearly circular walk ending in West Malling (12.6 miles), so I thought it might be nice to give those a try today. To be honest, unless you are returning to a parked car, the West Malling option looks to hold all the cards, having better tea options and more frequent trains. Those that want to, can still do the ** main walk into Maidstone - you don't need to decide till West Fairleigh - but note you need a different train ticket for that.
One other thought I had in choosing this walk was that it has a middle section along the River Medway. In these drought-stricken times, when the countryside is depressingly brown, there may just be a bit more greenery/flowers by the river. If you want to maximise this, it is true, the Maidstone ending might be better...
There is plenty more detail on this walk on its home page including lunch options (pubs in North Pole, Wateringbury and East Farleigh?). For tea options, ending in West Malling seems to be the better option.
Trains back from West Malling are at 11 and 39 past the hour, the latter calling at East Malling at 36 past (so only one train an hour from here)
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14 at the start of this walk, but we later overhauled one more who had got an earlier train and started at West Malling. So n=15.
There was lots of dense coppiced chestnut early in this walk, which was perhaps not that scenic, but provided welcome shade on this w=blazing-hot day; also nice greenery in a landscape all too dominated by golds and browns due to the drought. There were lots of blackberries to pick.
The North Pole seemed too early for lunch so we pushed on to the Railway Inn at Wateringbury - which was not doing food. A sign promising “wining and dining” at the Rambler’s Rest cafe over the bridge boiled down to burger and chips and tea, so we snubbed that and carried on to West Farleigh.
The Tickled Trout here is definitely a bit snooty. First, we could not eat in the garden, only on a gloomy shady terrace or by a busy road. Second, prices were astronomical. My pie and mash and pint came to £28. I suppose this is the inflation we all have to get used to. Around half of us ate here. My food at least was nice when it came.
The afternoon is a bit of a blur. This is a characterful and scenic part of Kent, with many points of interest outlined in the notes (including a linseed oil mill and the place cricket balls used to be manufactured) but my brain was melting a bit. At one point we passed a hedgerow full of damsons (or bullaces? Not ripe anyway). There was talk of stopping at the North Pole for tea, but its garden did not look that nice and there were some bikers there, so we pushed on. (There is climate change joke struggling to get out here, but as you can see it has failed to crystallise…)
Towards the end, our walk author, who had put up with us completely ignoring his carefully written walk instructions and instead letting him lead us, left us to return to his car at East Malling. We carried on to West Malling, a nice section with orchards groaning with apples and a big set-aside field where about fifty white butterflies were feeding on (yellow) charlock and (pink) wild radish flowers.
Tea at a park cafe was promised, which sounded nice, but it was shutting at 4.45pm when the advance party passed. After its pretty park, West Malling was a very well-set town, with grand houses, but its high street pubs were in party mode (one even had a bouncer). So six or seven of us ended up in Costa - unromantic but with nice tea and cakes. We then caught whatever time train we caught - I always forget to note such things - escaping gratefully from a very eager wasp on the platform.
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