9.37 train from Victoria (ie NOT Charing X/London Bridge as usual), calling at Lewisham at 10.00 and then various stops in SE London, arriving Hayes (Kent) at 10.25.
Both outward and return journey are in zone 6, so use oyster, contactless or passes.
For walk directions, GPX, map etc click here.
There are a lot of rail engineering works this week, so several ideas of mine were scuppered. Even for this walk, the train is starting at Victoria not Charing Cross, though journey times are not particularly affected.
Still, this is a perfectly decent outing. It is a winter stalwart that usually gets trotted out (and indeed, trotted through...) at this time of year. It has some muddy bits, but some dry sections on lanes too. Nicely hilly scenery.
There are three lunch pubs, two in Downe (one the "wrong" one and one the "right" one, though they seem to swap places each time we do the walk...) and a later option in the Cudham (the Blacksmith's Arms, which serves food all afternoon to 5pm according to its website).
An incentive not to dawdle over lunch is that the very nice tea room at Coolings Garden Centre, 2.5 miles after Cudham, shuts at 4.30pm with last orders at 4pm. This is now the only refreshment option at the end of the walk, since the Rose & Crown pub in Halstead, formerly reachable by a short diversion, apparently closed in November.
From either place you have a walk of about 1.5 miles to Knockholt station - fairly straightforward and doable with a torch. (No moon this week sadly, unlike last week.)
Trains back from Knockholt are at 28 and 58 past and once again go to Victoria via Lewisham. If using contactless or oyster, don't forget to tap in at Knockholt.
3 comments:
Sorry Peter but Tony has closed R&C
See comment from Knockholt Circular
https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Rose-Crown-Halstead/100063656887550/
Thanks for the info, Brian. I have amended the walk post.
10 off the train, 2 by car and one we found wandering the streets of Keston (she had come by bus and meant to meet us in Downe…), so n=13 on this walk. The weather was w=relentlessly-grey-and-misty. (Will it never be spring?) But on the plus side there was little mud - just one or two gloopy bits, otherwise firm underfoot. Lots of stiles. Anyone planning to join the marines would find this walk good training.
In Downe five of us went to the Queen’s Head to eat. We arrived at midday, just as they opened, and perhaps the chef was late because with no other customers in the place it took them 40-45 minutes to produce three soups, one fish and chips, and one cottage pie. It was a cold wait because the only heating was a feeble log fire (the lucky sandwich eaters got to sit a bit closer to it on sofas when they came in). Some of the lunchers draped themselves in blankets probably intended for use outside. Only the toilets were warm, which made it tempting to linger there.
The food when it came was tasty, however, and we set off not long after 1pm. Most of the sandwichers had already gone by this point. In the afternoon some steep descents and climbs - and more stiles. Munching ponies ignored us. At one point we refrained from telling a woman off for having a dog off the lead in a field of sheep - luckily so, as it turned out to be her field.
We got to Coolings with ease just after 3pm, meeting some sandwichers coming out. The tea room staff seemed to be filming the “how not to do it” part of a staff training video: there was an almost comical lack of focus on the task at hand. But again frustrations were eased by the tea and cakes once we got them, which were very nice.
Onwards to Knockholt in the gathering gloom. We arrived neatly in time for the 16.28 train. A nice day out, with plenty of interesting chat, and at least it didn’t rain.
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