Length: 14km / 9m, with many, many options to make it longer, or even shorter
Toughness: 5 / 10
Transport: Take the 9:47 from London Blackfriars to Otford, arriving 10:48, return trains at xx:29. Last train at 17:29 !!!
One could spend hours probing the National Rail timetable to find some trains still running for this Saturday but this Thameslink service seems to be more reliable than others. So, back to the Darent Valley, which is always a great pleasure. You can extend the morning section by following the Otford circular via Romney Street to Dunstall Farm and then switch to this posted walk. Or you just follow the Romney Street version almost to the road east of the Eastdowns and then turn south to Magpie Bottom and cross the lovely valley ... So many options, just let your nose and your mood guide you. There might still be spectacular Bluebells on the ridge to the west of Shoreham. There certainly will be a great view at the southern end of the ridge. On the way back to Otford you might want to choose to cross the A225 and walk south on the eastern side of the road across Fackenden Down Nature Reserve. So, no need to stick slavishly to the exact version of the posted walk, take a map and allow yourself to be inspired ....
4 comments:
Coming by car it was irritating to be held up for ages on a rail strike day at a level crossing, so that I started 10 minutes late. Eventually I caught up with five others (only one of whom had come by train) so there were n=6 of us on a w=cloudy-morning-then-partly-sunny-afternoon. In Shoreham The Samuel Palmer was displaying a new bar menu so we stopped there for a change, finding plenty of attentive staff and pretty quick service.
Two slipped off on a short cut back to Otford but the rest of us did the walk more or less as written, ignoring the walk poster's plea for us to go off-piste. The spacious Olive Tree tearoom at the back of the Hospices of Hope provided a nice tea before the solitary rail traveller set off to catch the 16:29. Lots of cowslips in Magpie Bottom, but the extensive bluebells in the muddy woods above Shoreham were well past their best.
Two of us did this walk on Sunday, we noted from the start of the walk, paragraph 1 in the instruction, just after leaving the station, turned 'immediately left', the Council has erected metal fences blocking the path. We managed to get onto the path through a narrow gap in-between two fences, and did the same on the other side. There is a patch of loose earth with additonal fencing around it, nothing too serious. I am not sure how long the path will be blocked.
I was trying to catch up the group on Saturday so only had a quick look at the notice on the fencing. The Council have erected it to help prevent the spread of ash dieback from infected trees in the Chalk Pit. I didn't notice any information about how long the area would be fenced off or what diversionary route to take, but it was pretty obvious to take the short detour around it on the roads.
I've got a few minor updates to make on this walk and I wasn't sure if it was necessary to mention it, but it looks as if I do need to actively discourage people from ignoring the closure. None of us wants to see the spread of this blight and find more and more woods closed off to walkers.
The notice we saw was a warning about unstable earth not ash dieback. The fenced off path was quite short. Inside this path, there was another small fenced off area about 2-3m in diameter which contained loose earth. We thought the Council was being super cautious not to cause injuries.
Post a Comment