9.37 Southeastern high speed train from St Pancras International to Ashford, arriving 10.14, changing there (usually same or adjacent platform) for the 10.19 to Sandling, arriving 10.30. T=swc.24
Or you can get the Sandling train direct from Charing Cross (8.59), Waterloo East (9.02) or London Bridge (9.08)
Buy a day return to Sandling. This should work for the return from Wye (Wye to Ashford is one stop: usually no barriers….)
In favourable years (and I can see no reason why this should not be one of them...) this walk is an absolute sea of yellow buttercups. It is also a glorious downland walk - keeping to the escarpment, with gobsmacking views - for almost the whole time, the main exception being a 1.8 mile stretch in the afternoon.
Picnickers will have no trouble finding wonderful spots to eat their sandwiches so long as the weather stays fine. For a pub lunch the Tiger Inn in Stowting is a very popular haunt, but we usually manage to squeeze in. An emergency back-up is the Five Bells in Brabourne - also a gorgeous pub, but an 800 metre diversion off the route (most of it on roads). Both serve food until 3pm and both have outside tables as well as inside.
At the end of the walk the Tickled Trout is not only in an idyllic situation, with a garden by the river (in which you can paddle), but also right by Wye station. It has taken to holding noisy music events on Sundays, which shatter its rural tranquility. Luckily today is not a Sunday....
Trains back from Wye are at 52 past the hour. Changing at Ashford gives high speed ticket holders a 1. hour 2 minute journey time back to London, despite an 18 minute wait for the connection. On the other hand if you just stay on the train from Wye, you get to London Bridge in 1 hour 16 minutes, or Charing Cross in 1 hour 27.
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Though I say so myself, as the walk poster, this was a beautiful walk, in achingly lovely scenery, the buttercups so rich and intense it was hard to believe, the hawthorn bushes still smothered in white. This is possibly the most perfect of all the downland walks, with magnificent views throughout. W=Gorgeous-sunshine too, tempered at times by a cooling breeze, which was mostly just refreshing.
There were some adventures getting there and back, however. I got to St Pancras unexpectedly early, at 8.45, and already it was like Paris before the Germans arrived - ie very busy. Thankfully Southeastern put on a 12 coach train, but you had to be on the platform when it arrived to get a seat. It left late, which meant we arrived at Ashford with just two minutes to make the connection. And the connecting train was unusually on the opposite side of the station. Two walkers failed to connect successfully and got a later train. One did connect, but decided at the last minute to go to Deal instead. The slow train - the one we connected to - was also very busy.
After all this, 12 assembled on peaceful Sandling station. We enjoyed a very pleasant morning in the conditions described above. On the escarpment above Stowting two got involved in helping a mentally distressed person and got left behind, but caught us up at the Tiger Inn. This has been much expanded - it is now quite capacious - and perhaps for this reason seemed much less busy than it used to be. They insisted we ordered at the table, and the vegan main had scanty portions, but otherwise seven of us had a very pleasant al fresco lunch, with one picknicker joining us for a drink.
After lunch we crossed the road into a field and found the two who had missed the connection picnicking in tall buttercups like a scene from a Monet painting. We also met two younger walkers here who were doing the same walk independently, using the SWC directions, and who we invited to join us. They stayed with us for the rest of the day, so I make so bold as to claim n=16 on the walk in all.
Mid afternoon we had a sit down above the Devil’s Kneading Trough (or whatever it is called). All that wanted for perfection was a tea van. None was available but as we neared Wye we were in eager anticipation of a nice riverside drink in the Tickled Trout.
Alas, they were having a noisy wedding in the garden. Never was disappointment more cruel! So most of us got the 17.47 train. Those of us who changed at Ashford for the high speed at least got tea or cans of beer there. But the train to London was very full. I think we did all get seats, but with difficulty.
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