Length: 20.1 km (12.5 mi)
Ascent/Descent: 209/216m
Net Walking Time: ca. 4 ½ hours
Toughness: 3 out of 10
Take either of the following:
Ramsgate train from St. Pancras (10.04), calls Stratford
I’nal 10.11, change Ashford (10.41/10.50) onto the…
Ramsgate train from Charing Cross (09.29),
called W’loo East, London Bridge, Sevenoaks...
The latter train arrives Chilham at 11.02
Return trains: xx.23 (55 minutes to St. Pancras), xx.37
(77 mins to St. Pancras), both from C’bury West; xx.37 (102 mins to
Charing X, from C’bury West); xx.47 (107 mins to Cannon Street, from C’bury
East).
This walk starts beside the Great Stour River and its attendant lakes, visits
the church and green at Chartham and passes through hop fields and apple
orchards to Chartham Hatch.
From there the way is through Church Wood and Blean Woods Nature Reserve
to the parklands of the University of Kent, with fine views down over
Canterbury Cathedral. The entrance to the city is along the River Stour,
through the Norman Westgate and down the medieval high street and alleys,
entering the cathedral precincts through its ornate Christ Church Gate.
Lunch: The Artichoke in Chartham (4.7 km, food 12.00-15.00).
Tea: Plenty of options in Canterbury. See the webpage for details.
Tea: Plenty of options in Canterbury. See the webpage for details.
For walk directions, a map, a height profile, gpx/kml
files, and photos click here.
T=1.28
1 comment:
N=3 on a day that, after the early smirr cleared, was w=mostly-cloudy-occasionally-sunny 2 sped ahead, but don’t worry readers, they soon caught up with Mr Tiger, after they went wrong. Some stretches were muddy - sock-wettingly squelchingly muddy. And slippy too, But it wasn’t all mud, there was some snowdrops too.
There was sort of a half-hearted attempt to visit the Artichoke but in the end we just went straight on along the Stour. There was a brief picnic stop later, in the playground at Chartham Hatch, where a worrying notice informed us that someone called Bo Peep had lost her sheep. We kept our eyes open but no sign of them.
Some areas in Blean Wood had been clear felled and hedged off. For the bison to graze, maybe? We kept our eyes open but no sign of them, either.
https://www.kentwildlifetrust.org.uk/projects/wilder-blean
By the time we reached Canterbury, just before 5, one had sped ahead and the remaining two split up, one to visit a relly’s new house and the other heading for the station. (Just what a new house needs - a mud-caked visitor).
So no tea stop, no pub stop.
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