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This Week's Walks - Archive

Please see the Saturday Walker's Club This Week's Walks page.

This is an archive of walks done by the Saturday Walker's Club. You should only need to use this page if the SWC website is down.

Saturday, 24 June 2023

Saturday Walk: Sole Street Circular via Cobham Park and Ranscombe Farm Nature Reserve

9.9 miles / 16 km

Select the Short Circular Walk from Sole Street in the instructions.

This is a variant of the Meopham to Rochester Walk, exploring country parks in North Kent - the highlight this time of the year being Ranscombe Farm Nature Reserve, which has many poppies and rare flowers.

Trains09:42 London Victoria, 10:32 Sole Street.  Return trains from Sole Street at xx:32.  You can also finish at Meopham (an extra mile or so) where there are 2 trains per hour.  A return to Sole Street is good for both stations.

Lunch: The lunch stop is at Cobham - the first pub you will reach is the Leather Bottle opposite the church, which has a nice garden.  There are two other pubs further on - The Darnley Arms and the Ship Inn.

Tea: The Cock Inn at Henley Street is some distance before Sole Street Station, while the Railway Inn is right next to it.


T=swc.173

3 comments:

Mr M Tiger said...

N=19 and a dog on a w=sunny-hot-humid day. Can’t say I like the long stretch through Jeskyns ‘woodland’ - a bit samey and featureless. Maybe when the trees have grown a bit. Ashenbanks Wood was more interesting with large old trees. The others raced off ahead as is their wont. I had almost finished my cider when they turned up at the Leather Bottle. That pub gets busy unless you get there early, like what I did.
I left early with one other. (This subgroup fragmented further when we realised we had downloaded different endings!)
Impressive poppies at Kitchen Field, though, apparently, not as impressive as last year. Lots of orchids in the bit after that (Ranscombe Farm?), also butterflies, mainly brown but some little yellow ones.
Reached the Cock before 4. Just time to swill down another cider before heading for the 16:32 3 others caught that train.

Lucilla said...

9-10 ate at Leather Bottle. Though it has a large garden, the food was very mediocre. The pub tried to elevate their food with some 'fancy' offerings, sadly only on the appearance not the taste. So recommend to stick to pub classics next time.

The afternoon was fragmented into many groups, a long march, or even a longer one for those visited reserves, to Cock Inn which provided refreshing drinks - note no cakes just nuts and crisps. 11 caught 17:32 train from Sole Street.

A test for endurance in heat but good company kept everyone going, an enjoyable day nonetheless.

Mr M Tiger said...

The orchids were in Brockles Field