A sortie through Romney Marsh, which isn't as boggy as it sounds, at least not if you keep to the footpaths.
We’re doing the main walk, with a rating of 3/10 and length of 14¼ km (8.8 miles). Longer options are available. The main walk takes you on a circuit of Ham Street Woods and along the inland Saxon Shore Way (the sea shifted). If you get the impression the locals are laughing at you, they probably are. But don’t worry, they’re just the European marsh frogs that have made this area their home. Sarcastic little devils.
Trains take the 10:37 HiSpeed Dover Priory train from St Pancras (Stratford International (10:44) and change at Ashford International for the Marshlink line (arr 11:14 dep 11:25) arriving Hamstreet at 11:33.
If you are able to get to Charing Cross for 9:40 (London Bridge 9:49), you could get the cheaper non-hi-speed Ramsgate train to Ashford and change onto the same Marshlink train (arr 11:00, dep 11:25). (This option might be too tight for some Freedom pass holders etc.).
Return from Appledore at xx:57, changing again at Ashford International.
Get a return to Appledore.
Lunch The Woolpack Inn (01233-732900) in Warehorne.
Tea
There are two nice places in Appledore village. The Black Lion (01233-758206) and Miss Mollett's High Class Tea Room (01233-758555), open to 5pm.
You need to allow at least half an hour to reach Appledore Station, 2¼ km away.
Directions here Click option M for the main walk (or keep all options open by not clicking nothing). n.b.The directions have been re-jigged recently.
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1 comment:
12 gathered at the station on a w=dry-overcast day. First stop, Ham Street Woods. I don’t like to use the L-word, as you well know, but some of us got a more than a little disoriented in Ham Street Woods. A very nice wood, a lovely wood, even, but we saw a bit too much of it. We did eventually escape and, despite SSW being both a compass bearing and short for the Saxon Shore Way*, it was not long before we reached the Woolpack and were banging on the door for sustenance and hearty fare.
And, guess what, who should be waiting there for us but the walk’s author, bringing the total up to n=13
The food was good and the locally produced perry was out of this world. (As was I after a mere pint of it). After a protracted stay (short–staffed, service slow) we were off across large fields on sometimes indistinct paths. I hate to use the L-word but we went off-piste once or twice. This had the walk’s author scribbling furiously in a huge ledger kept for just such a purpose.
And so to Appledore and Miss Mollett’s High Class Tearoom. A recommended stop. The cakes, mmmm, the cakes. A final stretch across some more fields and we were on the train. A nifty change at Ashford (seconds to spare) and we were on our way to London. No frogs were heard.
*It’s all in the font. Bold for compass bearings.
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