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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.

Sunday 29 May 2016

Sunday Walk 2 – the Garden of England

Extra Walk 151 – Sutton Valence to Pluckley
Length: 18 km (11.2 miles). Toughness: 3/10

10:42 Folkestone train from Victoria (Bromley South 10:59, Orpington 11:06, etc), arriving Headcorn at 11:46. On arrival move smartly onto the station forecourt where an Arriva 12 bus should be waiting to depart at 11:50 for the 10-minute journey (£3.50) to Sutton Valence, where you start the walk by the King's Head pub. Buy a day return to Pluckley.

If the train is late and the bus driver has given up waiting, it won't be that much more expensive for a group of you to share a taxi. Alternatively, if you're familiar with the Pluckley Circular you could continue on the train to the next stop and do a version of that Book 2 walk instead.

Trains back from Pluckley to Victoria are hourly, at 40 minutes past.

A group of us recently enjoyed the plentiful apple blossom and fine views on the Yalding–Sutton Valence walk, so here's a chance to pick up from where that one finished. Lunch pubs on this stretch of the Greensand Way are thin on the ground and in theory there are two choices, but the later one in Egerton – the George – has apparently been “Closed by the Police” (whatever that ominous phrase means). That means the only convenient choice is the appealing Pepper Box Inn after 5½ km, where you should arrive at about 1.20pm. The pub's website claims to be in “an ideal spot for walkers…happy to accommodate groups” so they're not likely to turn you away, but if it's not warm enough to eat in their garden then do call them in advance to reserve a table.

At the end of the walk the Dering Arms by the station won't be open, so your tea stop is the Black Horse pub in Pluckley village. It's a further 2½ km to the station so allow at least 35-40 minutes for this last leg: there's nothing to do there if you miscalculate and have a long wait for the hourly train.

NB. The walk document does suggest this late start time if lunching at the Pepper Box Inn. However, feel free to post a comment if you'd prefer to start an hour earlier (trains to Headcorn are half-hourly but the connecting bus is hourly). If there's an overwhelming clamour for the earlier train I'll change the walk post.

For more information about the walk and a link to the Directions, OS Map, etc, go to the Extra Walk 151 page.
T=swc.151

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

anyone who knows the route going on this please ?

Anonymous said...

Dear Anon,

Unlike led walks organised by such as The Ramblers, these walks do not have any leaders and everyone is responsible for themselves. See the "About us" page for more details on how things work.

Unknown said...

I will be going on this walk, having had a look at Monday's weather forecast.

Anonymous said...

Am hoping to do this walk. have got the instructions jfk

Anonymous said...

According to the Met Office forecast at the moment Monday looks dry but cloudy.