Backup Only

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 26 November 2016

Saturday Third Walk – Wine tasting in the Darent valley

Extra Walk 59c – Eynsford (Short) Circular
Length: 14 km (8.7 miles). Toughness: 4/10

10:12 Sevenoaks train from Blackfriars, calling at lots of stations in south London and arriving Eynsford at 11:00. Or take the 10:22 Ashford International train from Victoria and change at Bromley South (arr 10:38, dep 10:44) for the train to Eynsford.

Trains back are half-hourly, at 13 & 43 minutes past. You can change at Bromley South for a fast train to Victoria.

As we were passing a vineyard last month a fellow-walker encouraged me to look for walks with the opportunity to taste some English wines. I'd noticed a new vineyard in the pretty Kent village of Shoreham and the website for The Mount Vineyard could hardly be more welcoming: “why not pop in for a drink mid-walk?” it says, stating that its tasting room is open every Saturday afternoon until Christmas.

This short version of the Eynsford Circular has its lunch stop in Shoreham, so now you've got an extra choice for some mid-walk refreshment. The vineyard isn't (yet) mentioned in the Walk Directions but look for its entrance on the right as you go down Church Street; it's just beyond Ye Olde George Inn, the first of the village's three (or is it four?) pubs. The walk author has carefully made navigation on the afternoon stretch relatively undemanding, so you can afford some thorough research into the wines on offer. And why not buy a bottle or two for Christmas?

There are cafés and tearooms along the afternoon route to revive you, and more pubs too. If you're running out of daylight at the end (sunset is at 4pm) there are a couple of shorter endings you can take.

You'll need to print the walk directions from the Extra Walk 59 page. Clicking 'c. Shorter Circular Walk' under Walk Options will hide the directions for the longer variations via Otford.
T=swc.59.c

4 comments:

A fellow-walker said...

Sean, thanks for posting - sorry I won't be joining you on this occasion. Cheers!

Anonymous said...

N=25 people got off the train with some of them certainly interested in the wine tasting at lunch time. This had been briefly alluded to in the walk posting.
For all their enthusiasm the pace was relaxed and after about 100 minutes most of us tried the pubs in Shoreham - 12 lunched at The Crown and by general consent reckoned good food with good attitude and good prices and A N Other x 2 said the beer was good - the Crown was good then.
Whilst we were there we had a report that one walker had gone astray and ended up in Otford for lunch but then rejoined us in the early afternoon by jogging back - so an extra 2 to 3 miles ( or more maybe - we don't know how lost he really was ) and by jogging used about twice the calories that we all did.
After lunch it seemed that some had enjoyed the wine tasting as they greeted us with beaming smiles and a bit of giggling and possibly a stumble or two - this included the walks author and someone who had driven but by the time we had got back to Eynsford and had tea and cake surely the tippling had worn off.
Speaking of tea - the Riverside tea room ( not actually on the riverside ) in Eynsford was good with a selection of teas, coffees, cakes and ice cream which was enjoyed by many but not really needed it only being an hour or so since lunch.
A 15 minute walk back to the train meant that 12 of us caught the 16.43 back home ( and three went off by car ) - bit of an old cattle truck of a train but at least it was running
The other 10 - no idea what happened to them but trust that they either had a longer imbibing session in Shoreham or a shorter lunch time and got a train before us
The views throughout the day were nice though visibility was poor at times but most of the autumnal leaf colour is now on the ground .
A little muddy in places but surprisingly pleasant for this time of year with only one that I know of taking a tumble - but he took it in good heart and didn't seem any worse for it though by all accounts it was quite decorative.
That'll do then - signing off - TTFN as JY used to say
Pa King
PS the weather w=started-grey-and-misty-gradually-clearing-in-the-afternoon and it wasn't too cold

Sean said...

To add to Pa King's slightly scurrilous report, about ten lunched at the George in Shoreham and this pub too got good marks. Several then made the small detour to The Mount Vineyard which couldn't have been more welcoming (sorry you missed this, 'fellow-walker'). They offered free tasting of their five wines with no pressure to buy, but as the product proved to be eminently drinkable it was no hardship to purchase a couple of bottles. Other visitors were enjoying plates of nibbles and the owners plan to open a restaurant on the premises, so this could even become an up-market lunch stop.

A little later, another detour into Castle Farm's Hop Shop led to more foodie purchases. And finally, full marks to the Riverside Tea Rooms for welcoming a large influx of walkers ten minutes before their published closing time and cheerfully staying open an extra half-hour to serve everyone tea, cakes and scones.

River Lady said...

Four enjoyed lunch at the friendly King's Arms and two visited the ruins of Eynsford Castle before arriving at the tea shop at the same time as the others.