Extra Walk 344 – Edenbridge Town to Hever or Cowden
Length: 12¼ km (7.6 miles) to Hever, 16¾ km (10.4 miles) to Cowden. Toughness: 1/10 or 3/10
10:07 Uckfield train from London Bridge (East Croydon 10:22), arriving Edenbridge Town at 10:45. Buy a return to Cowden, or Hever if you will only be going that far.
Trains back are hourly, from Cowden at xx:00 and Hever at xx:05.
Kent Ramblers recently published a fine guide “Three River Valley Walks in West Kent” and two SWC walks this weekend give you the opportunity to complete the full Eden Valley Walk (EVW).
Those who showed up for this walk's début in July might recall doing a Figure-of-8 option starting with an eastern loop around Edenbridge. This newly-revised version does the western loop first, where you might well be buzzed by low-flying aircraft near the start of the EVW. If you make it back to Edenbridge for a pub lunch at The Old Eden or one of the town's other establishments, you can ponder your choices for the afternoon leg.
The contrarians amongst you might want to try one of the Figure-of-8 options, but the main route goes past Hever station and on to the next station down the line, Cowden. Those wanting to conserve energy for Sunday's continuation of the EVW from Hever to Tonbridge (or who just want a shorter walk) have an easy drop-out point, in other words. However, in both cases you'll want to time your arrival so that you don't have too long to wait for the hourly train as there are no convenient refreshment places near either station.
You'll need to bring the directions from this Edenbridge Town to Hever or Cowden walk page. If you click the word 'Main' on the Walk Options heading before printing you'll save a couple of pages of directions for the unnecessary Figure-of-8 options. T=swc.344
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2 comments:
The Henry VIII pub in Hever is about 1 mile from Hever station so not close but not too far away either, approximately 20 mins walk. If heading to Cowden, you'll pass The Kentish Horse pub at Markbeech, from where it's about 25 mins walk to Cowden Station.
The weather was w=light-rain-all-day-but-mild.
The views were lovely but due to the weather all a bit flat and little autumn colour all being somewhat green.
And there was mud in parts and very curious stiles / gates and bridges, none of which were particularly pleasant or comfortable to use
However the airstrips (6 or so of them) were the most pleasing walking surface that I have used in years.
Flat soft green and slightly springy - one day all walking surfaces will be like this.
In the morning we did the 7 k loop back to Edenbridge Town where we had lunch and picked up three very late starters. There were n=9 on the walk in total.
Lunch was at The Old Eden, a lovely building with a limited menu but it suited the 6 lunchers.
There were problems on the line with a broken down train blocking traffic for a good few hours after our morning arrival so in the afternoon we did another loop back to Edenbridge Town with a couple deciding to opt for Edenbridge Station instead. Thankfully our 16.09 did arrive.
Prior to the train, 8 of us has tea at The Minstrel. They weren't closing till 4 but we and others who came in just after 3 were not welcomed. A quick check of trip advisor showed that this was not unusual behaviour. As we entered they declared loudly that there was no food and no food included NO CAKE.
I wonder if they had cleared up and weren’t expecting to have to stay till 4. We were out by 3.45 so they could still get off pronto
I doubt if the Minstrel rea room will last much longer, a great pity.
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