Length: 12.9km (8 miles), but extendable, eg to 16km (9.9 miles) or 20.4km (12.7 miles)
10.00 train from Charing Cross (10.04 Waterloo East, 10.10 London Bridge) via various SE London stations to Knockholt, arriving 10.50.
If you just miss this, the 10.15 from Charing Cross (10.18 Waterloo East, 10.24 London Bridge), gets you to Orpington at 10.41, and you then have three minutes to get from platform 3 to platform 5 to get the above train at 10.44)
Knockholt is in zone 6, so use contactless or passes. From Otford or Shoreham you need a ticket to Swanley if using 60+ cards etc, or St Mary Cray to get back to zone six. If you don't have a pass or travelcard, you will probably have to buy a ticket all the way back to London.
For walk directions, GPX and map click here
This is a little terrier of a walk: it is short, but has some steep hills and still gives you quite a workout. Because of its length, it tends to get done between Christmas and New Year, but it has a fair amount of woods, which may still have some autumn colour, though we are coming to the end of that now probably.
For lunch, you have the usual suspects in Shoreham - the Crown (Is that still open ?), the Kings Arms, and the more upmarket Samuel Palmer.
At the end of the walk in Otford, you have to resist the awful temptation to dive straight onto a train and walk past the station into the village (400 metres). There you might get to the Hospices of Hope tea room or Sally's Cake Emporium before they close at 4pm: otherwise the Bull is a cosy chain pub.
Extending the walk involves doing one of the Otford to Shoreham options of the Eynsford Circular walk, which would add 3.1km (1.9 miles) or 7.5km (4.7 miles) respectively. Tea options in Shoreham as per Lunch above.
*** Possible moonlight excursion. It is a near full moon today and a moonlight walk in the area could be devised. We could talk about this at the end of the walk, if the weather is suitable and anyone is interested. ***
Trains back from Otford are myriad and complicated. The fastest are a 38 past train to London Bridge (31 minutes) and Charing Cross (40 minutes), or a 55 past to Victoria (41 minutes). There are also 29 and 59 past Thameslink trains, taking 1 hour to Blackfriars, but stopping lots of places along the way, one of which may be ideal for you. The 59 past has a connection to Victoria at Bromley South (51 minutes). Rail planners also suggest going via Sevenoaks - eg the 18 past southbound Thameslink, changing at Sevenoaks to get a fast train to London - 35 minutes to London Bridge: if you are doing this with a pass or travelcard I would advise buying a single ticket to Knockholt, not one to boundary zone six.
Trains back from Shoreham are at 02 and 32 past - both Thameslink. The 32 past has a neat connection at Swanley (arrive 40, leave 48: same platform) to the fast train to London Bridge and Charing Cross: total journey time 35 mins. The 02 past offers a connection at Bromley South for Victoria, total journey time 49 minutes.
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