Sunday walk 4 - Shuttle riverway

Yesterday we did the Shuttle riverway walk and it was the most challenging one we've done by miles! Claire was visiting her mum over the bank holiday weekend so Arup and I set out alone again. This time we chose the Shuttle riverway walk - the Shuttle is a rivulet that feeds into the Cray near Hall Place. We decided to walk it from it's source - in Avery Hill Park, in Eltham - to where it meets the Cray, at Hall Place. This was the second walk we found on the Bexley council website and this one said it was 'about 5 miles long' and fully signposted.

The weather forecasts weren't great so Arup decided to buy me some proper walking boots so that i wouldn't go sliding all over the place in the mud. I chose these from Millets and against the lovely Simon's advice, chose to break them in on the walk rather than around the house.

Having overslept and generally been very lazy on Sunday morning, we got to Avery Hill Park on the bus, arriving at 1pm. Our first hurdle was trying to find the first Shuttle riverway sign as we had no idea how to get to the point in the park where the walk officially begins. With a little help from a passerby, we followed the Green Chain walk into the park until we found the first sign for 'our walk'.

Green chain walk into Avery Hill Park

This sign informed us that the walk was 5.75 miles long - 1 mile longer than any we've done before. I was a bit concerned but after all it was only a mile - how bad could it be?

Avery Hill Park is a big, beautiful park which is now part of the grounds of the University of Greenwich.

There were lots of dogwalkers, dad's with children, and football teams around and we enjoyed people watching as we walked. Which is possibly why we missed the sign that told us where to leave the park for the walk. A half mile detour later, we were back on track, but my feet were starting to get sore and we still had almost 5 miles to go!

The next part of the walk was mainly through residential streets of Eltham and the sun was beginning to get quite hot. I was getting fed up with the heavy boots and the fact that we'd been walking for AGES and we still hadn't seen hair nor hide of the blasted Shuttle! Finally, I gave up and took advantage of a grassy verge to change back into my trainers (luckily, we'd had the foresight to bring them or it would have been a very short walk!)

A little further and finally, the Shuttle made an appearance. What a wimpy little river!

Nevertheless, it cheered us up and the clouds had come up making it cooler, so we were in a better temper. Soon afterwards, we entered a park, which, while not exactly wilderness, was at least green and not a residential street.

To be honest, the next bit is a bit of a blur in my memory as for some reason I found the walk very hard this time and it seemed to go on for ever along more residential streets. By this time it was pouring with rain, my trainers were getting wet and we were hungry and miserable. Eventually, we came out onto Penhill Road, which I recognised from house hunting last year. We plodded up it, reaching the roundabout and realised we hadn't seen a sign for some time. The absolutely useless map from the council website wasn't much help except that it seemed to indicate we should be walking along the river. We very nearly gave up then and took a bus home. But we knew we hadn't walked even halfway so we forced ourselves to go back to the last place we'd seen the river (another 1/4 mile detour) and scan the place for signs. None. We set off along the river, hoping we were going in the right direction when we met a lovely lady walking her dog who told us we were in completely the wrong direction and needed to cross the road and follow the river that way. Needless to say there were no signs on the other side of the road either.

Still, the rain had stopped so we ate our sandwiches and crisps in companionable exhaustion. It was actually a rather pretty place with enormous trees and few people.

Our break done with, we kept going through parks and more parks until we reached Bexley Woods. Now this was the last bit of the second section of the walk so we cheered up considerably. It is a very small wood if you walk straight through, but hey a wood practically in our back yard isn't to be sniffed at.

Onwards we went. I was really starting to flag now but kept going on willpower. There were more residential streets and a few green riverside walks. The rest of it wasn't very interesting to be honest and finally we found ourselves right next to the A2. We walked parallel to the A2 for what felt like miles and I could see the desparation in Arups's face as he watched me struggle and stumble on. He was worried I would just give up and there was no way to get help there despite being in the middle of civilisation. We finally made it to the dead end of Upton Road South where I collapsed in a heap (well sort of) and Arup ruled that we would find the nearest bus stop and go home. Which we did.

Having calculated, with all the detours and mistakes, we must have walked at least 5.75 miles even if we didn't get to Hall Place (we got pretty close though - it as only about a mile from where we took the wrong turn). It felt like a lot more though and was hard or both of us, though Arup was wonderful in helping me on. It's told us we're not quite experts yet - either at walking or at map reading but it hasn't dimmed our enthusiasm and we'll be at it again next weekend. See you then.

Sunday walk 2 & 3 - Cray river walk

The past three weeks haven't been the best for walking mainly because we haven't been able to get as far out into the countryside as we'd have liked to. The weekend after Meopham, Arup was working on the weekend and Claire and I decided to stay closer to home for our walk. The Cray is a local river (rivulet more like it) that joins the Thames near Erith.

The Bexley council website promised that it was a signposted walk so despite the lack of clear directions on the guide, we decided to give it a go. The whole walk is about 10 miles but we decided to walk from Foots Cray Meadows where the walk begins to Hall Place and then walk home - a total distance of between 4.5-5 miles.

Note: Arup and I did the same walk the following week because Claire was not well and I wanted to show Arup Foots Cray Meadows. The photos are from both walks.

We took the bus to Foots Cray and after dutifully taking pictures of All Saints Church because the guide mentioned it, entered Foots Cray Meadows.

All Saints Church

Now, I've lived in the Borough for close to three years and Claire has lived here all her life but neither of us really realised what a green borough it is. Take Foots Cray meadows. I'd heard of it but never really knew what it was and Claire, who had been there in her misspent youth (!), hadn't really noticed how pretty it is.

Foots Cray Meadows is a local nature reserve and a very popular spot for dog walkers. The Cray flows down the middle and the Cray walk follows it pretty closely. It isn't the biggest of rivers, but it is pretty and wooded and a lovely surprise in the middle of suburbia.

First view of the Cray

Signs - these are so welcome when you're sure you're lost!

The five arch bridge is a great spot to stand and admire the view and feed the mute swans and ducks.

Five arch bridge

When I did the walk with Arup, he was so happy to see the dogs and made friends with one. He would love a dog of his own but sadly with both of us working and me being asthmatic, it isn't really a possibility.

Arup's new friend

Bits of the walk are really Indiana-Jones ish because you can walk very close to the river's edge battling your way through the undergrowth. I got stung by some sort of nettle and it was itchy for days. Guess it's my first walk-wound!

The meadows are about 1.25 miles long if you walk along the river and at the end you have a choice of going to Hall Place via Bexley village (2 miles) or via Churchfield wood (3.25 miles).

Claire and I went via Bexley as we were hoping to get the borough's best ice cream at the Italian deli on Bexley high street. Sadly, it was closed and we were forced to get a drink at the pub instead. Which was quite funny because we were asked for ID and we didn't have any other than our 30+ faces! Unfortunately that didn't wash and we had to give the next pub our custom, which turned out to be worth it as we overheard a conversation in which the lady was asked if she'd ever have cosmetic surgey. She said 'I might do if my boobs fall down but I think they're quite nice at the moment. What do you think, love, don't you think they're quite nice?' No, sorry, I didn't get a picture of her!

The rest of the walk was a bit boring since it was just along he bus route that we often take. Hall Place was lovey as always and we walked around the gardens and greenhouse before heading home.

When I did the walk with Arup, we took the other route from the end of Foots Cray meadows but after a nicer, more wooded walk initially, we found ourselves on North Cray road and ended up walking all the way to Bexley along it. If there were signs taking us anywhere else, we either didn't see them or misinterpreted them. It was a longish walk but we were so disappointed by it (other than the quite lovely houses we admired along the way), we consoled ourselves with a picnic when we got to Hall Place. The rain, which had been promised, finally came while we were there but I can report that our new waterproof jackets did very well in protecting us.

On the way home, we went up Gravel Hill and took a different way home just to make things a bit excting. Oh and we have now established a walk night routine- burgers for dinner!

Mini walk - Southwark tube station to London Bridge railway station via the Thames

Fired up by our Meopham walk, Arup and I decided to celebrate his new job with dinner at Dim T near London Bridge. And instead of taking the tube, we decided to walk it. The initial idea was to walk from Charing Cross station but that seemed to be a bit too much of a challenge for an after work walk. For me anyway - Arup continues to be annoyingly fit considering he doesn't get much exercise either.

So we adjusted the plan and decided to take the tube to Southwark, walk up Blackfriars road and walk along the South Bank to Dim T, which is near HMS Belfast and close to London Bridge. Google maps helpfully calculated our route to be about 1.7 miles, which sounded about right for a pre-prandial stroll. Unfortunately, TFL had other plans. When we got to the end of Blackfriars road, we found that due to the station being renovated, there was no way we could actually get to the Jubilee Walkway to walk along the south bank.

Construction work everywhere

We did our best but after several false starts, we decided to cross the bridge, walk along Paul's walk, cross the Millenium bridge and be back on the South Bank that way. Except that having crossed the bridge, we couldn't figure out how to get onto Pauls' walk.

Photo taken at the end of Blackfriars bridge while arguing about where to go!

The whole area is a real mess thanks to the station renovation. We ended up on the Blackfriars underpass, completely stuck. Then we spotted someone jumping the railings between the underpass and Paul's walk, which is after all right next to it. We followed their example and though we got a few odd looks, our walk was back on track.

Paul's walk - post jumping

We walked along Paul's walkway, admired the 'Eat Rubbish' thingy and St. Paul's, then crossed the wobbly bridge to arrive at the end of the Jubilee walkway.

We were so pleased with ourselves, we got ice cream at one of the ridiculously overpriced vans (why are they calld 99s if they cost £3!) and proceeded to try and eat the most disgusting ice cream I have ever tasted. Our fault for behaving like tourists!

A plane and a bird in the background of the Golden Hind

Working in London and living in the suburbs often means station to work and work to station meaning we miss out on what a lovely, vibrant city London is. It was really nice to stroll along, with the Thames on one side and the restaurants and pubs heaving with the after-work office crowd. Arup and I have not worked in London at the same time for years and when we did, his working hours were very different from mine. So it is quite a nice novelty to be able to go for dinner together after work.

HMS Belfast

Hays Galleria

Tower Bridge

Steps to More Place - love the variety of shapes in this photo

Anyway, thanks to the detour, I was getting quite tired towards the end but we got there and stuffed ourselves silly. The mandatory photoshoot afterwards - what a gorgeous location this restaurant has - and then the long train journey home.

Dim T - excellent dim sum

And the view from just ouside the restaurant

Total distance walked: approximately 2.1 miles. 

The First Walk

Last weekend my husband and I went to visit some friends in York. These are the health conscious friends who don't eat pasta with cheese and cream (we had to eat their portions - or we would have if they hadn't binned them), don't take buses and do spend as much of their free time as possible walking. Within the city on workdays and in the Yorkshire Dales on their days off.

They offered to take us along for a walk - an easy one they said and one where we could sit and have a rest any time we wanted. They promised my husband great views to photograph and they promised me cake if I managed to keep up. They forgot to mention that great views involve steep hills and that their concept of easy is not quite the same as mine.

The walk was mostly uphill and very hard for the two of us. Still, we managed it, and sitting on a bench thoughtfully placed halfway up the hill, drinking our tea and munching our cake, we realised we were hooked. This walking thing was actually quite fun and since we live in green, flattish Kent, not steep, craggy Yorkshire, possibly quite doable as a hobby.

Cut to today - our first solo walk. Well, without the expert friends anyway. I spent Friday evening appropriating work stationery in printing off all the walks from the Explore Kent website that were a) within an hours drive from home and b) round about the 5 mile length. We figured we must have walked about that much in Yorkshire and this was all flat so we could do it easily.

After much discussion, we settled on a walk in Harrietsham, which promised excellent views, 21 stiles and 'some' steep slopes. Fortunately, my friend Claire wanted to come with us but needed to be home by 3pm. So we had to abandon Harrietsham which was an hour's drive away. We decided on the less challenging walk near the village of Meopham - 4.7 miles (7.5 km) with no slopes mentioned. Easy peasy.

Having stocked up on water, coffee, energy bars, crisps and cake, we set off at 10 am. Parking in the Camer County Park visitor centre, we set off full of enthusiasm. The walk started with a flat, gentle walk past fields, through kissing gates and skirting wooded areas.

The first field

Look mom - horsies!

Walking past the woods

We took a break on some tree stumps about 1.5 miles in and were feeling quite pleased with ourselves. Despite our collective dismal levels of fitness, we weren't tired and we'd already completed and third of the walk. Even though we got slightly lost immediately afterwards, our spirits weren't dampened and we celebrated finding the right track with a little picnic. Another group of walkers passed us joking about the purpose of the exercise being to walk not eat but we ignored them.

Moving on, we found some lovely views.

Another kissing gate later, and we got a bit of a shock - a steep slope that we really had to struggle up. And this one wasn't even mentioned as being steep in the directions - thank god we hadn't gone to Harrietsham. More worryingly, a stretch later on in our walk was described as 'slightly steep' - if the one we'd climbed wasn't called steep in the directions, how steep was the one which was?! Claire and I were worried, though my husband seemed to be alarmingly free of aching legs.

The non steep hill - Arup at the top; Claire and me halfway up

Non-steep hill climbed, we found a field with knee high wheat stalks. Or at least that's what they looked like to my city-bred eyes. The path went straight through the middle and it was great fun walking through it - to begin with. Then we realised that this was the field-without-end and that you couldn't stop for a rest because the lane was too narrow to sit down in. We later realised the field was almost a mile long. It was hard going but looking back, it was my favourite bit of the walk -the sensation of standing in the middle of a field with nothing but wheat all around you as far as the eyes can see, the only sound being the rustle of the wind through the stalks - it was something special.

Entrance to the wheat field

Is that wheat?

When we got to the end of the field, we were confronted with the steep hill, which thankfully was no steeper than the previous one and a somewhat shorter distance uphill. Still, we voted for another rest halfway up and had a very nice 15 minutes, sitting among the wild flowers and butterflies, listening to the sounds of nature.

Steep hill

We had to move on though and arrived gasping at the top of the hill. A nice walk through a wooded area followed.

Makes you think of Robert Frost doesn't it?

Then we walked through the garden of a lovely house (public right of way) and were into the village of Meopham. By this time, Clarie and I were really flagging so we grabbed the opportunity to visit the Meopham Vineyard Shop. Yes, they make wine in Meopham and lovely wine it is too! A bottle each of Rose and Medium White tucked into our backpacks, we walked through the very posh residential streets of Meopham, finding a bench just at the moment our legs were about to give up. God bless whoever put that bench there! The group who had passed us earlier passed us again telling us we should have gone to the pub as they had. Grrrr.

Back into the fields we went and after another walk through wheat stalks (fortunately a shorter one), found ourselves back near the car park. It took us about 3 hours (including breaks) to complete the walk and though our legs and feet are SORE, it feels great that we actually managed to finish the walk. It was challenging but also fun and we definitely want to do it again. Watch this space.