Bough Beech to Ide Hill

Bough Beech to Ide Hill via Toys Hill

With Ivan still brushing up his tan in Corfu it was just Trevor and Richard who ventured out. The Original plan was to try out a 12 mile section of the "Jubilee Walk" from Woolwich to London Bridge along the south side of the River Thames in London. However, the weather lady put a stop to that as we faced rain in the morning followed by showers, so our plan was heavily modified on the day and we drove out to Bough Beech Reservoir and parked up.

The path took us through some wonderful scenery as we slowly climbed up to Toys Hill, named after Robert Toys who paid 12 pence (approx. 5 pence in todays money) in 1295 to the Manor of Otford for the right to keep pigs in Otford Woods that run over the hill.

From Toys hill we followed the hill round and plodded up its neighbour Ide Hill, a lovely little village with a nice village green and Pub!

The Village Green at Ide Hill

The old village well complete with its pump mechanism

We lunched at the "Cock Inn" or as it is known locally "The Ladies Delight" !

This must be our first walk where once we left the pub we actually walked DOWNHILL; normally its the other way round and we struggle to get the legs moving again after the lunch-break. The Bluebells are in full swing now and the walk down the steep escarpment of Ide Hill was ablaze with blue colour.

We liked this walk which was shorter than usual but very pretty. If only the sun had shone - it was heavy low cloud throughout the walk and we hit a light shower after lunch - it would have been idyllic.










Stats for the day were ...

Date	Steps	Distance (mi)	Time (Hr)	Calories	Average speed (mph)	Elevation gain (feet)	Elevation lost (feet)
20/05/2013	12,422	6.4	2:36	751	2.5	1,074	1,046

Darent Valley Path

Otford to Eynesford along the River

 
With Ivan away holidaying, we have left the High Weald path for a few weeks. Trevor and Richard decided on a gentle but scenic stroll down the Darent Valley Path. The River Darent is a small chalk-bed river that winds down the edge of the North Downs until it reaches the River Thames at Dartford. It flows through some lovely "Chocolate Box" villages as well as beautiful countryside.
 
We parked up at Otford and headed downstream towards the Thames not needing a map or GPS - well not often anyway!
 
Shoreham is very pretty and the path took us past their secluded cricket pitch into the centre of the village. The Church was pretty and the inevitable Pub opposite the church-gate dated from 1500.
 

Shoreham Church

A very old Pub in Shoreham - but we didn't stop



The River as it flows through Shoreham

Looking across the Darent Valley

Further along we came to Lullingstone Castle which is more like a big house than a castle and just beyond that is the archaeological site of a Roman Villa; not able to be seen from the path as its now fully encased. See here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lullingstone_Roman_Villa

The main gate of Lullingstone Castle

To save using a country lane for a two-mile section the path detours up the hill away from the river and this was the only climb of the day. At the top we had great views over the entire valley.
 
Reaching Eyensford at 12-45 it was clearly time for refreshment which was taken in The Malt Shovel. Excellent food and good beer of course!

The river at Eynesford

Stats for the day were ...

Date	Steps	Distance (mi)	Time (Hr)	Calories	Average speed (mph)	Elevation gain (feet)	Elevation lost (feet)
13/05/2013	12,734	6.5	2:34	806	2.5	720	750

High Weald Path - Leg 4

Groombridge to Pembury

Oh to be in England, now that Spring is here ...

Well, as we guessed, the delayed Spring would attempt to "catch-up" once we had some warm weather and in just a week EVERYTHING was bursting to make up for lost time.

The different shades of green amongst the woodland at this time was amazing and from just a few Bluebells out last week the woods are now alive with them.

The woodland colours looked amazing

Bluebells everywhere

This was an easy section for us as we had travelled it before albeit one half had been in the opposite direction. This was because the High Weald walk twins with the Round Tunbridge Wells path we did in the Autumn. It was a nice section but with a couple of telling pulls uphill. I guess the name HIGH Weald way should have given us a clue!

We dined at "The George" in Frant, deciding to give it a try rather than the Abergavenny Arms which we have watered at a few times previously. It was a really nice Pub and the food was great too.




 

The George at Frant

After lunch we put best-foot-forward and made good time to Pembury where we had left a car so we could get back to Groombridge to pick up the other vehicles.

Stats for the day were ...

Date	Steps	Distance (mi)	Time (Hr)	Calories	Average speed (mph)	Elevation gain (feet)	Elevation lost (feet)
7/05/2013	23,199	11.9	4:41	1,426	2.5	2,347	2,136