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