Otford & North Downs Circular

The North Downs and Pilgrims Way

 This was a "Tuesday Walk" as the severe St Jude's Gale put paid to any walking on Monday. It was a good call to postpone the outing because following the storm came the most beautiful sunny Autumn day and it was a joy to be out walking.
 
We chose a walk from the excellent walking web site "Fancy Free Walks" which took us into an area of the North Downs previously unknown to us. It was billed as either 15.5 miles or 9 miles by taking a shortcut, and we chose to do a combination of the two and ended up walking 10.5 miles!
 
Starting out from the lovely village of Otford the path quickly took us up a steep hill onto the top of the North Downs . We then followed the old "Pilgrims' Way" track which used to take Pilgrims from Winchester to Canterbury Cathedral. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilgrims'_Way ) east along the escarpment for about 4 miles. The views were excellent.
 
The trail then effectively turned north and we walked across the deep rolling valleys of the downs. Some of the steep inclines both down and up were real leg-stretchers. This walk took us past a couple of really old, out of the way Pubs tucked into places that nobody would ever find by accident. The first was "The Rising Sun" and the walk notes said ...
 
"The “Rising Sun” is misplaced in time and space and four cheers for that! Your

granddad would recognise it as one of many cottages serving as inns where

the landlady might be sitting outside or pottering in the garden and pops in to

serve you a glass or two. There is a cat who has commandeered a whole

section of the pub, a small dog and an old grey parrot who regularly greets you.

Plop down on the big sofa in front of the fire in winter or sit in the garden in

summer. Pumps dispense Hophead and Old Cocky. Bring your own picnic to

go with the drinks, as there is no food. Visit before it gets bought up and

renovated!" 

 The next Pub was The Fox and Hounds at Romney Street and would you believe it, we didn't stop at either of these because we had earmarked "The Old George" in Shoreham Village as our lunch stop. Shoreham is in the Darent Valley, a small river that cuts a swath through the North Downs. It is famous for its memorial cut into the chalk hillside as a remembrance of the fallen soldiers in the first world war. There is a white memorial cross in the hillside opposite the village church. It was dug in 1920 as a memorial to local men killed in action. Shoreham was the birthplace and home of Private Thomas Highgate, who was the first British soldier to be shot for desertion during the First World War on 8 September 1914, following the Battle of and Retreat from Mons. In 2000, Shoreham Parish Council voted not to include his name on its war memorial. However, after a posthumous pardon in 2006, it was considered that his name might be added.


 
After lunch we climbed up the West slope of the valley before turning south and following the river back to the car at Otford. This was a lovely scenic walk, tough on the legs but well worth the effort.



Otfords famous "Duck Pond" Roundabout listed as a
grade 2 monument!

Otford Palace once a 16th Century posh residence
for the Archbishop of Canterbury

The steep path up the North Downs

The View back at Otford from the top

The PIlgrims' way path

The Rising Sun pub in the middle of "nowhere"

Pretty Church at Woodlands Village

Yet another country pub in no-mans-land!

Some of the steep slopes needed steps to
 get up and down they were so steep

The White Cross on the hillside opposite Shoreham Church

The 15th century wooden porch on the old
Norman Church in Shoreham village

Lunch Stop!

The War Memorial in Otford with
the cross in the background



The Darent Valley from the west side close to the cross.

Aftermath of the storm the previous day. Power lines down to a remote hamlet

 Stats for the day were ...

Date	Steps	Distance (mi)	Time (Hr)	Calories	Average speed (mph)	Elevation gain (feet)	Elevation lost (feet)
29/10/2013	25,797	12.9	5:19	1,156	2.4	3,357	3,131

River Ouse Trail Leg 3

Sussex Ouse Path - Ardingly Reservoir to Newick

 
We decided to continue this trail and none of us dare end up at Lewis Brewery for three consecutive weeks so we moved "Up River"! After a weekend of almost continuous rain Carol the TV Weather Lady said that we could expect no rain until mid afternoon so we set off. After some debate about whether it was better to walk "Up-Stream" from Newark or "Down-Stream" from Ardingly caused by whether we chose this Pub for lunch or that one, we set out from Ardingly Reservoir car park.
 
The initial section of the trail was actually coincident with the High Weald Landscape trail we did earlier in the year except this time we were walking in the other direction. Ivan wanted to see the "Balcombe Viaduct" over the river Ouse so we made an initial short detour.  This railway Viaduct is a grade 2 listed building (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouse_Valley_Viaduct ) and this early Victorian wonder of engineering is still in daily use with over 100 trains a day passing over it on the London to Brighton line. Apparently, the River Ouse was navigable up to the Viaduct and a local boat haulier had the contract to ship the millions of bricks needed for the viaduct. Once completed and the railway started running all the freight switched from the river to the railway and the boat company went bust. Must be a morale there somewhere!
 
This was a nice walk through wonderful countryside but we couldn't help noticing that we never saw the River Ouse for the first 7 miles! Maybe that's why some wag called it the Ouse VALLEY walk rather than the River Ouse walk. However, the good thing about it was that at the 7 mile point the trail passed directly in front of a nice little pub, "The Sloop" situated next to the river and miles from anywhere!  Maybe the boat captains used to stop their on their way to deliver bricks to the viaduct!
 
The Sloop was a free-house which meant they had a range of local micro-brewery beers but because we had to drive back later we only partook in moderation.
 
Back to the car around 3-00pm and within minutes we hit a rain shower. That Carol the weather Lady sure knew her stuff eh!!

Trains still run frequently over the Viaduct

The Viaduct from afar

Fungi of all shapes and sizes were a big feature of the walk



The Lunchtime stop



The River Ouse next to the Pub. I can't see a Sloop making it!

The woods abound with them

  Stats for the day ...

 

Date	Steps	Distance (mi)	Time (Hr)	Calories	Average speed (mph)	Elevation gain (feet)	Elevation lost (feet)
14/10/2013	21,144	10.6	4:11	1,225	2.5	1,558	1,742

Sussex River Ouse Path - 2

Stage 2 of the River Ouse path

Now you will never believe this.  We decided this week to do stage two of this path "Downstream" as we had done last weeks section "Upstream". And starting at the lovely village of Newick, we ended up at the Brewery in Lewis and the wonderful Pub where we had such good ale, food and hospitality last week. NOW who would have thought that would happen!

It was a beautiful Autumn day with the early morning mist just lifting from the fields. The river this far upstream was smaller and more rural that the section we took last week and it was a very beautiful section.

We decided to start promptly at 10-00 so we would reach Lewis for a late lunch and this worked out perfectly.

Still air with early morning mist - very pretty

Terrific rural countryside

Ivan trying to win "Wildlife Photographer of the year"

Notice on one of the old bridges across the River

Expensive!

Arriving at the Brewery - from the other direction!

Date	Steps	Distance (mi)	Time (Hr)	Calories	Average speed (mph)	Elevation gain (feet)	Elevation lost (feet)
07/10/2013	19,603	9.9	3:37	1121	2.7	740	880