Wye to Canterbury

[faustus]

Wye

The Stour Valley path goes along Church Street - which I have, in the wrong direction. I'm sure I'm go along that stretch again, if only because it's also the North Downs Way. Church Street has two banks, but no cash points, so I'm limited to what I can buy on the market. Mind you, the rucksack is full of cheese, apples, bread and a game pie. And the maps. It's just as well I haven't bought any books.

There's a map of footpaths at the church entry, but the map isn't clear as to the route I need, and whilst there's a footpath through the church yard, it doesn't indicate that it's the right one. Give it a go - and at the corner I spot a little way marker on a post. I've started well. There's a worn track between hedges along the side of Wye College and then a sharp right down to a road, then a road which turns into a track. I've seen one other walker so far, headed the other way. There's a wall chart extolling the flatness of the North Downs Way, but I'm headed the wrong way today.

I go through a gate into a field and the rain starts, but the row of trees to the right are shielding me so far. There's a slight rise, and clearly a point where the path bifurcates - at ten o'clock up the hill to a style. Ahead of me is a chalk carving - the Wye Crown from 1902 for the coronation of George the Whatsit (or Edward the Thingieth) - but I won't get there as I'm headed for the style. It's a bit rotten, and not that easy to get over. A good start. Not. I'm on a permissive path across (the Wimbley Way) through a patch of wood, that takes me to a road, and onto what appears to be private land with a mobile mast. More wood, and a brief steep slope.

At the top I can down into the valley to the north, and see the clouds depositing rain. I'm wet, but not excessively so, but the going is a tad slippery. I reach a style, which is too broken for me to climb, but nearby there's a lower bit of fence to get over, thankfully. Down the hill and up again to Beech Wood, and up to a junction at what I take to be Ash.

This is a pleasant dell through woodland, and I'm squelching a little, splishing uphill, sploshing downhill. Warren Wood, apparently, though no rabbits. There's a left kink to the path at some point - is the crossroads it? No indication of a left turn, so straight on. There's a way marker and signs saying private land, but not a Stour Valley Walk.

Crogdale

I leave the wood, and cross a field, going around another patch of trees. This deposits me at the end of a track, with two farms ahead. This doesn't seem quite right, but it is a bridleway. I've glimpsed a church, presumably Crogdale, up the hill, but not Crogdale itself. Up the hill I go, and reach a junction. Left or right? Try right - but I'm figuring that I need west or north and retrace my steps to turn left. The path is very chalky, and ascends to a gate on a road. To the right is the church - and I'm not sure I've been on a footpath after all.

I catch my breath at the church and look into the valley. I've been off the route - that crossroads was a point where I should have gone left, despite the lack of posts. I should have taken a bearing. Still, at least this way I get to take in the church. I walk along the road, headed toward Crogdale (why is the church so far away?) and find a waymarker on a bend in the road. Over a style, up to my right then back on myself, and into a field with sheep. Baa, I say. Baa they say. I walk along this ridge, headed more or less north.

I pass Eggarton Manor, and field gives way to track, and track gives way to road. I get to the corner of a field, and I can see the path is diagonally across it, back on myself. There are parched crops, mostly soya, or a bean at the least, and a strip of wheat. It's going up hill, and I'll losing momentum. I haven't had a proper rest, and it's definitely lunch time - though I plan to eat in Chilham. I can catch my breath, every ten metres, and look back to see Ashford is behind me. In another direction is what I take to be Godmersham, one of the many sights which isn't actually on the path. Chiz. The ground is full of flint and chalk. Is that right? It's what I see on what is now bare earth.

Someone has put in footpath signs that say FOOTPATH, for which thanks. Clockwise around a wood on the blue downs. I get to another style and a field of steep leads down to a road. In the distance, in the woods, is a mill or factory. I look around the field - no sign of the exit point so I work around the edge, scattering sheep, to the bottom left corner. Onto a patch of road, across it, and into a field. Down again and then to another waymarker - which side of the fence is it meant to be, left or right? Left looks unpassable, and as I reach the wood at the top I guess right.

Down Wood

The path goes deeper into the wood than the maps show, up and down, up and down, and at one clearing there are steps built into the hill. I follow a contour around the edge of the wood, but according to the map this is open ground. I'm not as far as I thought. Another field, but which side of the boundary? Try left hand side. Each time I think I'm wrong - each time I think I've imagined a rougher streak through the grass - I find a yellow post to show the route. Back into the woods, and signs of the debris of civilisation. Sometimes a marker saying right means turn left through the brambles so that you avoid the nettles and can turn right later.

Chilham

I drop onto Old Wye Lane, the old byway from Wye to Canterbury, which is apparently a pleasure to walk in all seasons. The sharp stones of it beg to differ. I'm in woodland again, and see the fields to the left are dug up. I think it's a barrow excavation, but it's too long. New road? Triffic. I stand back to left a car pass. First person I've seen since Wye.

I find the path that leads off to Chilham - let's face it, it is time for lunch. It is well after lunch. I take the left turn and get to the earth works, a long scar along the landscape, splitting a path. Again I guess the side of a hedge and we're back into woodland.

Then - suddenly - a certain colour, and it's the first sight of the Stour since Wye. This walk is rather more valley than Stour. Whilst I'm parallel to the river, it is still a while until I get a proper look, and the path descends to the mills. There's no obvious place to sit, and it's all water company land.

I get to the railway crossing too late - the barriers descend and eventually a train passes. I wait and then cross to the main road, cross this perilously, and head left into Chilham proper. I've been along here on the bus this morning, and clearly I've had enough. I have the best part of an hour or two hours to do Chilham before the next buses, having just missed a train.

Past the bus shelter, up a hill, to the village. There's a shelter near the pub that used to house a telephone, and here I finally eat bread and cheese and drop an apple. I retrieve and eat it anyway. Half an hour. Up a steep hill, admiring the Tudorbethan woodframes, and an idyllic square with church and Jacobean gateway to a Jacobean house. There's a cafe, but it's closed. Ah well, another time. Not that I have the money.

I follow the road from the left hand side of the square back to the busstop and await the bus. A dog comes up to say hello. I stick my iPod on at last.

Canterbury

The bus takes me through Chartham and a couple of small villages, and I get off the bus too soon. There's a nearer stop. I hobble across the road as I'm stiffening up, and pop down Biggleswade Passage to complete the journey home. I was walking four and a half hours, and only covered seven or eight miles. A shame - I didn't quite take the hills into account. I still need to get fitter. And back to Chilham (and indeed Wye) to do more of the walk.