Kent County Council asks its volunteer countryside access wardens to look at “issues”. In this case a damaged waymarker post on footpath CB487 near Chartham.
This would mean a walk of about a mile so i drove along A28 on Sunday morning. Parked at the garden centre with the feeble excuse of looking at Christmas trees. The footpath starts next to a house towards Canterbury. I rewrote the path number on the fingerpost.
Steps. Stiles either side of railway crossing. Care: stop, look, and listen. Between hedges: a little pruning with secateurs. Fishers by lakes. Seven swans a-swimming, a month too early. Sheep in grassy meadow by River Stour. Across the Stour Valley Way, footpath and cycle route. Footbridge across river. Path gravelly then leafy. At a bend is the “issue”: marker post apparently broken at ground level but supported by a convenient tree. Is fine as a marker. Someone at KCC may decide whether to replace it.
Path continues. Up steep steps – useful handrail – and across Bretts gravel works. Warnings to beware of machinery. Bretts have been extracting sand and gravel for 110 years. Most of the lakes in the Stour Valley are the result.
I walked to the end of CB487, a junction with another footpath, and turned back for the return journey. A little more pruning.
At home reported what i’d done to KCC. A short walk but a pleasant one.
Rambling Brummie 