Two recent short walks as countryside access warden. Both revisits. First, Thursday March 10th. Selling station is about 10 km west of Canterbury. (Selling: original meaning “hall dwellers”) Thought of going by train but wouldnt feel safe, especially as masks no longer required. Parked about same time as train arrived. Sunny. Warm for March. Footbridge had been repaired, allowing direct access to path ZR631. Think the path was never closed. Earth path roughly northnortheast between fruit (currant?) bushes. Short testing rise through strip of wood. Across orchard to South Street. “PRIVATE LAND” signs reminding walkers to keep to footpaths. Woman with dog. A little pruning around path number on fingerpost. Short walk on road. Right on path ZR630. Left on ZR629, a wide track to Dunkirk Road. Man with two dogs. Right on access path to station, also link to Big Blean Walk. Footbridge steps taxing to unfit walker. Robin. Train to Canterbury arrived. Woman with questionnaires for rail passengers. Attached path number on post at road. Welcome coffee at Sondes. About a mile and a half in an hour.
St Patricks day, Thursday March 17th, a grand sunny day. Revisit the famously muddy East Blean Woods. (“Blean”, rough place) About 18km northnortheast of Canterbury. Kent wildlife trust charge for parking, collected by a system i cant use. Parked in a housing estate off the Ridgeway, Herne. (“Herne”, a corner of land) Short walk to Ridgeway Farm. First obstacle: a wall with a fivefoot ladder stile, the only one i’ve seen in Kent. Bit hairy for a decrepit 78 year old but i managed.
Downhill on track. White blossom on some trees and a hedge. Into the wood: KWT sign. Uphill. Mainly beech trees. Some recently felled. Some mud. Lots near Hicks Forstal Road especially where vehicle tracks. Careful walking to avoid slipping of falling. Often detour from line of path. Should be a fingerpost at the road. Turn right, still CH33, here part of the Big Blean Walk. Firmer path, then muddy. A Peacock butterfly slowly moving after hibernation.
Fear of falling. A lack of signs: almost missed right turn onto CH32. Realised i should be going north and consulted compass. Pruned a holly tree. Here more light reached the ground. Yellow blue and white flowers. Wood anemones?
After the wood, path crosses farm land between hedge and fence with barbed wire. A very soggy stretch. Greater fear of falling: kept well away from barbed wire. Slipped and fell on backside on tuft of grass. Shoes wet and muddy. At Ridgeway Road, turned right and soon back at car.
Two miles in 1hr 45min. Welcome coffee and crisps at Herne Garden Centre.
Years ago could celebrate with Guinness and music at Caseys, Canterbury. Now reverted to The Shakespeare and not Irish. Bands like Phoenix, Hudson and Cutler. Or further afield, Chris Taylor and various musicians.
Today at home with Irish cds, Topic cd of instrumental music from London Irish “It was great altogether”
Guinness and Jamesons. No craic though
Place name origins from Judith Cutler “The place names of Kent”
Rambling Brummie 