Third time lucky

Old age is awful, but the alternative is worse. First heard these words of wisdom from Manfred Rommel, MEP and son of the German general. I blame old age for occasional blunders and lack of attention.

Back in March, i looked at some footpaths in Blean, north of Canterbury. After trudging through mud i went badly astray and was advised by a local man that the path i was seeking was underwater. As it was back in December 2012 on a previous visit. After lockdown, Kent County Council told its Countryside Access Wardens to cease work.

In July we were told we could carry on, with added safety measures, mainly to avoid people. I revisited the Blean paths, now baked dry. All went well till i reached a junction of six paths. Unsure of where i was, i could see no waymarkers. There were three female dogwalkers. One directed me, indeed accompanied me, back to the main road in Blean. Unfortunately, this was not the path i’d intended to walk.

A third visit Jul 9th. A path opposite Hillside Farm, where Peter Firmin of Bagpuss fame used to live. This path was underwater in March. Across a field. Fitted three yellow waymarkers, the first CAW work other than pruning. Yellow tape at a gate: nowhere to nail waymarkers. We are NOT to nail things to trees. Through woods to a wider track, leading to the junction of six paths. This time i saw the adequate waymarkers. How did i miss them the other time. Old age? Or were the women standing in front of the posts? One of the six paths is not a public right of way. I picked the right one and easily walked back to the main road in Blean.

Three visits. Three kilometres of paths. Four and a half hours to sort them out. Stay alert in future.

Back to Blean Woods

I am a volunteer Countryside Access Warden. A posh title that means i help maintain public rights of way. Kent County Council has decided i can resume work after the lockdown. Last Thursday i cautiously visited footpaths near home in Canterbury, avoiding people as much as possible. I pruned a lot of intrusive brambles.

Yesterday, Sunday, i revisited Blean Woods, to the northwest of Canterbury. On March 8th i went astray there during a very muddy walk. Hope for better luck walking the same paths. A sunny morning, though i wore a raincoat to keep out the wind.

Am still too wary to travel by bus. Parked near the shops in Tyler Hill Road, walked downhill towards Canterbury past Hillside Farm, home of the late Peter Firmin, past the closed Blean Tavern. On the right, up the hill after crossing the Sarre Penn stream, is a footpath leading into the woods. No mud at all. Past some cattle. A squirrel. A locked gate to climb. Something to report as a “fault” Navigation not difficult except for an indistinct path through woodland. This is a small part of the Big Blean Walk, “a forty kilometre walk through one of the largest ancient woodlands in England.” I quote from the guide produced by the Kentish Stour Countryside partnership.

A broad track leads northwest, well used by runners and walkers. Wide enough for separation. Not pleased to trip over a tree root and fall flat. After recrossing the Sarre Penn i was looking for a path to the right leading back to Blean. I was expecting a junction of five paths.

Instead three dogwalkers were talking at a junction of four broad paths. I was in the right place but the path i sought was missing. One of the dog walkers, a lady in her eighties i think, showed me the way past a covered reservoir to the main road, A290, Blean Commmon. I thanked her, wondering how i’d missed the correct path. Bought a bottle of ale at the shop to quench my thirst when i got home.

Much more pleasant than my March walk, but my navigation skills failed again and i need another visit.

Oare gunpowder works country park

First visit this year to one of my favourite places. Oare gunpowder works is just off Faversham’s Western Link Road. Gunpowder was made there until 1934. After seventy years of neglect major conservation work took place. Remaining structures were conserved and access paths made. The site is managed for nature and biodiversity.

During lockdown the excellent visitors centre, in the former cooperage, is closed. The carpark is open every day from 9 or 930 till 5pm. I arrived soon after the Steward, Allison, unlocked the carpark. We walked round the site while she picked litter. Largely cans and bottles. A lovely place to have a few beers, but why can’t people take the empties home?

The park has a variety of environments: ponds, leats (waterways), woodland, clearings, and wetland. There are plenty of boards giving information about wildlife and the buildings used for gunpowder production.

Conservation work is done largely by volunteers: the Friends of Oare Gunpowder Works. I’ve planted a few trees myself. Work i noticed since my last visit included recently planted yew and hawthorn.

Two coots on the lower millpond. Butterflies, unidentified by me. Birdsong. A popular place for walkers with dogs or children.

In normal times there are guided walks and activities for children. An annual Artists in the Woods festival. Hopefully all these will return.

Father and son

Yesterday, June 21st, was Fathers’ Day. A walk with my oldest son seemed appropriate. Also the day after the summer solstice.

My home for the past 45 years is about a kilometre from the centre of Canterbury and less from farmland and orchards. In light drizzle we first went to my allotment where i watered courgettes planted the day before. Then on a footpath across a field of maize and uphill between fruit trees. Secateurs useful for pruning brambles. View of the cathedral looking back to the city. A bridge across the A2. A short way up New House Lane then across fields to Cockering Road, passing a large construction site. More housing, more traffic, more demand for water. Down Cockering Road, a former council estate on the left.

A man overtook us , saying this is a fifty percent chance of rain. Tolerable drizzle.

My son and i talked , largely of school after lockdown eases. He is a history teacher and part of his school’s senior management. Government advice poor: did any of them go to state schools? Cricket: Tests versus West Indies soon. Regretting the low standard of radio commentary. Test Match Special has degenerated into banter, reminscence, and drivel. Convince BBC wants entertainment not serious commentary.

Black lives matter

Two different walks this past weekend, each about three miles. With misgivings i joined Canterbury’s Black Lives Matter march on Saturday. Misgivings because i haven’t been in a group of more than three people since the lockdown began in March. But there’s a time to stand up and be counted.

A big crowd, many with homemade placards and mostly much younger than me, assembled in the Westgate Gardens by the River Stour. Fairly easy to keep socially distanced on the lawns. The march, along Canterbury’s main street, separated into small groups. I couldn’t keep up and had to keep stepping aside to let marchers pass. Decrepitude. Old age is bad, but the alternative is worse.

Increasing unease at being in a crowd. At my age much more vulnerable than the youngsters. The march turned into narrow Mercery Lane leading to the cathedral gate. Crammed together. The Bishop of Dover addressed the marchers. I left for the Dane John Gardens and had a welcome coffee.

Sunday’s walk was more conventional. Three miles of exercise with son Joseph. Three miles is my limit in my present state of fitness. Along the quiet Whitehall Road where we met a colleague of Joe’s on an isolated sponsored walk. She has run an enormous number of marathons. Up a steep footpath and the steeper ABC steps, over a railway bridge to the London Road Estate. Built as council housing with street names taken from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Along Priest Avenue. An alley off Wife of Bath Hill led to Mill Lane.

This is part of the North Downs Way and led us uphill and then steeply down to a stream. Left turn on a footpath leads back to the end of Whitehall Road. Across Hambrook meadow to the riverside path, well used by cyclists and walkers, some with dogs. By the time we got home via Toddlers Cove i was out of energy.

A pleasant walk on a sunny summer day.

Circuit of Canterbury

Before The Virus, Sunday mornings were for walking. Either with the Dover and Thanet Rights of Way Society or footpath work with my oldest son Joseph. Kent County Council has not yet authorised countryside access work to resume. But I can walk with my son, two metres apart because he’s a separate household.

A favourite walk is a circuit of Canterbury, following as near as possible the medieval walls, built on top of the Roman walls. Canterbury lies on the river Stour, which splits to make about six islands. My walk is about five kilometres.

Alertness is needed to keep separate from other walkers, runners, and cyclists.

A reason for this walk is to see favourite places. The keep of the Norman Castle is by the Wincheap roundabout. Walking clockwise: meadow by the Stour with an iron bull. Children’s playground at Toddler’s Cove. By the river through the Westgate gardens with lawns, flowers, trees, mallards and pigeons. Westgate towers, Canterbury’ only surviving medieval gate.

Still by the river to St Radigunds Street. Here a detour, following the river to Kingsmead Road and walking round an island past Barton Mill, once a watermill now residences.

Back on the wall, the Parrot pub was once timber framed houses. The wall of the former church in St Radigunds street, much repaired, contains Roman stonework. Broad Street parallels the walls, here protecting the cathedral’s Deanery. Glimpses of the cathedral itself. Then we can walk on top of the City wall, restored in the 1960s. Looking down on the Dane John gardens to the right, the dual Carriageway ringroad to the left. Looking up to the Dane John mound, probably burial mound of a British chief.

A footbridge over the road takes us to Canterbury East station. Joe goes left to his home: i turn right to mine. A pleasant walk on a sunny morning.

Family memories: playing with children at Toddlers Cove. Swimming at Kingsmead Pool. Speedway. Dentist in Broad Street Playing cricket in Dane John Gardens.

Naturally we talked. Cricket: BBC repeating 2013 Ashes Test. Roman Empire in the East , referring to a book Joe gave me. USA: Does the president have power to stop police thuggery? Walking can free the mind to ramble on about all sorts of subjects.

Julius Caesar was here

About three kilometres west of Canterbury was the first recorded battle on British soil. In 55BC Julius Caesar made a brief excursion to this land. In 54BC he returned with a greater force. He wrote that a day’s march from the sea he forded a river. The native Brits took refuge in a hillfort which he conquered.

This hillfort, Bigbury, is the main reason for yesterday’s walk. Again i was joined, at a two metre distance, by fellow walker Steve. We started at the small village of Chartham Hatch, walking roughly eastwards along Bigbury Road. Woods on the left. Turned right onto a bridleway descending through woods, eventually with orchards on the right. Left uphill on Tonford Lane. On the left are the ramparts of the fort and site of its eastern gateway. Follow the road downhill to the right. Turn left onto the wellsigned North Downs Way, a national trail from Farnham to Dover.

The path skirts the north side of the hillfort, crossing the remains of an annexe. A helpful information board. In 2010 the chestnut trees were coppiced to make the ancient monument more visible. On this stretch we met several walkers, runners and a cyclist.

The path passes through No Man’s Orchard, so called because it straddles the parishes of Harbledown and Chartham Hatch. It is a community orchard:: people can sponsor apple trees. I have pruned trees here with the Stour Valley Countryside volunteers. Another information board.

The trail goes upward past a recreation ground to Chartham Hatch.

A pleasant sunny day and a pleasant woodland walk, enjoying the patterns of light and shade on the hard earth path. Perhaps because i had company, my aches and pains didn’t bother me.

Stay alert.

Pretence of normality

For years i’ve been walking with the Dover and Thanet Rights of Way Society. DATROWS for short. Most of their walks are five or six miles, too much for my ageing legs. I’ve led a few”leisurely” three mile walks. The schedule had me doing this today, Sunday May 24th. The lockdown has cancelled all walks. However i decided to do the walk anyway, to keep a connection with the group. I was joined by another member, Steve. We reckoned we could walk keeping at least two metres apart.

The walk was from Bridge, about three miles from Canterbury on the former A2, the Roman Watling Street heading for Dover. The village name derives from the bridge over the Nailbourne, an intermittent stream.

A pleasant Sunday morning, slight breeze and mostly cloudy. Across the recreation ground to Conygham Road. Under the A2 which now bypasses the village. A bridge across the Nailbourne: running water surprisingly given the current drought, through a field of sheep. Across a road, up through cereals. A short steep uphill on a minor road. Then woodland paths where we passed a few dogwalkers . On part of the North Downs Way next to the A2, quieter than before lockdown. A bridge over the A2, then a path between houses and the road and a final downhill on grass.

Naturally we chatted about this and that. Nature. Origin of placenames. Walking. Tried to describe the pleasure of being with a group who have nothing in common except a love of walking. Equality except for the need to follow the leader.

Photographed a Speckled Wood butterfly which posed on the path.

Recently i have been walking alone: good to have company.

Steve kindly gave me a bottle of Wantsum Brewery’s SS Richard Montgomery, an American sryle pale ale. Named after a ship wrecked near Sheerness which contains lots of high explosives.

Enjoyed the beer later at home.

Another Larkey Valley Sunday

The Larkey Valley Wood is about three kilometres southwest of Canterbury. Given to the city by Alderman Frank Hooker in 1932, it is 44 hectares of woodland. A Site of Special Scientific Interest and local Nature Reserve. Looked at another way, one of Canterbury’s public parks.

I came here often in times past, walking with family, running or walking. Being older, today i drove to the carpark for a three mile walk, which could be shortened if my left ankle became too painful. A lovely sunny morning. Saw a squirrel by the road.

The walk begins on a stony byway. Met the first dogwalker. On the left, beech trees on the thin chalky soil. Many were blown down in the great storm of 1987. To the right, views of the Stour Valley including the church and paper mill at Chartham.

Turn left on a beaten earth path through the wood. Right onto a bridleway leading southeast out of the woods. On the right currant bushes. On the left, a tall hedge. To New House Lane. Turn left towards Canterbury. A car passed. Left onto another bridleway, past New House farmhouse into the woods. Here i turned right onto a minor path, winding between trees and sometimes stepping over fallen trees.

Back on the main path, walking down the valley, a whirring noise alerted me to four cyclists. Then four dogs and four people, one a babe in a sling. At the Cave Tree, a big beech where my sons used to enjoy the cave in the roots, turn steeply uphill. Passed four other walkers here. Then a short walk back to the carpark.

On this walk i realised i’m not good at identifying trees, birds or flowers. But i can enjoy a woodland walk without being able to name things.

Cricket or walking?

One of my interests is cricket. BBC Radio 5X have re-broadcast ball-by-ball commentary on the epic Edgbaston Test of 2005 between England and Australia. On Sunday August 7th Australia needed an unlikely 107 runs to win. England only needed to take two wickets.

What’s this got to do with walking? In those fitter days i joined Dover and Thanet Rights of Way Society for a six mile walk every alternate Sunday. The cricket could be watched on free-to-air television, on Channel 4. My dilemma: stay at home to watch cricket, which might be over in five minutes, or join the regular walk.

I compromised: for the first and only time i walked with my Walkman radio. I recall little of the walk, to the north of Hythe. The cricket was rivetting as the Australian batsman, Warne, Lee, and Kasprowicz moved towards an unlikely victory. We walkers were on top of Tolsford Hill with its twentieth century telecom mast and Bronze Age roundbarrows when the end came. Kasprowicz was out, caught Jones bowled Harmison. England won by two runs. And went on to win the Ashes.