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Darwin’s fields and Downe

My favourite of all the wonderful meadows on these walks is the one adjacent to Darwin’s house at Downe. In August the grass is yellowing and long; it shines in the sun and bends, waving with the breeze. The thought of the scientist wandering these paths, perhaps with his wife and children, pondering some quirk of fauna and flora makes it all the more atmospheric.

After passing through this field, you cross Darwin’s ‘sandwalk’ and a hillside meadow with views across woods with no sign of human habitation in sight. Deer gather in this field at dusk and it’s a good place to spot birds in the surrounding beeches. For some reason green woodpeckers are often seen on the ground here. A tranquil, timeless place, but deceptive: there’s Biggin Hill airport (the former Battle of Britain base and now a major heritage and business aviation centre) just on the other side of the woods, and beyond that the eponymous town.

I’ve added a link to a GPX map now too, where you can check your progress on the Downe walk in real time – if you can get a network connection.

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One Tree Hill figure-of-eight walk, in the light of August

A beautiful stroll on Sunday in 32C sunshine at One Tree Hill, Sevenoaks. We did a version of the figure-of-eight walk, past Ightam Mote, skirting Shipbourne then on to the hamlet of Budds before climbing back up the green sandstone ridge at Wilmots Hill. We passed hardly a soul but nor did we see many birds. Everything was still, waiting for evening coolness as the last of the daytrippers sidled contentedly away from Ightam Mote, smiling and clutching bags containing goodies from the National Trust shop. The hushed reverential mood of the day was only heightened by the sudden appearance of one of the Biggin Hill Spitfires glistening in the sun, banking hard towards Plaxtol and briefly getting into formation with a slow twin-engine passenger plane (maybe a photo sortie?) before dashing off west. A thrilling sight.

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Rye Harbour

Odd huts, unusual plants, shingle, birds, marsh and just sheer weirdness pop all along the Kent coast into East Sussex. Dungeness feels like the source for all this, but little Dungenesses pop up from Reculver near Herne Bay right round to Rye Harbour. The latter I visited on the ‘hottest day of the year’, last week (July 26, 2018).

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New Downe walks

Much as I like the little Downe walk on this site, a walk with its roots in being taken by Dad to watch Biggin Hill airshows ’round the back’ in the late 1960s, it’s time to add another Downe walk. It’s a popular walk here, because of its proximity to south London, Charles Darwin’s house, the pleasant village and verdant hills. I’m a bit torn though. I could add one I’ve done a few times that takes in Cudham and Downe Bank; I could add an extension to Jail Lane and the airfield perimeter … but neither totally satisfy me for one reason or another. I’d like to do one that takes in Knockholt but that might end up being too long. Anyway, I’ll reach a conclusion soon… perhaps it’ll end up being two walks; one from Downe and one from Knockholt taking in the North Downs escarpment and various woods. We’ll see.

Hawthorn on Downe walk

Threatening clouds. Between point 6 & 7 hawthorn on Downe walk in May

 

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Check out my Travels page

Every now and then I get to escape from Kent and London. This year I’ve been lucky enough to visit Switzerland and southern California.

Yes, I know there’s a billion travel bloggers out there, endless newspaper articles and TV shows making you feel that you are an impoverished provincial recluse, but I have a powerful desire to share with you what I’ve found, whether you think it’s remotely interesting or not.

I like taking photos too, so I’ll try to let the pictures do the talking. I’ve created a Travels page, with hopefully informative captions about interesting wildish places I’ve come across. Below is a shot from Joshua Tree national park.

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Quieter Shoreham walks

For anyone who’s enjoyed the Shoreham Circular walk really should give the Shoreham Circular Mk2 a go. It goes along the ridge on the eastern side of the valley before dropping down and eventually joining the Mk1 route by the Darenth golf course. It’s a lovely quiet stroll starting in ancient woods (slow worms, buzzards, woodpeckers), ascending to the top of the hill eventually with great views and wild chalk meadows which teem with butterflies. It all ends by the George pub…

It’s pretty decent for public transport too… Shoreham station is opposite the start of the walk and can be reached by direct train from Blackfriars on the Catford loop line via Nunhead etc (check first, the Thameslink network is chaotic – there’s also the option of a train to Sevenoaks on the London Bridge-Orpington line, then changing). Give it a go this weekend, all is set fair.

If you fancy something longer, ending up in the same place, then the mysterious eastern valleys walk from Shoreham station or the Romney St/Otford/Shoreham circle (from Otford station) will fit the bill.

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Lake, fields, woods, birds – the 2.5 mile Bough Beech walk

Another ‘new’ walk, the 17th for this website. This is a quiet one-hour stroll without any strenuous bits, not good for dogs (because of farms and potential livestock) or pushchairs (unless very dry). It requires a car, there not being any rail stations or bus services realistically within reach. The Kent Wildlife Trust centre was supposed to be a feature, but this is closing (bird hides will remain open) and being converted into an educational centre, and visitors can no longer use its car park.

But now the good news: it’s a charming little stroll, with good views of the reservoir and its often spectacular bird life, a pocket or two of very bird-rich woods and the interesting Bore Place with its lovely old house, used as an organic farm, events venue and educational centre. It’s close to the Ide Hill (two miles) and Hever/Chiddingstone (four miles) walks and not that far from Knole Park/One Tree Hill (five miles) so can be done as part of a big day out. It ends with a stretch along the reservoir next to the very quiet lane on its north-eastern side. Anyway, here it is. Also, here’s my blog post about the frustration of trying to find a route around the lake – one of the things that prompted me to find this walk.

Bough Beech reservoir

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Chiddingstone again… with angry clouds

Once again off to Chiddingstone, this time without birding maestro Dave. But saw my first two bullfinches of the year, plus very large slow worm (too fast for me to take pic of however), skylarks and cuckoo. Plus the best variety of dragonflies – some real beasts – I’ve ever seen on a walk, perhaps brought out by the number of winged insects after the huge storm last nght. Some awesome cumulus nimbus forming beyond north London (Channel 4 news’ weatherforecaster Liam Dutton reckons this storm was the one that wrought temporary havoc to Buckinghamshire yesterday evening). The cloud tops of this storm reached 40,000ft so everyone who saw it from Kent and Surrey thought it was much closer than it actually was.

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Glorious meadows and woods of Chiddingstone, but few birds…

Whenever I do the Chiddingstone walk it seems to be fantastic weather. Sunday was a real beauty, clear skies, bright sunshine, a whisper of cool breeze. Our resident anonymous birdwatcher Dave came along and straightaway I heard and saw far more species than usual; cuckoo, song thrush, skylark, goldfinch, and best of all, marsh tit in the swampy woods near the start of the walk. The latter is rare enough to be worth recording with the Kent Ornithological Society, which Dave duly did.

The cuckoo we later saw flying between oaks. For a moment I thought it was a kestrel, with its rapid flap, but Dave pointed out that the wings stayed too low for that to be the case.

Odd though that we didn’t see buzzards or kestrels. And there were only a few swallows, despite the many fantastic meadows left untamed and absolutely buzzing with insect life including mayflies. No swifts at all or house martins. Dave said this was troubling and representative of the mass decline in bird numbers (and, actually, insect numbers) in Europe as a probable result of farms’ use of neonicotinoid insecticides, now being somewhat tardily restricted by the EU.

However, one insect we did see several examples of was the european hornet (Vespa crabro). There’s clearly a nest in the village somewhere, but we also spotted some individuals at the Penshurst side of the walk. These are native hornets and are less troublesome than wasps in many ways; they don’t seem to be such suckers for sweet things for one thing. We certainly enjoyed a swift Larkins at the Castle Inn without being troubled by those we saw zooming around nearby. Of course, when they sting, they hurt. Like hell.

An awesome walk and so much to enjoy.

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Shoreham circular mk2 – with improved directions!

We did a superb new walk in late April. Sounds funny to say considering I’ve done Shoreham to death, but we came across yet another variation on the Shoreham (Kent) circular. This time climbing up on to the eastern rim of the valley and walking towards Otford then back down into the valley, popping out by the Olde George. Brimstone butterflies aplenty, buzzards soaring… idyllic. An excellent train walk… no car/bus needed. Full instructions here and PDF (initial errors now corrected!).

Brimstone butterfly

Not the best for bluebells (some in Dunstall woods though) but a super walk.

UPDATE: Apologies to those who tried this walk out then realised some of my PDF instructions were missing half way through! I had unwittingly and absent-mindedly positioned the map over some of the text without realising it. Also, I had referred to Mill Lane wrongly… in fact there is only one Mill Lane and that is at the northern end of the village. But there is a Mill Cottage in the vicinity! Thanks to the walker who pointed these errors out to me…