Summer ended at Camber; look forward to October
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Summer ended at Camber; look forward to October

October, along with June, July and January (all the J’s) is a ‘classic’ walking month. We all know about the turning leaves so I won’t bother describing the colour changes that occur! What I like best are the migrating, busy birds, the every changing cloudscapes, the sudden showers, the unpredictable temperature changes (‘wow it’s warm’, ‘wow it’s like Iceland!’) and, best of all, the light. It’s a real shame when the clocks go back at the end of the month because it denies us hikers of another hour of daylight. Why we continue with this bizarre clock policy defeats me; I guess it’s as British as the mythical replacement rail bus or surprise roadworks. It is what it is … sigh. Rant over.

  • Polhill view October
  • Knole
    Knole, early October.
  • Rainbow, October
  • view over Weald
    Emmett’s view over Weald in early October 2015
  • Downe near point 3, autumn
  • Downe
  • Darent valley autumn

Now, Camber Sands – that’s where we went last week to fully mark the end of summer. A fish flatbread with chilli jam, salad and sour cream at Dungeness’s brilliant Snack Shack* set us up for a late afternoon swim in the luckily non-sewagey waters at Camber. We followed this with a drink at the delightful Ypres Castle Arms in Rye, a tucked-away pub with a great beer garden and view of the salt marsh and Channel. As dusk began a little thunderstorm was flickering away somewhere near France but gradually crept closer. On the way home the ‘little’ storm suddenly became very large and caught up with us: spectacular fork lightning and bursts of torrential rain and hail propelled us past Northiam, Bodiam, Hawkhurst and even Tunbridge Wells – where of course the A21 was shut, necessitating an abysmally long diversion. But then the closure of major roads mid-evening, like mythical rail replacement buses and the clocks going back is something us Brits seem to just have to tolerate.
* I recommend the Snack Shack but go before 2pm if poss, it gets very busy and perhaps has become a bit too popular. An alternative is the superb Britannia Pub just up the road.

A bike’s eye view of faded August beauty
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A bike’s eye view of faded August beauty

The dusty torpor of late August is upon us. Birdsong has dwindled and the countryside looks faded and a bit tired. The late afternoon sunlight on Sunday was filtered through a layer of dust and smoke particles from wildfires across the Atlantic giving an oddly melancholic tone to our cycle ride around Cudham, Brasted and Knockholt. The silence was only punctured by the breeze on the beautiful hedgerows, and dry, long grasses and wildflowers of the verges and fields left to fallow. Swallows seemed to be clustering together in a few places as they contemplate their epic journey south. We stopped to pick blackberries at Letts Green, having for once remembered to bring some tupperware with us. Later a ruddy moon rose to the south emphasising the odd atmospheric conditions. My cycle route takes in the Pilgrim’s Way and the daunting Sundridge Hill, having sped down Brasted Hill. We’ve done it so often now that our legs have acclimatised to the steep sections that we used to have to walk up. Another cycle, the next day, took us from Tonbridge to Penshurst Place, a beautiful medieval manor house with a wonderful walled garden, on a route close to the Medway and its offshoots that’s mostly off-road.

  • Penshurst gardens
    Penshurst gardens
  • Penshurst
  • Downhill on bike route toward Pilgrim’s Way from Cudham
  • Road off Pilgrims Way
Into the hot valleys of the North Downs
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Into the hot valleys of the North Downs

Sunny weekends have been in short supply this year. Hopefully we are overdue some. It’s a great time for butterflies and wildflowers like scabious, particularly in the chalky North Downs walks. I also love the displays of rosebaywillow herb… so colourful alongside ragwort. And there’s the wild marjoram and thyme to enjoy. It’s a great time of year, though look carefully and you’ll notice the grass is yellowing, the trees looking a little tired in places as August continues. I love a hot walk, and nothing beats the Mysterious eastern valleys and Fackenden Down walks for trapped heat and big-time humidity. These walks can be combined for a 7-mile epic, as can all the Shoreham, Otford and Eynsford routes. And they are only a 40-minute train journey away from Peckham Rye/Crofton Park/Catford etc. I’ll be setting off shortly …

Vibrant colour in Shoreham’s eastern valleys
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Vibrant colour in Shoreham’s eastern valleys

Great to see so many people enjoying walks this weekend, a fair few using the KWNL routes and following the GPX from the look of the WordPress dashboard. I’ve helped a few out with directions from time to time – people are always tickled pink when they realise they’re talking to the actual bloke who wrote this site.

Today I walked the ‘mysterious eastern valleys of Shoreham‘ route. The path by the field is very overgrown. I was prepared for it so brought secateurs. Despite my snipping that path will still be daunting and slow going. I advise a diversion: check out the map on the route’s web page to see it – it involves walking down to Shoreham church from the station then taking the path heading north and eventually crossing the railway line and the A225 before heading east, steeply uphill and joining at Point 3. It’s not difficult, honest.

And it’s worth it. Right now this is a brilliant route. From the hamlet at Austin Lodge up to Romney Street the wildflowers are fantastic: wild marjoram and scabious; mauves, lilacs and purples with knapweed, devil’s bit scabious, the yellows of trefoil and ragwort, the deep pink of rosebay willow creating a sheen of vibrant colour. I walked with clouds of meadow brown and gatekeeper butterfiles with the odd brimstone and chalk hill blue thrown in. As ever in summer, the Magpie Bottom valley – between Knatt’s valley and the Darent valley – was humid, still and quiet. A little owl called, buzzards soared. I decided to extend the walk past Romney Street to Magpie Bottom and over Fackenden Down, bringing me out at Shoreham station just in time for the 5:38pm Blackfriars service. Perfecto.

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Bough Beech wildlife and ice-cream

A lovely summer’s day coincided with a planned outing to Bough Beech for the shortish walk and a stroll around the former Kent Wildlife Trust nature reserve with its fine bird hide overlooking a lush and large pond. Birder Dave was in attendance and was ably assisted by the Merlin app, although Birder Dave is the more accurate judge of bird calls and songs. We heard spotted flycatcher, saw three marsh tits, a hobby, kingfishers, grass snakes, heard raven (could it be that noisy individual who ‘lives’ in the Douglas fir by Chartwell?), saw green sandpiper, flocks of lapwings (once a common site in all parts of Kent, but now no longer) and the usuals. Better still was the fine company and the encounters with friendly birders who were very familiar with the site and knowledgeable. The Bough Beech is the only walk at KWNL where you can buy an ice cream half way through. And a top quality one too. At Bore Place farm there’s a sort of little barn round the back with freezers full of top notch organic lollies and tubs. You pay with via a card reader or QR code thingy – it took me a while to work out how to pay because I couldn’t be arsed to find my glasses so kept misreading ‘charge’ as ‘change’. Duh.

A reptilian reveal
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A reptilian reveal

It was great to hear that Kent Wildlife Trust made it to their £196k target to buy an extra 26 acres to extend their Polhill Bank reserve, which features on a couple of KWNL routes – Pluto and Meenfield Woods. I headed out there earlier today, sacrificing the first set of the French Open tennis final. I had a subsidiary mission – to buy a shrub. I was actually planning to go to Coolings for this purpose, near Knockholt, but the traffic was so horrendous on the pertinent routes past Bromley and Hayes that I diverted to Polhill Nursery so I could return to SE London via the Orpington bypass road, up through Chislehurst. I had a good look at Polhill Bank. The first pyramidal orchids were showing, along with loads of milkwort, speedwell and all the June usuals. My expertise does not extend to plants beyond the common species. There were few birds around: I heard a cuckoo briefly, which is something, a whitethroat and eventually a yellowhammer. Buzzards soared, a swift swooped around; there were no swallows or martins disappointingly. However, for the first time I saw a lizard at this reserve. I’ve long wanted to see one here because KWT’s website proclaims their presence on these sunny slopes. So I was delighted. I really had to look and just caught it in the corner of my eye in a gap between vegetation. I stayed on the path and was determined not to disturb it in any way as it was sunning itself on a piece of wood. As a result my photos are rubbish. But that is less important to me than the fact I documented it and didn’t tread on anything I shouldn’t have – and left it in peace.

  • Common lizard at Polhill
    Common lizard at Polhill
  • Pond and view
    Heavy rainfall has formed pond just beyond Polhill

Where’s best for orchids in Kent (but near London)?
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Where’s best for orchids in Kent (but near London)?

Us south-east Londoners are blessed with proximity to great places to see orchids at this time of year. The chalk hills from Downe to Heaverham, along the North Downs escarpment are full of them, splashing vivid purple, pink and cream among the whites and yellows of ox-eye daisies, trefoil and buttercups. They are beautiful flowers and vital in the lifecycles of loads of insects.

They can be found on all the walks from May to July, but here are the best routes that feature them:

1 Fackenden Down
2 Eastern Valleys walk – the hillside that runs into Magpie Bottom from the south
3 Lullingstone
4 Downe (extend the walk to Downe Bank). Also should be a few on the Cudham walk.
5 High Elms (mostly in the woodland glades near the visitor’s centre)
6 Polhill

I also hear the water meadows just north of Keston ponds are a good spot. Perhaps southern marsh orchids there. I’d better go…

Various orchids pictured below include southern marsh, bee, fragrant, common spotted and pyramidal orchids at Hever, White Hill (Fackenden Down), Magpie Bottom, Polhill, Pilot Wood, and Downe.

  • Common spotted orchids, Hever
  • Pyramidal orchid
    Pyramidal orchid in the Andrews Wood-Meenfield Wood gap, June
  • Fragrant orchid, Magpie Bottom

I’m sure you can see loads too on the Knockholt/Chevening route, all the Otford/Shoreham routes and Kemsing or Otford to Heaverham trail too – I just haven’t been on those recently to check. On the Greensand and the Weald they can also be seen in certain meadows and along hedges on the Bough Beech, Hever and Chiddingstone routes. But not quite as many as on the the chalk of the North Downs.

  • Pyramidal orchid, Austin Spring
  • Pyramidal orchid, Downe
    Pyramidal orchid, Downe

There are so many other great wildflowers to enjoy at this time. Sainfroin, for example, poppy, bugle, ox-eye daisy, and the lovely milkwort. Some are pictured below.

  • Sainfoin, a very insect-friendly plant
  • Poppies near Romney Street

It’s wet on the Weald
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It’s wet on the Weald

My wellies came in useful on the Hever walk on Saturday. I’ve never worn them in early summer before. But my hunch was right… there are still a few quagmires out there. Watching a young couple ahead of me try to negotiate the mud in lightweight trainers made me wince. There’s not really the same problem on the North Downs chalk walks, where the drainage is much better thanks to the geology. Except where there’s clay (Andrew’s Wood hillside I’m looking at you).

  • Meadow, Penshurst
  • Common spotted orchids, Hever
  • Bough Beech
    Northern lake at Bough Beech

In June it’s generally a good idea to stick a pair of secateurs or tough old scissors in your rucksack if you’re doing a Kent walk. It seems odd I know. One or two of the less well used paths become entangled in brambles, nettles etc this month and next. This is particularly the case this year because rain has kept hikers away and some of the paths have been left unused. The Eastern Valleys walk east of Shoreham definitely requires a bit of snipping as you walk along the fields on the Darent Valley rim. The diversion to the Percy Pilcher memorial viewpoint is in need of a trim at the best of times. And at Chiddingstone, near the start, the path leading into the swampy woods is nearly impassable. If you prefer, you can divert to walk along the field edge – it joins the main path as you enter the woods. The same thing happens later as you near the River Eden on the return leg. There are parts of the Hever walk, in Stock Wood and Newtye Hurst Wood where you might need to divert off the main path and it‘s easier to do a little judicious snipping than try to battle your way through. Especially if you’re wearing shorts!

Overall the Weald of Kent is obviously wetter than normal for the time of year. Bough Beech reservoir is brimful for once and the mires and ponds in the woods of Hever and Chiddingstone are well topped up.

It’s time for Fackenden Down
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It’s time for Fackenden Down

The Fackenden Down walk in late May on a breezy sunny day cannot be bettered. This is the walk on this site with most rewilding going on and plenty of Kent Wildlife Trust-maintained land. The results are a good variety of wildflowers, including several orchid species and sainfoin, lots of butterflies, burnet moths and birds such as buzzards (very common), whitethroat (from May to September) and yellowhammer (if you’re lucky). Some ancient species of livestock such as highland cattle are often used to graze the grasses in small numbers. My route is brilliant, if I do say so myself, and easily accessible by train. There’s a great pub at the end of the walk too – the Samuel Palmer.

I love Magpie Bottom in particular, a sheltered secret feeling valley alive with flowers and great variety of tree foliage colours. Then there the views from Fackenden Down itself, the wild “garden“ along the foot of White Hill and the Down, the view of London and Essex from the high point at Romney Street … it’s terrific, and a good workout with a few steep sections. It comes in at around 12,500 steps.

The Kent Wildlife Trust is in need of volunteers to monitor its livestock. Also it’s looking for urgent donations to enable it to purchase more land at Polhill, across the valley from Fackenden, where it monitors and maintains similarly superb chalk hillside. I’ve diverted the donations to this site to the appeal, but please make sure you chip in.

Suddenly summer
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Suddenly summer

The unexpected arrival of a summer that seemed so distant on the bank holiday and the even more unexpected appearance of the aurora borealis in the skies of south-east England (has this ever happened to such an extent before?), were the backdrop to full-on weekend of walking for yours truly. Family wanted a walk in the Seven Sisters country park, East Sussex. My offer of the Hever walk, great in May, was turned down. So we headed down the merry old B2026, A26 and A27 turning off towards Afriston soon after Lewes. We improvised a walk starting in the downs above the Cuckmere valley at High and Over, then steeply down to the river to the country park visitors centre. From here, we decided to walk through Westdean (beautiful!) and Friston Forest then back to the Cuckmere via New Bridge and steeply up High and Over (though an inquisitive herd of goats). About seven miles.

Pictured: view of Cuckmere river from High and Over; the Cuckmere river nears the sea; looking towards Friston Forest from High and Over

Cliffs were the next item on the agenda so we drove to Birling Gap where the happy ice-cream ensonced throng was beginning to thin and walked a mile or so along the tops of the Seven Sisters and back. This was followed by a great dinner at the gorgeous Tiger Inn in East Dean and another walk from the Seaford Head car park down to the Coastguard Cottages (think Atonement and a million photos of the cottages, the beach and the cliffs). During this walk a fox crossed our path with a rabbit in its mouth. Another rabbit bounded past in the opposite direction. By now it was pushing 9pm and crowds were arriving at the car park hoping to see another great aurora.

Thinking ahead we drove back to SE London via the Ashdown Forest, parked up in darkness at the Piglets car park and made our way to the AA Milne memorial with its great north-facing view. By now it was about 10pm. Lots of others had the same idea … good humoured groups of people lingered with their phone lights pointing at the ground round every corner. Of course there was no aurora borealis, underlining what a one-off Friday night had been. But we saw a decent starscape, a few satellites, and that was it. I was hoping for an owl and the song of a nightingale, but alas …

Sunday saw a more familiar path taken: the High Elms/Farnborough walk (pictured above). Sun-dappled paths, fantastic fresh foliage, an air of bonhomie from fellow walkers – what a difference a spell of sunshine can make. This route lacks great views but it’s far from ordinary because of its associations with Darwins and Lubbocks, and star-studded arboreal content – from sequoias to holm oak, beech to corsican pine. I fiddled with the Merlin app a few times to try to identify warblers and other migrant birds calling from thickets. But it didn’t work. I guess they were all common whitethroats and blackcaps anyway. One highlight was was the clearing in the woods a mile north of the Beeche cafe. It was full of bugle and cowslip; dark blue and yellow splashes. This season’s bluebells are already largely a memory. Here’s a very good blog about High Elms and other places covered on KWNL by Bill Welch.