I've just decided to have a short 2-3 day hike next week. I'll go by train to Rye, make my way to the Sussex Border Path, end at Gatwick Airport and then come home by train. I just feel the need to hike through apple and plum orchards plus I hope a few Hop Gardens as well. Over the years this rural world that I grew up in is, I believe, gradually dying. My sister lives in Maidstone and as she observes, the landscape is changing fast. So many orchards and hop fields have been grubbed out over the past few years and have been replaced with the 'modern way' of farming, which appears to be mostly plastic tunnels! While some of the landscape attractiveness is still there I hope to soak up what remains of it. For me, its one of the pleasures of living in the south of the UK!