It was forecast to be very hot again today, so for our walk I planned a route that would be mostly in the shade.
As I'm sure everyone knows by now, Kent has the greatest area of ancient woodland in England and we're extremely lucky to live close to The Blean, one of the largest areas of ancient woodland in Kent.
Setting off from home, we did a 14.25 mile-long 'wood crawl', taking in Ellenden Wood, Victory Wood, Blean Wood, Claypits Wood, High Wood, Bossenden Wood, North Bishopden Wood, and finally our local - Clowes Wood. There were some unshaded stretches between some of the woods, but we were mostly in among the trees!
Across a meadow and up a hill with excellent views behind towards Whitstable, we're about to enter The Blean:
Me on a path through the woods:
This is Clay Hill. It's in Victory Woods, which is in the process of being re-established - hence the lack of trees here. More of The Blean can be seen in the distance:
A couple of hundred yards further on and we're heading down a steep path through a lovely beech wood - my favourite variety:
Here we're in a large wood called Bossenden Wood and following the Big Blean Walk for a while. The stream is bone dry:
Heading into 'our' woods - Clowes Wood:
In Clowes Wood, within the space of about 200 yards, there are no fewer than five totally unnecessary footbridges. The path they're on runs parallel to a more popular gravel track about 20 yards away, so the 'five bridges path' is rarely used. And they don't even cross water for 99% of the year - only very shallow ditches. I can think of much better ways for the council to spend money on public footpaths!
Having a drink at the top of the hill where the tarmacked cycle track goes down and out of the woods. I was very annoyed when the track was tarmacked a couple of years ago - I thought it was pointless and, being very steep, dangerous for cyclists in icy conditions.
Leaving the woods - and we're almost home!
Edit: I almost forgot to mention... no navigational aids of any kind were used in the following of this route.