Author Topic: Recommended routes between Dover and London?  (Read 827 times)

lk

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Recommended routes between Dover and London?
« on: 02:37:48, 08/02/18 »
Will be arriving in Dover at the end of August, headed to London by train, and would like spend two days walking somewhere in between (or without going very far out of the way).  Somewhat overwhelmed by the many options even just at explorekent.org, so would appreciate your advice on my first walk in the UK.  Ideally looking to see a mix of quaint villages, farms, wildlife, and local culture/history/museums.  Three adults in the group, with luggage, so perhaps we could do two single-day circular walks and leave our luggage at a B&B/hotel?


Thanks very much!

gunwharfman

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Re: Recommended routes between Dover and London?
« Reply #1 on: 11:00:13, 08/02/18 »
I would suggest that you have a look at three sites, Bing Maps, to view and study Ordance Survey maps. Then www.nationaltrail.co.uk, The North Downs Way is there plus it offers a Google Street view of the route, walk it by sitting in you armchair at home. Also www.gps-routes.co.uk is very good, loads of routes, county by county, plus Ordance Survey maps as well. If you want to hike in the South of England, look up the walks in Kent, Surrey, East Sussex, West Sussex and possibly Hampshire.

Lots to choose from but a couple of trails springs to mind which makes good use of trains. London to Gatwick Airport, start to walk the Sussex Border Path. London to Horsham, start to walk the High Weald Trail. London to Rochester, start to walk the North Downs Way. I'm assuming you will be making your way back to Dover?

For a circular walk, London to Tunbridge Wells, stay there and walk the Tunbridge Wells Circular Walk, use the train again and start at Groomebridge or Tonbridge.

August will be a good time for any of them, lots of apple, pear and plum orchards to walk though and to scrump as well!

Rather be walking

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Re: Recommended routes between Dover and London?
« Reply #2 on: 12:31:11, 08/02/18 »
I suggest The North Downs way out of Dover. It criss-crosses the M25 a few times.
Then go north to London say on the Darent Valley Path from Otford, Sevenoaks.

Jon.
““The hardest part was coming to terms with the constant dispiriting discovery that there is always more hill.”
― Bill Bryson, A Walk in the Woods

lk

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Re: Recommended routes between Dover and London?
« Reply #3 on: 15:19:23, 08/02/18 »
Thanks for the great suggestions, I'll be investigating them thoroughly.   Gunwharfman asked if I'll be returning to Dover.  The answer is no, I'll be going from Dover to London and then flying out.

gunwharfman

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Re: Recommended routes between Dover and London?
« Reply #4 on: 18:43:08, 08/02/18 »
Well, my suggestions still hold. Assuming now that your leaving from Heathrow? So instead of walking east, you could still choose to consider going to Rochester, Tunbridge Wells and Gatwick Airport and hike west. I think you might find the gps-routes site a better starting point to decide what you will want to do. Thats the trouble with the world, too much choice!

John Walker

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Re: Recommended routes between Dover and London?
« Reply #5 on: 13:41:49, 10/02/18 »
Can I also suggest the North Downs Way (a well way marked National Trail) but more specifically a section between, say, Charing and Canterbury would probably fit your requirements? There is a railway line linking the villages of Charing, Wye and Chilham with Canterbury (and London too). Although the trains between them are not that frequent (roughly hourly) it’s possible to plan nice linear day walks (say 10-15km) between them, taking in the countryside of the North Downs on low rolling hills with woodland, orchards (these may disappear after Brexit  :( ), plenty of historic and prehistoric sites as well as wildlife. Along the North Downs Way the villages themselves are all worth looking at, interesting and pretty, with a variety of churches, castles, pubs and tea shops. And Canterbury itself is a very historic, beautiful, and bustling city (very busy with tourists at times). The North Downs Way website https://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/north-downs-way will tell you more and you can see my own descriptions of this section of the path by visiting the links for Stages 17, 18 and 19 from here http://www.greenlives.org.uk/ndw.html.
http://www.greenlives.org.uk/walk.html
National Trails completed: SWCP, Thames, SDW and NDW

 

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