As promised, there now follows a short write up of a long walk. We took lots of photos along the way and here is a selection that I've tried to condense into a reasonably short space...
We set off at 8am on the dot. Just down the road is the farm track (L) that leads to our local woods (R):
A few miles further on as we're nearing the end of West Blean Woods (L&R). The forecast wasn't promising, but the day had begun warm, dry and very humid. The skies looked heavy and we guessed it was just a matter of time...
...and just after we emerged from East Blean Woods another few miles later, the heavens opened! A little way before the lovely village of Hoath (L) and me posing under cover at Holy Cross Church in Hoath (R):
The lanes between Hoath and Marshside provided no shelter and the rain was relentless. We'd expected rain, but we hadn't bothered with overtrousers, and our footwear wasn't waterproof - we were soaked from the bottom of our jackets down!
This lane is Old Tree Hill and I used to think it was called One Tree Hill because there's a single wonderful oak tree about halfway along it, which can be seen behind me in the photo (R):
This is a very wet me standing under the one tree on Old Tree Hill:
Old Tree Hill leads to Marshside and the narrow road here runs along the side of what was once the sea, then a marsh, and then low-lying farmland. It's a wonderfully atmospheric place with waterways to the marshy side and well-spaced desirable rural properties on the inland side:
Next followed a long section along a cycle track to Westgate-on-Sea. To our left were the Thanet marshes and farmland, and to our right was the Thanet Way - a dual-carriageway. Trees and bushes separate the cycle track from the road though, so it was actually a surprisingly pleasant walk - at least, until we neared Westgate. Also, the trees provided some shelter from the rain that, thankfully, had begun to fizzle out somewhat.
At Westgate-on-Sea, after a bit of urban walking we came to the seafront. We were now more than halfway through the walk and had finally turned back towards home:
For a few miles, the concrete promenade with low chalk cliffs behind was quite atmospheric, but there was a stink from the sea that became unbearable and we eventually chose to walk along the clifftop. It was still smelly, but there are some amazing houses to admire in that area. The promenade is especially interesting because of the many old bricked-up doorways that once led into the very cliff face and then... who knows where?
The rain had eased to the kind of drizzle that was actually quite pleasant on a muggy day, so we did the second half of the walk without waterproofs.
This is the 3-mile-long sea wall between Minnis Bay and Reculver, whose Towers can just be seen in the distance (if you know where to look!):
Despite the weather, there were too many cyclists on the sea wall for our liking, so we soon descended to the rough path below (L) (the Towers can be seen a little more clearly from here). My wife set us a target time to reach Reculver Towers and we made it with just seconds to spare (R):
Me posing on the clifftop path between Reculver and Herne Bay:
The small nature reserve at Long Rock near Tankerton (L) and there's only about 2 miles to go. With half-a-mile to go, we reached our 50km target, which deserved a small, but tired, celebration! (R):
So that's it - another record-breaking non-stop walk by my wife who did exactly 5 miles more than she did on the marathon we did together only a few weeks ago.
