Day 158 – Herne Bay to Botany Bay: 15.4m: 5.3h

The team for the trip assemble at Herne Bay station. We have a team of five. As well as John, Ben and Mike, we welcome Carine, John’s cousin as a new participant and Helen is also joining the trip. Gary can’t come as he is attending the funeral of his mother-in-law after her sad death. Mike is pleased to be there after a stressful journey involving a cancelled train, the closure of King’s Cross Underground and the Victoria Line but manages to arrive in time none the less. Carine is carrying a towel as she hopes to have a swim en route!

We walk down to the promenade and Carine witnesses with some bewilderment the routine of establishing exactly where we finished last time so the logger will record our route with precision. The walking conditions are good with a slight tail wind if a little hot. But we have learnt from the Girl Guide training imparted by Cathy last time and have frozen water to cool us down.

The embankment looks in good order and we pass hundreds of beach huts, some open with elderly occupants enjoying the rays. The sea is very calm, but the scene is rather spoilt in places by an accumulation of some form of weed which has gathered up a quantity of flotsam and jetsam.

We reach Reculver which is notable for the ruins of St Mary’s Church standing on a small hill by the sea. The path continues along the never ending embankment. The walking  is easy and the team are finding the going ok fuelled by some excellent apple cake baked by Carine. We are now on the Isle of Thanet. This really was an island in Roman times but is now for all intents part of the mainland. The sea front alternates between stretches of very upmarket houses and some less so with little evidence of why parts have become more affluent than others.

Eventually we reach Margate. With the end if not in sight but at least coming up, the team decide on a refreshing pints of cider times two, lager, soda and diet coke. Then on we go. A split occurs with a mile to go. Carine and John walk along the beach, whilst the more mature members of the party take the cliff path. The split becomes a chasm as John and Carine strip off and go into the sea. Given they have just passed a nudist beach, for clarity, lest the reader interprets this literally, Carine dons a swimsuit and John retains his underpants. Apparently the sea is very warm. John and Carine are joined by Roxy and Dinks, Carine’s dog and partner, who have come to greet the arrivals. Again for clarity neither Roxy nor Dinks goes into the water. Eventually Roxy, Dinks, John and Carine walk up the cliff from the bay to the bar of the Botany Bay Hotel to join the rest. John has to change after being told in no uncertain terms by Ben that he can’t have his customary cider clad only in wet underpants and T-shirt.

Dinner is good. For the second successive trip, there is no fish and chips. However, there is an excellent fish stew which is washed down with an acceptable Shiraz, then a sticky and to bed.

Day 157 – Faversham to Herne Bay: 14.3m: 5.0h

Liverpool pulled a goal back last night, but United hung on for a 2-1 victory. We’re back in the Sun’s dining room at 7:15 for brekker which, as well as the usual full English, includes as choices delights such as locally smoked kipper, and avocado & bacon (which gets Cathy’s vote). The Sun has proved to be an excellent place to stay: comfortable rooms, very good food, and friendly and helpful staff. We leave shortly before 8:15 and get to our starting point at the brewery a few minutes later.

The first hour or so is spent walking back to the river along the meandering east side of Faversham Creek. From there it’s an uneventful and pretty straightforward route along – or very close to – the shoreline. We pass through Seasalter, cross a railway line, pause very briefly to witness some activity on Whitstable & Seasalter Golf Course, and arrive in Whitstable shortly after 11:30. It had been our intention to take advantage of the seafood on offer at Whitstable, but we are quickly persuaded to ditch this plan by a combination of the price of and advertised time taken to make crab sandwiches (£10 and at least 15 minutes respectively). Instead, we continue onwards past Tankerton Beach and a holiday park towards journey’s end at Herne Bay.

Although it's been a warm and sunny morning, passing clouds have offered periodic relief from the sun during the first 3 hours. However, the sky has been cloud free since we left Whitstable which perhaps precipitates the onset of  “thirst” in the team. Evidence of this could be found in Ben and Mike’s pace increasing as we approach Hampton, a place on the headland just before the western esplanade leading into Herne Bay. It can certainly be found in Cathy and Gary’s hopes (verging towards confidence in Cathy’s case) that the breakaway twosome would consider that a brief stop at the Hampton Inn might be called for. But those hopes are dashed. Without so much as a look behind them by way of enquiry, Ben and Mike walk past the pub and disappear round the headland. Disappointing.

And so, shortly after 1:15, we arrive at Herne Bay pier where observations are briefly exchanged on the Hampton Inn question. What quickly becomes of more importance are the observations that immediately opposite us is a bar and that the trains we’re aiming to catch don’t leave for another hour. John wonders whether he should go straight to the station to catch an earlier train, but takes less than 10 seconds to be persuaded that he needs a drink. We repair to the bar for just the one relaxed beer/cider and then walk slowly to the station. The Victoria train is due in 10 minutes, so John, Ben, Cathy and Gary go straight to the platform having first said farewell to Mike. His train to St Pancras leaves 20 minutes later and there is a pub outside the station. A very convenient waiting room!  

Day 156 – Sittingbourne to Faversham: 16.1m: 5.8h

There are rail problems this morning affecting the line through Sittingbourne, both from St Pancras and Victoria. Mike’s train from St Pancras is delayed, and the train from Victoria on which the rest of the group is booked is cancelled. However, remarkably, we meet in Sittingbourne at the time we have planned. The Victoria team all arrive at Victoria in time to catch an earlier – and helpfully delayed – train, and get to Sittingbourne at Mike’s scheduled arrival time. John calls in at the Pumpkin Café for some provisions, and is disappointed that he is not remembered from his visit 6 weeks earlier. Mike’s train pulls in 20 minutes late at the time when the Victoria team would have arrived if their train hadn’t been cancelled. Take that Network Rail.

Gary is back on the starting grid and Cathy has joined the walk again. It looks as though the two days are going to be warm and dry and, with one exception, everyone is in shorts. Not for the first time the exception is Gary although, in an uncharacteristic display of optimism, he has not brought any waterproof kit. We find our way to the end point of the last walk, and set off just after 10:45. We need to walk along a few streets before we can get back to the Saxon Shore Way on the south side of the river but then, for the next couple of hours, said Shore Way certainly lives up to the “shore” element of its name. We walk alongside the river which soon widens and affords views back over to the Isle of Sheppey but, after 4 miles or so, we need to turn south in order to get round Conyer Creek. This brings us into Conyer itself where, as we turn north, the refreshment available at the Ship Inn is too tempting to resist. We restrict ourselves to a pint each at a table in the sunshine before continuing alongside the east side of the creek, past Conyer Marina, and back to the river.

As we continue east along the river bank we go past a couple of nature reserves and then, once again, we have to turn south to get round a creek. We turn back north at a place called Oare, but on this occasion the path on the east side of the creek doesn’t go straight to the river. Instead, after a couple of miles, it follows a long clockwise loop on the inside of further inlets leading into Faversham Creek. Shortly after 5 o’clock, we arrive in Faversham, cross the bridge over the creek, and finish our logged walk for the day opposite the Shepherd Neame Brewery. From there, it takes only a few more minutes to reach our overnight stop, the Sun Inn.

We have a drink in the bar while checking in, and book a table for supper at 6:30. A slightly later reservation proves to be “difficult” due to two large groups having reservations for 7 o’clock. The food is very good. Unusually, everyone apart from Ben orders one of the interesting starters (eg baby squid with chorizo) but the main courses are more traditional and, as has become customary, fish & chips or ham egg & chips get the nod. One of the topics of conversation over the food (and the two bottles of white and one bottle of red which accompany it) is whether, and if so where, to watch the Man Utd v Liverpool game which is due to kick off at 8 o’clock. The Sun doesn’t have any screens, but Mike establishes through the internet that a nearby pub called the Bull shows Sky Sports and we decide to try and catch at least the first half there. One of the Sun’s barmen who is a Man Utd supporter confirms the Bull to be a suitable venue and gives us directions. It’s not much more than 5 minutes away but, when we arrive just in time for kick off, we find that it’s closed on Mondays – or at least on this particular Monday. We return to the Sun where the slightly surprised barman suggests that we try the Limes which is not much further away than the Bull. We get there to find it open and showing the match which, by now, has been going for about 10 minutes and is scoreless. However, we’ve timed our arrival pretty well. No more than 5 minutes later, United score, much to Cathy’s irritation but to the obvious delight of one bloke close to the screen whose loud and very colourful celebration earns an equally loud rebuke from behind the bar. To be fair, the bloke looks suitably chastened. We have just the one drink and at half time, with the score still 1-0, return to the Sun. Ben retires to bed, but the rest of us start to watch the second half on a phone via Sky Go (with the sound turned down of course) in the company of stickies and, for part of the time, two of the barmen. 10 minutes into the second half, United score again, and shortly thereafter the four of us decide to follow Ben’s example.