Friday: Thirty-three Poly Ramblers arrived at the beautiful village of Castleton situated at the head of the Hope Valley in the heart of the Peak District National Park. Eleven members booked into YHA Losehill Hall a fully refurbished gothic mansion set in twenty-seven acres of parkland. We managed to create havoc as we all converged at the same time. We were impressed by the amenities, large dining area and self-catering kitchen.
Two groups of Poly Ramblers braved the rain to complete an Orientation Walk of Castleton. The village is surrounded by hillsides including Mam Tor (the shivering mountain) The village is popular for its show caves many shops and cafes. We particularly enjoyed a visit to Cave Dale a dry limestone valley rising gently before becoming steeper culminating in a fine viewpoint down the dale taking in Peveril Castle.
Soaking wet we finished the walk with Poly Ramblers enjoying an evening meal at the many local pubs.
9 brave Polyramblers turned up at Manor Park station on an inauspicious day for a 6.5 miles walk through parklands. We started with flat Wanstead Flats, passing Alexandra Lake dug at the beginning of the 20th century to give work to unemployed men. The lake was named after Alexandra of Denmark, the Queen Consort of King Edward VII. Next was Wanstead Park where we walked along lakes, then crossed over the river Roding as the rain started.
We passed St Andrew’s Church – Grade II listed – which is of a similar design to Pretoria Church in South Africa (that’s what my guide says). After some road walking, we reached Valentines Park as the rain eased off. We had the Garden Courtyard Cafe to ourselves for our lunch break. Afterwards, we visited Valentines Mansion (free to visit and open Sundays and Mondays) – built in 1696 for Elizabeth, Lady Tillotson, the widow of John Tillotson who had been the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Mansion was later the family home of Sir Charles Raymond who made money from interests in the East India Company. The house and grounds were then acquired by the Council who created a lovely public park with nice gardens and flower beds.
Two Polyramblers left after lunch and, as it was no longer raining, the rest of us walked around the park and the lakes. We were approached by many squirrels wanting food to store for the winter. It’s worth coming back to Valentines Park in spring or summer to enjoy the flowers but we enjoyed the autumn colours. We then made our way to Gant’s Hill station (which has a design similar to Moscow metro).
I was just about to start the briefing at Otford when snap! I manage somehow to break my glasses. Happily I can still read if I squint. Anyway, it was very pleasing to have such a big turn-out, 21 in all, on what turned out to be a fine, sunny, November day.
We headed straight up our first ascent; Otford Mount or ‘mud mountain’ as one of our group calls it. There were lots of leaves on the path and there was some mud but the going was pretty good really. I expect it will be a lot muddier later in the season. Then we went through some beautiful woods descending to Magpie Bottom. I had been delighted to see two Magpies there on the walkover but today they weren’t to be found – they were probably watching us from a nearby tree.
After some road walking we climbed a stile and then up another steep and very muddy track heading eventually to Dunstall Farm. The second stile is on a slope and has a very high step but we all got over it very well. Then through the farm itself, no cattle in the surrounding fields. They were all under cover and enjoying their silage as we passed them.
Then we were heading through another wood and down a long series of steps covered in leaves and quite muddy too.
We took our time down these slippery steps arriving at a busy road just before Shoreham. Then we went through the Churchyard and stopped for lunch outside the Kings Arms where I had made a reservation. Some walkers went to the Honeypot Cafe and others had brought there own food.
When we arrived at the pub Geoffrey was waiting for us, he wasn’t able to do the walk proper because of his ankle injury but he joined us for a while on the walk after lunch. In the pub I got very agitated by the long wait for our orders to arrive. Apparently they only had one Chef today. That’s the problem with pubs sometimes!
At this point two of our group headed home via Shoreham station while the rest of us and Geoffrey did the long steady climb up to the summit of the hill on the other other side of the valley. Including passing through a field of bullocks who ignored us (phew). Most of the hill is thickly wooded and it is a lovely experience walking through the woods on a fresh afternoon. Nearing the top Geoffrey turned back to avoid aggravating his ankle injury. The rest of us continued and eventually emerged from the woods. We stopped for a water break and some very fine views across the Darent Valley and beyond.
In another 20 minutes or so we were heading down a steep path with Filston Hall ahead of us at the bottom of the valley. Then it was an easy walk back to Otford along a track between fields. Soon enough we were back at the station before sunset. I needn’t have worried so much about the long lunch!
It had been a good ramble with great company and the weather had been kind to us.
Despite severe warnings about getting lost in the dark if we didn’t keep up a good pace & a very uncertain weather forecast, 15 of us appeared at Dorman’s station for the walk.
Luckily this walk got us out and into proper countryside very quickly, with little walking in built up areas and we were soon in the lovely Surrey Weald. Weald is an old English word for ‘wood’ or ‘forest’, related to the German ‘Wald’.
We skirted Greathed Manor which must have been a very grand house but is now a, probably also very grand, Care Home. The walk was undulating with lovely views over the North Downs when we emerged from woodland and could see to the North. Someone had created a Bug Hotel in the woods which seemed, in appropriate imitation, fairly grand itself. We went through woodland and some open grassland and found our way to the little village of Cowden for a lunch stop.
The second half of the walk was a bit more open again with lovely views and, towards the end, a lot of paddocks and horses having their evening hay. The rain kept off except for a little towards the end and we made it to the station before dark so – well done and thank you to all the walkers who came for keeping up the pace.
I was really pleased to see a good turnout of 15 Poly Ramblers at Liverpool Street station where we assembled to catch our train to Manningtree and then Wrabness to start our walk along the Essex Way to Harwich. Amongst them was my young nephew, Matthew, who joined us for the walk and in so doing massively reduced the average age of our group.
On arrival at Wrabness, we spent a bit of time posing and taking photographs in front of its most famous landmark, Grayson Perry’s quirky and exotic House for Essex. The day promised to be dry but cloudy and grey and that’s how it stayed with the occasional glimpse of the sun trying to break through. Fortunately the rain apart from a few spots held off.
As I explained in my opening briefing, the walk was very flat with no stiles. We firstly walked through woods along the banks of the beautiful river Stour estuary which was silent and lacking the bird life that is normally present at the water’s edge probably because it was high tide and the winter migrant birds have yet to arrive. We then struck out inland across farmland passing an old windmill until we came to the village of Ramsey. Here there were two small shops selling fresh fish and the other a master butcher. One Poly Rambler bought a bag of freshly caught whelks which she said tasted superb and would be for her supper.
After navigating our way across a busy roundabout, we walked across more fields until we reached the village of Little Oakley where at the Ye Olde Cherry Tree pub we had our lunch stop. Those with a packed lunch sat in the pub garden and the rest of us ate at the pub. It was a quick and friendly service and the food was excellent. Two ramblers opted for an enormous Kahuna burger which even for my young nephew and his big appetite proved impossible to finish.
After lunch we renewed our walk along the Essex Way and this time the path took us down towards extensive salt marshes from where we could see in the distance the North Sea coast and the busy container port of Felixstowe. We started walking along a levee that took us into the outskirts of Harwich. Our path eventually turned into a tarmac path at a junction with a row of brightly coloured beach huts from where it followed the coast to the end of the peninsula at the old port of Harwich Town. Further on we came to two old Lighthouses built to stop ships going aground as they came into harbour. These were among the earliest lighthouses ever built and superseded an even older one built further inland.
The tarmac path took us along a windy stretch of the coast and it seemed to go on for ever until we came to the Harwich Museum where we crossed a green and turned down into the old historic part of Harwich, Harwich Town. Harwich Town was once a thriving port and is full of characterful buildings with Harwich Historical Society plaques outlining their illustrious past on many of them. Today it feels somewhat sad and neglected and the streets were empty.
Most Poly Ramblers decided to catch the next train and get back to London. A small number of us decided to wait an hour and while away the time at a café on the pier drinking a very welcome cup of tea and eating scones. It was a fitting finish to what had been a fabulous walk with great company.
