NDW Day 4: Kemsing - Detling

I set off nice and early from Kemsing, about 6am and wandered along the top of the downs to Wrotham (which is pronounced Root-ham). Here I sat and made myself some breakfast as follows: 1/2 ltr of water in a pot, add a handful of rice and half a Kallo stock cube, bring to boil and simmer. Add a sachet of mushroom soup and a few chilli flakes. When it is back at the boil, remove from the heat and leave it in my patent pot cosy for ten minutes to finish cooking.. enjoy. Wrotham also has a public lavatory, bless it. The gents was locked, but the ladies was open and at 6.30am, that is not an insuperable problem...

Almost half way .. compare these mileages with the one on the sign at the start, in Farnham! Somebody doesn't do addition very well ..

Looking across the Medway Gap, somewhere beyond Wrotham

 The official route here does a really daft thing. Instead of crossing the Medway Gap via Aylesford as it should have, and as the Pilgrim's Way does, it bears left and goes via Holly Hill all the way up to Rochester. There it crosses the motorway bridge and comes all the way back again, down the far side. I have been along the whole route on daywalks, at one time or another. It is not an attractive itinerary and it takes in yet another motorway, the M2.

Instead, I made my own route which went along the edge of the downs from Holly Hill to Upper Halling, and then down to the Medway and across Peter's Bridge to the new and only half built Peter's Village. Thence to Eccles, and to pick up the official NDW again near Little Kit's Coty. Hopefully now this new bridge is open the powers that be will consider changing the route to take advantage of this opportunity to repair their Rochester Bridge blunder.

The shiny new Peter's Bridge across the Medway

the river esplanade at Peter's Village.

Shortly after crossing the A229 Bluebell Hill, you pass by the Upper White Horse Stone, a mysterious lump of rock that may or may not be part of an ancient megalith. The Wikipedia entry has lots of theories but no evidence of any kind .. all one can say is that this is an area with a lot of history attached to it, what with the two Kit's Coty stones, and the Coldrum stones too.

the White Horse Stone

After that, it was a pleasant walk up, around and along the top of the downs through Boxley Warren to Jade's Crossing at the A249 and the Cock Horse pub at Detling, where Sue came to collect me and take me back home for the night.