Hawkhurst to Bedgebury Circular – 7 miles

  Returning to a more familiar walk than recent weeks, on this particularly overcast, muggy Sunday, we chose to tackle a walk we had done before, starting from the village green on Hawkhurst’s ‘moor side’, swinging out and around to the edges of the Bedgebury Forest.  This was, however, one of the routes whose instructions we had failed to save before they vanished from the internet, so would be completing it from a combination of memory and the OS app.

  Setting off a little before 10.30am, it wasn’t long before we felt the stickiness of the day closing in around us.  We made our way out of the village up a well-hidden footpath which eventually crosses the grounds of a school before crossing the main road, which can be quite busy.  From there begins a section of road walking down a small, quiet lane, during which time only a couple of cars passed us (in fact, we saw more llamas than we did vehicles!).  The lane dipped down before climbing sharply up again for a short time, where we turned right, back onto footpaths.

  After navigating a fast-disintegrating stile and a ‘Bull in field’ sign (uh-oh, flashbacks!), we were pleasantly surprised to find ourselves in a field full of curious-looking sheep.  Many kept a close eye on us as we crossed, with a couple even choosing to cautiously come closer, before changing their mind a scampering away.  A few bleats followed us all the way to the other side, until we had left their paddock.  Suddenly, Beth halted in front of me, and announced ominously ‘There are cows in here’.  I followed her gaze and spotted the small herd standing in the middle of the field, a couple of whom were looking in our direction.  Up until recent events, I have had no real problem with cows.  Respected them, yes, but fearful, no.  However, as we stood looking at them, we suddenly both recalled our encounter with the angry mother cows (and the somehow more docile bull) from a few weeks back, and concluded that we would walk around the edge of the thankfully large field.  As we walked, we kept an eye on them, one of which seemed to keep an eye on us in return, however none showed anything like the threatening behaviour we had been on the receiving end of last month.  A few minutes later, we were through the opposite gate and out the other side.  The cows had barely mooved, and we could probably have got away with walking straight across the field as the footpath intended – this is perhaps something that we need to get over!

  Mooving on (I’ll stop now), we then either went slightly wrong or the stile had moved, having to double back on ourselves once across the next field after discovering the stile we actually needed was the one we had just passed, crossing over the dividing fence line running from one hedge to the next.  Once we had crossed the field for a third time, we managed to get through the hedgerow and follow the path around the edge of a couple more fields, before arriving at a bit we both remembered very well – a footpath lined by a tunnel of trees.  This stood out for two reasons.  Firstly, the sheer abundance of pheasants (sadly not present on this occasion).  Secondly, it is an ancient walkway, used by people as far back as Saxon times, which the history nerd found very cool.  It was a nice thought, to think of all the things that the path had seen over the centuries, and you could sort of feel it beneath your boots, too.  This part was very muddy last time, but thankfully the summer had done its trick and he had no issues.  Toward the end of the footpath, sits a large, woodland pond.  On this particular day, we found here what I am confident in saying is the largest congregation of ducks in recorded history.  It was as if they had all just suddenly spawned in, and there must have been about 200 of the feathery creatures, chilling at the edges, diving in and swimming about on their important duck-business.  They all seemed to be doing something very important, and it almost felt as if we had interrupted an important, secret meeting of duck-kind; we left them to it!

  Shortly afterward, the ancient walkway ended and we emerged into one of the large rides at the edge of Bedgebury Forest.  We turned left and as the heat of the day intensified, we looked for a bench to pause on for refreshments.  A little bench set amongst the trees just off the track found, we stopped for water and fizzy-laces, and used the break to check the map.  So far, our memory (particularly Beth’s) had served us pretty well in retracing our steps from our last lap, but we had known all along that this would be the trickiest part.  Forest paths, as much as we enjoy them, do have a habit of looking largely the same, and tend to shoot off all over the place, making them a very easy place to go wrong.  Looking at the map, we couldn’t quite remember for sure where the route went exactly, but knew where we were meant to come out, so plotted what would be roughly the right direction.  Despite these efforts, we soon found that we had missed the path we had intended to take, so had to loop back around on a different track and come in from a different angle (thankfully this didn’t make a whole lot of difference!).  We eventually made it back out into the open where we were meant to be, although definitely ended up taking a slightly different route on this occasion – will have another go next time!

  We made our way along the edge of an uncut field where a small whirl of dust swirled in the light, but welcome breeze.  The track led us away from the mass of trees behind us, and eventually steeply upward for a minute before we emerged onto a farmyard with a spattering of cottages.  On our last attempt, we had somehow managed to get completely lost here, going the wrong way twice, once even being told off for being on private property (whoops!).  Fortunately we had learned from our mistakes and didn’t go the wrong way a third time, but did instead get run at by a handful of barking dogs.  Happily, they were all bark and no bite, so we made it out alive and walked up past more cottages to the main road, and back over the other side.

  A minute or so later, a little drizzle appeared in the air, which again was very welcome.  Turning off down a long driveway lined with large, country houses, we left the road behind and crossed a series of long crop fields where a pair of Martins swooped and an even longer orchard, toward Hawkhurst.  Soon enough we found ourselves making our way back through the village’s little lanes and arrived back at the green at 1pm, just in time for our well-earned lunch.

  Despite the mugginess of the day, we very much enjoyed this walk, which we had been on our to-do list for a while.  There was plenty of variation along the way to keep things interesting, and the paths this time of year were very manageable from start to finish.  It was nice to get back into the familiarity of the Weald after a couple of weeks away, and we only went slightly off course a couple of times, so I feel like we did a pretty good job of remembering too!