We woke to a blue sky out the window, light pouring in from a day that promised to reach soaring temperatures. After a quick spicy-fried egg bagel for breakfast, we pegged the washing out before leaving, and already we could feel the heat of the day creeping in…were we making a mistake?
We found ourselves all parked up and making our way down Cranbrook High Street before 10am, keen to get an early start on this longer walk and make the most of the (relatively) cooler temperatures of the morning. After nosing in a few closed shop windows and making our way through the well-kept churchyard, we crossed the shady edge of the playing field and walked out into the countryside beyond, just as the bells began to ring out behind us, serenading our departure. Walking along the edge of a field of white flowers, we quickly came across our first major obstacle of the day, when we found that a tree had fallen over the path and its leafy canopy was obscuring the way. At this point, we each made a different conceptual decision. Beth chose to find a way around, managing to easily locate the path that had been created by the others who had come to this same decision. Meanwhile, I chose to maneuver myself under, over and through the branches to the other side, where I rewarded myself by picking a couple of juicy blackberries whilst I waited for Beth to rejoin me. A couple of minutes later we reached our first, welcome stretch of woodland, with such patches becoming a haven for shade throughout the day. After this came a brief, steep incline which helped wake up the legs a bit before turning down a quiet road to pick up a footpath on the left a hundred yards later. As we made our way between the thick growth of late summer, butterflies sprang up all around us, and I turned around just in time to see half a dozen fluttering about Beth, one of which decided to land on her too.
Crossing over a small bridge across a stream beneath a few trees, we emerged again into the sunshine on the other side to find ourselves walking through the first of the many fields that would make up a large portion of the day. We were indeed already hot, as predicted, although a breeze mercifully accompanied us for the first half of the walk, which really helped to keep the suffering away. As we made our way down the side of a tall, golden-brown crop, the presence of several dragonflies indicated the presence of water, which we crossed a minute later and enjoyed a few minutes of shady trees beyond. It was at this point that I turned around to find Beth walking along with her hands held up in front of her, in a sort of reverse t-rex position. When Beth gets particularly hot, her fingers begin to swell and get uncomfortable. Evidently, this was a technique she had picked up on Instagram to help reduce the swelling and was trialling, and I am pleased to say that it did indeed bring her some relief! An opening in the woods appeared ahead, and the world outside wobbled with heat, although a pleasant gust of wind encouraged us to stop for a second before carrying on our way.
After a couple more fields, we came to our first busy road of the day, but on this occasion we went straight across. The route then goes down what looks like a bit of a driveway, which eventually ends and you pick up the footpath going through a few trees. This is a fairly short patch although isn’t the clearest, and we have managed to go the wrong way here in the past. No such mistake on this occasion, and we were soon back out into the sweltering summer’s day. We crossed the middle of a dry, cut crop field and made our way down the edge to the bottom, where a woodpecker drummed loudly overhead just as we began to slowly ascend back up through the middle of the next one. Once we had passed by a solitary, handsome tree and made our way around the edge of a cottage garden, we left the farmland behind us for a time and emerged back onto another fast road. This is the least enjoyable bit of the day and requires you to walk up the side of the road for five minutes or so, which on this occasion was quite busy. When I am a rich author, I am going to contact the farmer about continuing the footpath around the edge of the field, so that it will at least spit us out a little further up the road. Anyway, we made it to our next section, Hemsted Woodland without incident.
Again, this was another section in which we had previously gone the wrong way, managing to find our way to ‘the murder house’ before realising our mistake and quickly backtracking, but again we have clearly learned from our mistakes. We crossed over a couple of ant highways and turned right up a woodland track which, on both previous occasions, had been extremely muddy. Even today, in the height of summer, there were a couple of patches that weren’t fully dry, although was by far the best we had seen it. The route then brought us back to recross the road into continuing woodland, and the grounds of Benenden school (where Princess Anne used to go, don’t you know). Yet again, once we were passed the first few school buildings, we reached another patch where we had gone wrong before (looking back, we made a bit of a mess of this one!), only this mistake was quite significant, battling our way down a heavily overgrown footpath and giving ourselves and unnecessary section of road. The correct way is much more preferable, and the woods gave way to open, scrubby pastureland. This is where we had stopped for lunch before, but as we had started early, this was not appropriate. However, with the midday opening time of the fast-approaching pub stop in mind, we selected a likely-looking tree at the field’s edge and enjoyed its shade for a few minutes, before carrying on our way. Whilst paused, we spotted a fairly fresh cow pat, suggesting the presence of cattle. Our suspicions were soon proved correct, coming across a large herd all huddled together, vying for a preciously small patch of shade beneath a small tree. We enjoyed a couple of minutes standing and watching the gently tussling herd, mostly bums pointing out at us although with the occasional head poking up to reach the greenery, whilst enjoying a couple of warm, juicy blackberries picked from the thick hedgerow.
Turning away from this perfect summer moment, we walked up the road into Benenden, during which time midday, and crucially pub opening time, arrived. Making our way keenly through this pretty village, the green appeared before us, on the other side of which sat The Bull. Selecting one of the few tables in the shade, Beth went in to get the first round. She emerged with a pint of coke for herself, and a cool cider for me. On this peaceful, sunny, idyllic summer afternoon, I took a sip.
And fell in love.
Ladies and gentlemen, today I stumbled upon what is (at least for the time being) my favourite cider; Angry Orchard. Its cool, sweet taste hit the spot just right, and it quickly disappeared. A pub stop in the middle of a walk is not unusual for us, and usually takes us about half an hour. However, for some reason, every time we pause here that stopping time seems to double. This occasion, helped in no small part by the yummy cider, was no different, and after a couple more pints, we set off into the second half of the day.
Walking around the edge of the green and past the village church, we made our way back out into the countryside, passing by a few hot sheep. Continuing steadily downhill, we came across a few dragonflies and butterflies, followed by three horses. At the bottom of this slope, we reached a small gate, where the path noticeably turns, and here you can practically pinpoint the moment where you begin to turn back in the direction of Cranbrook. Having just gone downhill, the path naturally then goes upward. For some reason (the pub), this first section after the break always catches us a little bit, and by the time we had ascended back to level ground, were a little sticky and out of puff, despite stopping to admire the collection of large round hay bales spattered across the field.
After crossing back over the road where the pub sat a little further along, we walked back around the opposite edge of the school. Exiting the grounds, we re-entered the large swath of farmland between Benenden and Cranbrook. Crossing from crop to bordering woods to crops again, our thoughts began to turn to lunch. Having not eaten on this half before, we did not have a spot already scouted out. Fields came and went beneath our boots, and still no likely-looking location. We knew that Cranbrook was drawing ever closer and that if we didn’t stop soon we would be eating in the car. Finally, after crossing two further fields, one growing towering bean plants amongst which Beth almost vanished, we found a perfect spot amongst soft grass and the shade of a large tree growing from the hedge. A comfortable, cool and pretty much perfect spot!
This was well-timed, and we both felt a bit fresher as we rose back to our feet to finish off the day’s walking. We continued across the farm, making our way beneath a tree full of crows and finally passed an orchard before reaching another road, the footpath reappearing a hundred yards on the left. After a few more, golden-brown crop fields rippling in what was left of the breeze, we emerged back out onto the opposite side of the field of white flowers which had started the day. We walked along the edge, passing by a row of oaks, and Beth spotted something peculiar growing from one of its branches. This turned out to be a ‘Knopper Gall’ (a fantastic word) which is basically the larvae of the Knopper Gall Wasp. With the promise of walks end, the heat went for one last attack as we made our way back up to rejoin the day’s first footpath. As we turned finally back toward the village itself, the treelined path wrapped us in a welcome cloak of shade, and we finished the day in relative comfort. We eventually found ourselves back at the car a little after three o’clock, a little pinker than when we had started, but thoroughly pleased with the day’s perfect summer adventure.
Perhaps not one you would want to do with a young family, due to its length and amount of busy road walking, this is nonetheless one of our very favourite walks. The summer is a great season for it too, with the stream of crops to look at and the excellent pub stop at the halfway mark. Thanks to the unfortunate combination of shorts, brambles and nettles unique to this time of year, both of our legs are quite scratched, and even as I sit here writing, Beth is complaining that her legs have been ‘bitten to shit’. However, I think we did very well today, on what was our hottest walk of the year so far. We stayed well hydrated, didn’t get lost and at no point did we feel as though we were struggling – go us!
Original route provided by Kent Ramblers and is available at http://www.kentramblers.org.uk/KentWalks/public/walk_126.htm
Matthew G. Huggins 