Bleary eyes woke to an overcast sky cast upon an unsuspecting Thursday morning. However, this was no ordinary Thursday – this was an adventure day. Due to the upcoming requirement of my presence in the Costa del Sol in Spain this Sunday, Beth and I both took a day off from work to enjoy another day out beforehand. The weather, as mentioned, was not as idyllic as we had hoped, and so both quickly grabbed an extra layer on the way out, with me even doubling back indoors to switch from shorts to trousers. Outfits changed, we made a quick stop in Maidstone to pick up some new white t-shirts for me to take away with me (guess who can fit into a size small again – booyah) and then turned around and headed out into the High Weald.
At about half past eleven we arrived in the middle of Sandhurst, and only then did we realise the walk began in Sandhurst Cross. A few minutes later, we were in the correct place and parked up in the free church car park ready to go. We followed a hard track out between two fields before turning left along a clear, cross-field path. A stiff breeze blew over the high point of the weald as we crossed a fairly bare stretch of farmland. The first point of note came in rather an unexpected form, when we made our way along a driveway lined with loads of disused Land Rovers. Seriously, there were so many, and whilst some may have been salvageable, many were definitely being claimed by nature. Land Rover graveyard behind us, and we made our way past a herd of cows and across a series of canal-lined pastures, one of which was apparently the “Kent Ditch”. From there, we picked up a very clear gravel track, which took us all the way to a familiar spot – Bodiam Castle.
This was also the halfway point, and we seemed to have arrived very quickly. Fortunately, we had a few plans whilst in that particular area, the first of which involved crossing the river Rother, and adding a small extension to the walk. This was the very first part of the Bodiam walk itself, and we chose to add it on because at this time of year in particular, it usually contains a welcome sight, and indeed it did this day too – lambs. After admiring a few, we turned back around and made for our next spot. This was to be the pub, the aptly named Castle Inn, and whilst it was still grey, the wind had died and the day warmed just enough to not feel silly sitting out front with a pint or two. Whilst there, we were visited by a fairy (for real) and not only chose the table names for our wedding, but allocated them too – not bad!
Next on our to-do-list was lunch, and of course this meant visiting the castle itself. We made our way around the edge of the mote, admiring a pair of geese with their three goslings, before settling ourselves down in our usual spot. One thing we particularly like here are the ducks, and we had barely sat down when a pair came waddling over to investigate. Of course, I was only too willing to share bits of my sandwich, and these confident little quackers were not shy in coming forward. The lady duck was much greedier than the male and ate much more of the food we threw. We were very much enjoying the company, even when the lady duck pecked Beths coat button in confusion, yet things were soon to take a dramatic turn. Another duck came over to see what was going on, and our original male duck instinctively went into attack mode. He lowered his neck and charged beak-first at the intruder, chasing him away. He then returned for more food, but it wasn’t long before he felt the other ducks were getting too close again, and so began charging about protecting the stash. This eventually devolved into a full-on fight between two of the mallards, each nipping at the other’s feathers and holding on to each other in some kind of duck-wrestling match. The situation was only resolved when a large Egyptian goose came over to break things up (I wouldn’t argue with him either). Eventually, our big, brave duck returned triumphantly. Unfortunately, his Mrs had already eaten everything by then and so I couldn’t give him any kind of well-earned reward. Naturally, this was a very entertaining lunch, and we were in high spirits as we waved goodbye to our new friends and headed off for the second half of the walk.
We crossed over a stile at the back of the castle grounds and began to head slowly uphill. The first half of the day had mostly been a gentle downhill stretch, and thus the second half would correspondingly be mostly upward. We walked between two fields of growing grapes, past a very posh horse place and crossed over a road a few minutes later. On the other side we saw a couple more fields of lambs, climbing still up along the quiet lane, at the end of which we found a robot lawnmower bumbling diligently about (what an age to be alive). From there we were back on footpaths and passed through a small patch of woods where we spotted a few remaining bluebells and wild garlic – unfortunately, these will soon be gone for another year. We continued along a series of paths across farmland and back over the Kent ditch. From there, the path again climbed through a field of growing hops, onto a track (where Beth confidently said “a quick left right”, re-checked the instructions and sheepishly went left right instead), past a farmer in his tractor and then turned up the steepest slope of the day. This began with some steps through woods and then opened up onto a wide field, bringing us back up onto the high land that had started the day. Here, we accidentally went around the edge of the field rather than across (the path was obvious when we looked back!), before dipping down a bank to bring us back onto the road. We then followed the road upward, and eventually back to where we had left the car earlier in the day.
This walk offers lovely views across the very heartland of the Weald, before dipping down to one of our very favourite spots in the area. The majority of the route was arable, so with that in mind, I would recommend that of the two Bodiam walks, this one would be better suited for summer, with the smaller one best saved for spring, thanks to the readily available lambs.
Matthew G. Huggins 