The initial section was down the North Downs and once at the base of the escarpment we headed out across the plain towards Wrotham.
First stop was at Coldrum Stones Long Barrow, a neolithic burial mound with stone circle and some standing stones.
Trevor wanted to do a fertility dance but as Ivan said, it wasn't sunrise on May 1st and anyway it wouldn't work on pensioners! We did consider holding hands to dance around the stones but with only three of us we couldn't even make a circle. Wose of all was that we couldn't find a Virgin to sit within the circle, so we went on our way.
30 mins walk on we came to the Greensands basin which is a posh name for a bloody great quarry mining sand. Not a very pretty section particularly as it sits within the junction of the M20 and the M26 so traffic noise and scenery were non existent.
Fortunately the walk beyond the Motorway was really quite nice with a mixture of woodland and some very small hamlets. Caffeine brake was desperately needed and after 1.5 hours we hit Wrotham Heath where the local Premier Inn was able to serve a nice coffee. The pedometer showed that we hit 5.2 mph in the run up to the coffee stop, further proof that the thought of refreshment stiffens the pace.
Refreshed, we walked up through the village of Platt and whilst there was a pub just a short detour to the right (and it was passed opening time) we pushed on. Lovely walk from here on through mixed woodland. We stopped for the sandwich lunch we had bought with us in a Cob Nut orchard (we learnt from last week that Pubs don't tend to serve food on Mondays as the cook wants a day off after the busy weekend).
Getting the legs moving again we strode on through Shipbourne Forest, a massive copice wood, eventually arriving at a real gem of a place called Gover Hill which hosted a terrific view over the Sevenoaks Weald.
From here the route opened up as we walked through various fruit orchards and soft fruit plantations, crossing behind Oxen Hoath and into West Peckham.
Below is Ivan practising taking pictures of young sheep on one leg - after all, he wouldn't want an old sheep would he!
We had never been to West Peckham before and the walk onto the Village green is exceptional. A wonderful old Norman Church, a cricket green and a pub, all in the same view. We just had to stop and have a pint to take in this wonderful sight and anyway, the car was parked just 50 yards away up the road.
Stats for the day were 8.9 miles in 3hr 39 mins giving an average of 2.4 mph which includes stops.
| Steps | Distance (mi) | Time (min) | Calories | Average speed (mph) | Average pace (min/mi) | Average Calorie using rate (Cal/min) | Average step rate (steps/min) |
| 19,041.00 | 8.90 | 219.00 | 692.00 | 2.40 | 24.70 | 3.20 | 87.00 |
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