DAY 5 Wednesday 24th September 2014
ROUTE Cuxton to Otford
DISTANCE 15.0 miles
CUMULATIVE MILEAGE 67.9 miles
CUMULATIVE MILEAGE 67.9 miles
START POINT Horseholders Wood - TQ 676 644
FINISH POINT Otford Village - TQ 528 594
WEATHER Drizzle during morning, clearing then sunny and warm
WALKERS Cally
Charman, Rod Boreham and Graham Palmer
SUPPORT DRIVER Jim Rice
SUFFER SCORE 5
(On a scale of 1-10 with 1 being easy and 10 being unbearable!)
(On a scale of 1-10 with 1 being easy and 10 being unbearable!)
CTOG AWARD The lovely Romanian lady who cooked us dinner at Oak Hall
Delicious trout and fresh vegetables followed by apple crumble and
homemade custard - an amazing treat much appreciated by weary
walkers
Oh dear, it’s raining! Our hearts sank a little as we walked across
the courtyard of Aylesford Priory to go to breakfast and it was very wet
underfoot following overnight rain. The wet
conditions were worrying as we knew that later in the day we would be walking
across the chalk downs and how slippery chalk can be when wet. We feared that falls might be the order of
the day and we were not looking forward to that, particularly as we would still
have 4 more walking days to go.
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| Breakfast in the Pilgrim's Hall |
A good breakfast, the van packed and we
bade farewell to Aylesford Priory which had been our overnight accommodation
for the last two nights.
One of the walking team, Graham, was
keen to get going as he was looking forward to getting back to Otford, the
village where he was born and grew up.
The barrier that had thwarted Jim and the
van at the end of Day 4 was still in place and so we took the decision to take
a route back up onto the North Downs Way that would cause us to re-walk about
¼-mile of the route again.
Unfortunately, to get back up onto the North Downs Way we had a very
steep climb to negotiate which was painful on calf muscles which were not
properly warmed up at the beginning of the day.
Our concerns about the wet chalk were soon realised when Cally took a
heavy fall which fortunately didn’t cause any permanent damage…….other than to
her dignity. The weather continued to be
showery but fortunately nothing too heavy that might have required us to don
waterproofs.
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| Cally takes a fall for the team! |
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| Mud!! |
Our route today took us through the woods
above the villages of Snodland, Birling and Ryarsh as we headed towards the
Trosley Country Park which covers 170 acres of woodland and chalk downland and is
a haven for dog walkers.
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| Trosley Park |
There is a
magnificent Visitors Centre at the entrance to the Country Park and a great
restaurant which served us with a very welcome cup of coffee.
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| Cally chatting with Jim as the sun comes out for the first time |
Coffee break over and we were back on the
trail now heading for Wrotham village and what would be…….
OUR
HALFWAY POINT!!
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| Wrotham, our halfway point |
Reaching the halfway point just had to be
celebrated and so we sent Jim ahead to find us a good pub and, as it was now
another beautifully warm and sunny autumn day, a beer garden would be
preferable so that we could sit out and enjoy our drinks. Jim didn’t let us down and we joined him at
The Rose & Crown in Wrotham High Street for a very welcome celebratory
drink. Just down the High Street is the
impressive building, Wrotham Place (now owned by a private bank) which is where
Henry VIII was staying when he learned the news of Anne Boleyn’s execution in
1536.
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| We think Jim might be enjoying himself too much! |
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| Couldn't have Jim having all the fun - unanimous decision by the team to join in! |
Back on the trail again and we were now
heading out of Wrotham towards the village of Kemsing and the St Clere
Estate.
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| Jim chatting up the locals |
The house at St Clere was used
in 1980 for filming the Agatha Christie thriller, The Mirror Crack’d, starring
Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson. For
the walking team, St Clere meant another big uphill slog as we traversed from
the Pilgrims Way back onto the North Downs Way again.
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| Walking back up on to Exedown on the St. Clere Estate |
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| Another field, another gate.... |
The haze that had shrouded the far hills
during the morning had now been burnt off by the warm sunshine that we were
enjoying and the resultant views to the South were now quite spectacular.
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| 4 legs would have been so much easier! |
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| For some, the strain is starting to show! |
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| And some of us are still smiling..... |
From above the St Clere Estate we were now
heading towards the imposing building of Otford Manor where we would be
spending our next overnight stop. The
house which lies directly on the route of the North Downs Way, was built by Sir
Oliver Lyle of Tate & Lyle sugar family fame. The magnificent building sits high on the
North Downs above the village of Kemsing and is known locally as ‘Treacle
Towers’.
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| The cross in front of Treacle Towers |
Our finish point for the day was to be
Otford village and our route would take us down The Mount and past Otford
station. We had completed a total of 15
miles today and were pleased to see Jim waiting by the famous Otford Pond ready
to take us back to Oak Hall (previously known as Otford Manor) for our much needed overnight stay.
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| Oak Hall |
 | |
| Baked trout |
Good food then a good sleep!
Now we are over half way we are hoping to reach our target for donations.
Please support us if you can....
