In the Footsteps of Charing’s Pilgrims
Posted: Saturday, May 9th, 2009 in All, Fifty WalksWelcome back - remember, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed for site updates. If you like this article you might want to share this on Twitter or use the buttons at the bottom of this post...Thanks again for visiting!
I drive through Charing quite a bit as I tend to favour the A20 over the M20 – it is slower but less busy and more pretty than motorway driving – but I must confess to not paying much (if any) attention to Charing. This was an error. I can see how it happens though. Without a reason to stop in places, I tend to ignore them and, until recently, have had no real desire to find out anything about them. I have to say that Charing seems a charming little place, well worth turning off the A20 for.
This walk was mainly chosen for the the closeness to home and the length/difficulty, as this was the first time I didn’t really feel like leaving the house and trekking around Kent. Of course, I am glad I did in the end as it was another glorious day. Incidentally this walk is 3 miles.
There appears to be a cemetery for children in Charing – not that I have confirmed this, but there are some of the most elaborate (and moving) headstones on view. Rest in Peace Tina and Kenny.
The walk leaves the village and heads across country up to the Pilgrim’s Way. Trust me, this next hill was worse in reality than it looks as the sun was beating down and we took it a little bit quicker than we ought to have done.
The next shot is a panormaic comprised of 23 shots, which is somewhat excessive but the green field was lush and I really just wanted to see how well a large multi-shot hand held panorama would work. It stitched perfectly. As it happens, we realised we had gone wrong on the walk and re-traced our route, so we ended up going past this field again. If you do this walk take note – the bit about the single Beech Tree is confusing! I am ultimately responsible for the error, but the book really could have been more clearly written.
Apparently, as a child, I couldn’t even be driven past a field of Rapeseed without wheezing like mad. It appears that this issue has not followed me into adulthood, which is nice.
Clever huh? ‘V’ in Roman Numerals for the fifth walk. Genius. They have a nice sundial thingy which works when you stand on it. It had to be tested and fortunately there was still loads of sun… the time of 2.45pm was confirmed by a mobile phone.
In conclusion – another enjoyable walk. Apart from the initial hilly bit that nearly killed us, it realy is very easy after that with some nice views available, It is worth it for that alone, but Charing itself is well worth a wander around. This is turning into a fun project.
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