3rd April 2024 - Cooling to High Halstow.

3rd April 2024

The weather had been wet - a good day to be lazy…

It cleared up, and  we walked down to the Horseshoe and Castle for lunch, brie and cranberry baguette and a good salad - this is getting to be a habit. 

Before dinner we walked approx three miles up the hill to High Halstow and back.

A quick wander round the village, with its church

and village sign.

Some grand views along the road, to the Thames and the Medway. 

 A red sky sunset completed the day. 

31st March 2024 A short exploration of Cooling and its church.

 31st March 2024

So, here it is - Easter and official BST.

The mist is creeping over the marshes today, after yesterday’s beautiful summery weather. Quite a noticeable east wind blowing.

I took a very brief walk along Saxon Shore Way path, then back and with Harry into the village and to look at the church. 

The churchyard in Cooling inspired the beginning of Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations. 

The graves in the photograph are of 13 children who died in infancy of the ‘ague’, a form of malaria. 

This is the first time for years I have been near a church at Easter. Weather is brightening up.

Back for coffee in improvised filter, and broached Easter egg and truffles.

Another stroll in the evening to catch the sunset.

1st April 2024 - Kent - Cooling, High Halstow, Egypt Bay, Cliffe,

1st April 2024

Do you think we should take our wellies?

Yes, some of the tracks are a bit wet.

Just as well….by the way this is Dickens country.

We followed the Saxon Shore Way to the Northward hill Nature Reserve, and the wellies proved their worth as we went through Bromhey Farm.

We discovered that even this area has steep hills in the Nature Reserve  - birds, butterflies and blossom, and some mud underfoot in the woodland areas.

Coffee just outside High Halstow,  then we took a footpath past Decoy Farm. From here there were fine view over the Thames towards Canvey island, Leigh on Sea and Southend.

We followed a narrow road which was hardly more than a farm track to Swigshole and out to the coast path at Egypt Bay, where we saw two avocets on the mud flats.

At this point it had started to rain.

We walked along for a while, coming to an embankment which seemed to be the path - hard work walking along and quite windy wet and cold.

As the rain eased a bit we found a place to eat our egg and bread, and drink more coffee.

 Then began the marsh experience as we found the tracks we hoped to take were marked as private. There was a footpath which was marked at the bridges, and which we successfully followed with the OS app on the phones.  The rain persisted and it was definitely welly conditions underfoot. 

After a couple of miles or so we emerged at the village of Cliffe and made our way back to Cooling, past the Castle,

the church and the pub, and reached home at 4.30 pm, by quiet roads, which were slightly flooded in a couple of places. 

Around 11 miles in all, over 5 and a half hours, including the breaks.

Surprisingly strenuous, considering it was mostly flat.