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| On the Greensand Way |
For an OS map of today's walk click here.
When we were first planning the walk we initially assumed that we would take the next few days following the North Downs Way as it passed north of Sevenoaks on its way to Rochester. But when Richard and Cathi made us welcome to stay with them in Tonbridge, that made it possible to plan a detour south on the Greensand Way, seeing three famous National Trust properties on three consecutive days: Chartwell, Knole, and Ightham Mote. Today, the first of the three, promised to be a long but interesting day as we planned to follow the Greensand way to Chartwell, Toys Hill, Ide Hill, and then drop down off the Greensand ridge to meet Richard & Cathi for dinner at Sevenoaks Weald.—Ken
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| At Chartwell House |
After our night's stay at the Days Inn, we took advantage of the nearby food court to have breakfast from McDonald's, our only "North American" meal of the trip so far. We (wryly) marveled at how they managed to achieve food that tasted exactly the same as it does in Canada or the USA.
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| Chartwell Swan |
We headed south on lanes and eventually got to the forest path by which we would hook up with the Greensand Way. We had learnt the hard way that forest paths can be tricky, and this one was no exception as it eventually broadened out and dissipated into nothing, with just the soft forest floor covered with needles. We kept on in the same general direction and eventually managed to pick up a trail. Soon thereafter we talked with a couple of men who directed us to another path which turned
out to be more circuitous than the one we had wanted, but it worked out okay. Eventually we crossed a lane and the path took us through some woods that Ken said were Narnia
woods—little evergreen trees with drooping branches that you had to
push through were lining the path. Soon we emerged onto . . . the Greensand Way!
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| Part of Emmetts Garden |
We followed the Greensand Way to Chartwell, the home of Winston Churchill. Ken found it really moving to read about Churchill's leadership during the blitz, and he was especially struck by an encouraging letter from Roosevelt to Churchill before the U.S. had entered the war. We also didn't know that Churchill was given American citizenship in 1963.
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| Tea in a Stable Stall at Emmetts |
[
I found that I was unexpectedly moved and was almost in tears as we passed through the rooms with the World War II displays. I think I was just overwhelmed by what they went through during the blitz and the bravery displayed by Churchill and all the English people as they faced such a threat. And looking back I think I was also just overwhelmed by the tragedy of war itself. It was quite an experience for me.—Ken]
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| Beauties at Emmetts Garden |
There were two things at Chartwell that I really loved: 1) a display case full of important medals awarded to Churchill for various honors, at the bottom of which there were two medals for having the best short-horn cows at an agricultural fair; and 2) seeing two stuffed toy animals (a panda and a lion) in the bookshelves which lined one wall of his study. I asked the guide about them, and she said that local children had given them to him, and he had kept them to mark the places on the shelves where he had removed books.
As we walked away from Chartwell house down to the lake and then off the property and up towards the hamlet of Toys Hill, our wildlife quotient increased—we saw black swans and cygnets, geese and goslings, small rabbits and one young deer. We made the steep climb up the hill and reflected that roughly thirty days of walking had toughened us up so that we only had to stop once for a rest. Upon reaching Toys Hill a little squall came in, but we took shelter at a well, the immediate area around which had been turned into a viewpoint; the squall passed quickly and we enjoyed the view of the wealden landscape to the south.
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| Cricketers in Action near Ide Hill |
We had made good time so we decided to take in our second National Trust property of the day, Emmetts Garden, which was just a short detour on the way to Ide Hill. There was a wide, clearly marked path through the trees (Chartwell had provided a helpful leaflet), and we arrived at the top of the gardens and immediately stopped for refreshments at the Stables Tea Room, which was indeed a refurbished stable. We ate in a stall. The gardens had amazing rhododendrons (especially brilliant orange ones), wonderful views to the North Downs and also southeastwards to Ide Hill, and a good collection of trees. We then walked down the hill, passing a cricket game on a beautiful green pitch in the late afternoon sun, seemingly a small idyll in the middle of nowhere.
[This was another fantasy scene, in my opinion--the mellow afternoon light, the magic green field, the cricketers playing with nothing else nearby--Sara]
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| Ide Hill from Emmets |
We liked the village of Ide Hill, which had an enormous village green with great views and an interesting Victorian church in which we sang. After visiting the church we sat on a bench on the green and just enjoyed the beautiful late afternoon.
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| Bough Beech Reservoir and the Weald |
In the "It's a small world after all" file (cue irritating Disney music!): as we departed Ide Hill on the Greensand way, we passed a woman handing out leaflets to protest a local development project and found that her daughter was just home after her first year at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
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| Sevenoaks Weald Village |
The end of the walk was harder as we were a little late after lingering too long in Ide Hill. There was some more challenging path-finding in the woods, although the views that occasionally opened up southwards to the Weald were beautiful. Then as we dropped off the forested ridge and down into farmland and fieldpaths, we encountered nettles, brambles, thistles and the occasional mud pit near farm gates. Ken rolled his left ankle once and his right ankle twice in quick succession in the hummocky fields, but without any lasting damage. He also grazed his hand on a bit of barbed wire embedded in a fence post that one would naturally grasp going over a stile. (No sign of lockjaw yet!) We walked quickly and were about ten minutes late to meet Cathi and Richard and their cute daughter Isabelle for dinner at the Windmill pub. The food was delicious and the company first-rate, and so the day ended on a happy note.
33,137 steps, 24.852 km, 1015.5 cal
OS getamap measured distance: 11.13 mi (17.91 km)
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