Day 32 Borough Green to Cobham: A Rather Pedestrian Walk

For an OS map of today's walk click here.

Our packs felt quite heavy today, since it's the first day we haven't had the luxury of leaving most of our things at Richard and Cathi's.

The walk today was good, but not much was noteworthy. We followed the North Downs Way along the base of the North Downs for much of the day as it headed northeastwards towards Rochester, then left the trail to climb up and over the hill northwards towards our destination, Cobham. On the steep climb over the North Downs escarpment, I distracted myself from the effort by looking at the interesting rocks embedded in the path—the flints here are like Easter eggs, with a white chalk outer coating and a glassy grey or black inside. Partway up the hill, I saw in the bushes a rusted axle and two wheel rims, and I said that clearly someone else hadn't made it up the hill. We made it, however.

Luddesdown Manor & Church near Cobham with Thatched Outhouse in Foreground (We were tempted but didn't use it!)

It was a disappointing day for visiting churches: in the morning the church in Wrotham had a coffee hour going, which is a nice thing to have but meant that we couldn't sing; a later church that was indicated on the map had been turned into a private home; the church in Luddesdown was locked. We did manage to visit the church in Cobham, known for its remarkable collection of brasses. Ken's allergies which might be a cold made it difficult for him to sing, but we sang "Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven" and the Doxology.

Historic Poster at the Leather Bottle

Sitting in Dickens' Chair?

We stayed at the Leather Bottle Inn, which Charles Dickens enjoyed visiting frequently. It is now filled with Dickensian pictures and and other memorabilia from his life and novels. We had read in a guide that the chair Dickens used to sit in when he visited was still at the inn. We saw a chair that matched the photo I had, but there was nothing at the inn to indicate that it had been his chair. But I sat in it, just in case. There was better wireless reception there, if nothing else. We didn't have any Dickensian adventures, however, just a quiet evening.

28,501 steps, 21.375 km, 879.8 cal
OS getamap measured distance: 10.22 mi (16.45 km)

The Leather Bottle Inn, Cobham