Day 39 Canterbury to St. Margarets-at-Cliffe: The Last Long Walk

Passing through...

...Patrixbourne

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

We got up at 6:30 a.m., knowing we would have a long walk today; indeed, our longest walk of the entire trip at around 19 miles. We went to the store to buy a lunch to take along and ate breakfast at McDonald's, our third North American meal of the trip. We set off around 8:00 a.m. and it was sunny and mildly warm, a lovely day for walking.

As we left the Canterbury suburbs, the paths were busy with people out for local walks. They were friendly and often greeted us on the path, checking to see if we needed directions. Many dogs greeted us as well: one licked Ken in the upper thigh, so that it looked as though Ken had had an "accident." That amused me far too much.

Patrixbourne Church

The small village of Patrixbourne was a highlight, with many beautiful houses and cottages strung along a curving main street. The church was interesting (and unlocked), and outside the church there was a good information board about the village. The Neolithic burials nearby revealed that the people then were rich, aristocratic, and tall. Just like us, really.

Higham Park Poppies

Later, as we passed the Georgian mansion of Higham Park, there were three very large fields to walk through, some filled with broad expanses of red poppies. Beautiful. After that long march we arrived in Womenswold, and at first, all of the people we saw going by were women, which seemed somehow appropriate. We sat outside the (locked) church for a rest on a bench in the churchyard. A man on a bicycle came by, tried the church door, then parked his bicycle and knocked on the door of a house opposite, asking if the person there was the one with the key to the church. He was, and so we and the cyclist were able to have a look round the church. Afterwards, we shared our bench with the cyclist, whose name was Michael. He has visited over 1,100 village churches! We had a nice chat and exchanged names and information before heading out again. We have certainly enjoyed meeting people on this journey. [We have since exchanged further correspondence and home-made England photo calendars: his filled with churches he's visited and ours with photos from our trips in 2008, 2011, and 2013.—Ken]

It was again a long stretch to the next village of Shepherdswell, which had a lovely, large central green. We stopped at the local pub for a drink and an afternoon rest, and then looked at the church, with its distinctive apsidal east end and dark roof beams contrasting with the bright walls.

Exultation on the Way to Waldershare

A later event of interest occurred after we passed through Waldershare Park. We came to a road junction and witnessed a tractor wrapping a round bale of hay in black plastic. We had never seen how these "marshmallows" were made, so it was quite fun to watch. There was also another tractor that was scooping up the grass, transforming it in the innards of the vehicle, and spitting it out as a rolled bale of hay. All of this grass cutting means that, as Ken's cold has gradually gone away, in its place grass seed allergies have been bothering him.

Having passed the 14 mile mark, we were now in the "home stretch": a 4 to 5 mile walk along a quiet country lane towards the village of St. Margarets-at-Cliffe, our destination. We had a fun surprise in the small village of West Langdon, where we came across a telephone booth that was labelled "The K6 Bring & Buy Book Shop." It had books on little shelves inside the booth, and you could buy some or leave some, with the proceeds going to the village. What a great use for a disused phone booth!

Telephone Booth Book Exchange!

We walked on to East Langdon, where we rested on a bench outside the locked church, feeling sore and tired, then painfully set off again to St. Margarets. We knew we had to approach it for the last half mile via a busy road, and were so grateful to see what looked like a mown path at the side of the road. I said, "Look, horse manure!" and Ken said, "Great!" It might seem strange to be excited by horse manure (except in the context of gardening), but we were happy because we knew that if it had been used as a bridleway, we humans on foot would be able to use it as a path to the village, avoiding the road traffic speeding by. The path was also used by rabbits, which were very cute! Sure enough, the path led us to Holm Oaks, our B & B, where we arrived at 5:50 p.m., almost exactly 10 hours—and 19 miles—after leaving Canterbury. After a delicious dinner of sirloin steak in Diane sauce (Ken) and pizza (me) at the Smugglers' Inn, we came back to the B & B to relax our weary selves in our comfortable room complete with a deep ensuite bathtub! We had accomplished our longest walk of the trip, and for our last day tomorrow there is only the short walk along the White Cliffs to Dover, the end of our journey.

47,792 steps, 35.844 km, 1532.9 cal
OS getamap measured distance: 18.01 mi (28.99 km)