Kent Hospices sponsored walk.

Sunday 18th May 2008
Dad, John and I were up early and left home at 8.30 to drive to Charing for the Kent Hospices charity walk. We met friends of dad's (who we were walking with) in the carpark. We set off at 9.30 after getting our walk passports stamped.
There were lots of people walking and we followed a stream of walkers onto the Pilgrims way. We were surrounded by rape fields which affected my eyes so I had to resort to borrowing Brians sunglasses which helped quite a bit. We continued onto the North Downs way and then went to the second checkpoint at Warren Hill where we had a short break for a drink and a hot cross bun.


We continued on to checkpoint 3 which was the almost half way point where we had another short break and then walked along Longreach and the track to Otterden Place. Then onto Stalisfield Green where we had a good sit down and a break at the pub before walking through Kent Wildlife Trust woodland.


It was lovely walking through the woods, there were a few bluebells left but not much wildlife, possibly because of the noise of the walkers sliding through the mud.


We finished the walk at 2.30pm and after getting our passports stamped had a glass of bitter provided by Shepherd Neame. The whole walk was very well organised, soldiers were acting as marshalls at every junction which made it very easy walking as well as drinks and refreshments available at every stop.


It didn't seem like 11 miles, actually it was only 10.5 miles but it still didn't feel like it. We were very pleased that we had completed it and felt so good at the end.

Leicestershire Round - Markfield to Newtown Lynford

Tuesday 13th May 2008
We did a LR round walk today in training for our sponsored walk for the Kent hospices on Sunday. It was sunny but with a cool breeze. We drove to Markfield and set off along Main street to reach a footpath which took us under the A50, the path then went through woodland parallel to the A50. It came out into a nice field that had been planted as National Forest in 2000 and gave good views of Bradgate park, where we were heading. We then crossed a large field towards a wood which was filled with bluebells -it was a lovely sea of blue. More National Forest and horse paddocks followed until we reached Newtown Lynford.


We stopped here for some lunch - we were a bit early but sat and waited for the pub to open. We had a nice break out of the sun and then set off again.

We followed the footpath towards the back of Bradgate park where there were lots of people flying kites. Unfortunately the path marked on the map turned out not to be a footpath so we had to alter our route and continue through the park and onto the road. The woods we had planned to walk through also had no public access so we had to walk along the road and find an alternative footpath. We eventually rejoined the LR where we saw a little yellow frog hopping through the grass. After a short stretch retracing our steps, we diverted off onto a different footpath to follow a different return route which brought us to Field Head where we crossed the A50 and returned to Markfield.

The terrain in the last sections of the LR has definitely been new woodland. Leicestershire used to be known as the greenest county in England but with the fewest trees and least access. This has definitely changed with the advent of the National Forest. This area would until recently been full of coal mines and quarries and it is now turning into lovely native woodland. We walked about 7.5 miles.

Leicestershire Round -Thornton to Markfield

10th May 2008

Hooray -my chemotherapy is finished and hopefully I can now get back to some decent walking.
We started off by doing a bit more of the Leicestershire Round.
We drove to Thornton, by an interesting route as John was not paying attention! We parked near the pub and set off along the LR and skirted across the top of Thornton reservoir, although the GPS said we were wading through the middle. We then walked through lots of National Forest plantations, mostly planted in 2000 so they were maturing nicely and a great improvement on the spoil tips and coal mines that would have been here before.



We arrived in Markfield and had a drink and bag of crisps at the Bulls Head, where the locals were playing dominos. We then left the LR and walked along lanes and overgrown footpaths towards Cliffe Quarry. We walked around the quarry but did not see any workings although an information board did explain all the geology of the area. There was a lot of gorse in flower on the hills and it was giving off a strong smell of coconut. We walked through Stanton under Bardon behind the houses and then crossed into a field with some cows who were interested but well behaved but a small yappy dog was among them and came charging at us barking furiously.
John eventually roared at it which sent it scarpering away.
We crossed into more National Forest plantations and walked parellel to the same field only to see at the top of the field an enormous bull surrounded by his ladies. I was glad I was now on the other side of the fence.


We continued walking through the plantation to the sound of cuckoos (nothing like yours Judith!!). We finally had to cross a very large field of oil seed rape. Luckily the farmer had cut a good footpath through the middle as it was about 1.5m tall, in full flower and very strongly smelling.

We finally got back to Thornton in time for a welcome drink at the Bricklayers Arms. The walk was only 6.5 miles but had felt much longer as it had been so hot.