Bluebell Hill

Saturday 31st January 2009
It was a lovely bright day so we went for a walk with dad, Jenny and Brian. We picked them up and drove to Bluebell Hill and parked at the picnic site on Common Road. We set off along the North Downs way through some pretty woodland emerging onto a path running parallel with the busy A229. We followed the path until it emerged onto the old Bluebell Hill. Here we were a bit confused by the guidebook but eventually found the path that dropped down to the fields below. In the corner of the field was Kits Coty, a neolithic burial chamber.

We walked along the edge of the field and then through some woodland onto the road. We crossed the road and walked along the Pilgrims way for a short distance and then turned off along a track, with a view of Little Kits Coty (the Countless Stones), and some oast houses in the distance.
A short distance along the track we crossed into a field containing some horses, and then across a very muddy field. The farmer had reinstated the footpath by driving a tractor across to mark the position, so we could see where we were going but the tracks were very muddy, we all struggled with heavy boots and were glad to get to the end of the field. We used a wire fence to scrape some of the mud off our boots and then crossed a wet, but not muddy field. We should have crossed a stile halfway down the field, but it was broken and on the other side of the fence was a very large puddle. We decided to continue down the field rather than cross the fence, and found a way out at the bottom, a bit further along the road than we should have been. Unfortunately Jenny had a fall here, but apart from muddy gloves was ok. We followed the road into Aylesford. We had a drink and bag of crisps at the Little Gem, the smallest pub in Kent. This had been John's and my favourite pub, 25+ years ago and we were pleased to see it hadn't changed much, although it didn't do as many real ales as it used to.
After our break we had a walk along the street and a view through the houses to the river Medway. We then climbed some steps, leading up to the church and walked beside the churchyard to emerge onto the Centenary Way. The path went around a large chalk quarry and then across a field, and beside woodland, until we entered fields, newly planted with (possibly)grape vines. From here we could see where the cars were parked, on top of a steep chalk cliff. The Centenary way emerged into Eccles and then we took another footpath which passed through woodland and then a very steep climb to emerge onto the North Down's way again on top of the chalk cliff. John and I had a quick look for the Found View cache. We hadn't been able to find it when we looked at christmas, but this time it was quickly found, log signed, and then we drove home. We had walked 11 km.