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North Downs Way 2007
The North Downs Way is the National Trail that follows Natural England's acorn waymarks from Farnham to the coast at Dover. This picturesque Trail takes in chalk ridges, river valleys and sections of the Pilgrims' Way. At the eastern end you can either walk via Canterbury (a total distance of 130 miles, 208 km) or follow the southern route (123 miles, 197 km).
167 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1992
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September 22, 2017I was shocked hearing on the local news that the North Downs Way was one of the most popular long distance walks in the country, I've walked all bar the first couple of stages in Surrey at various times of the year, some stages I've walked a few times in both directions and I've maybe once needed more than one hand to count the number of other walkers on the path. Young women riding horses generally without dogs - an important point if one looks a bit foxy, or young men on quad bikes, people on bicycles - yes, but walkers no, not really.
Much of the trail goes over chalk, in prolonged periods of dry weather - not a rarity in the south-east of Britain the fields are pale and bone white beneath the crops, much of the way follows the old pilgrim route to Canterbury, The holy blissful martyr for to seek, though in places the way may well be older it seems to be widely thought that already in prehistory there were theses routes stretching along the ridgeways avoiding the soggy bottoms and sheltered from the north winds by the lea of a hillside, here and there the path goes through holloways, pebbled at bottom, the ancient hedges block the view. In east Kent you can pass beneath Stone Age Graves, go through fruit farms with park homes for the migrant labour, perhaps this year mostly Bulgarian.
The route passes through well populated land, old abandoned kitchen units mark the boundaries of local councils, hold off giving it a kick in case of asbestos , you appear to be in the deepest countryside one moment a hundred paces down the path, at the back of some God forsaken town.
Mind the bovine ladies grazing in their fields, pass Caesar's camp, below castles filled with sheep, through churchyards, pause at a petrol station for ice cream, beneath a hoovering bird of Prey look north over London then south into Sussex.
But you don't see much in the way of other walkers once, I guess, a refugee, sleeping in a field, she wasn't going far on a Sunday morning.
As guide books go this one is ok, but only goes one way from West to East, so when you go from east to west you have to read it backwards. The maps are good enough, but if truth be told on these national trails you barely need them the waymarks come often enough.
Much of the trail goes over chalk, in prolonged periods of dry weather - not a rarity in the south-east of Britain the fields are pale and bone white beneath the crops, much of the way follows the old pilgrim route to Canterbury, The holy blissful martyr for to seek, though in places the way may well be older it seems to be widely thought that already in prehistory there were theses routes stretching along the ridgeways avoiding the soggy bottoms and sheltered from the north winds by the lea of a hillside, here and there the path goes through holloways, pebbled at bottom, the ancient hedges block the view. In east Kent you can pass beneath Stone Age Graves, go through fruit farms with park homes for the migrant labour, perhaps this year mostly Bulgarian.
The route passes through well populated land, old abandoned kitchen units mark the boundaries of local councils, hold off giving it a kick in case of asbestos , you appear to be in the deepest countryside one moment a hundred paces down the path, at the back of some God forsaken town.
Mind the bovine ladies grazing in their fields, pass Caesar's camp, below castles filled with sheep, through churchyards, pause at a petrol station for ice cream, beneath a hoovering bird of Prey look north over London then south into Sussex.
But you don't see much in the way of other walkers once, I guess, a refugee, sleeping in a field, she wasn't going far on a Sunday morning.
As guide books go this one is ok, but only goes one way from West to East, so when you go from east to west you have to read it backwards. The maps are good enough, but if truth be told on these national trails you barely need them the waymarks come often enough.
January 30, 2013
A fair mixture of directions and highlighting points of interest. I'd like a bit more background on the points of interest - the map largely gives the necessary directions.
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