I’ve missed a week of walking the coast path, mainly due to work, which is one of the challenges of being “semi retired”. In reality I should have been in the Middle East, but thanks to Trump’s ego I had to do the job from the UK but still couldn’t escape for a day. Anyway, I’m back walking, on what is a long day with the most complicated start point yet. I’ve had to shun the “Not via London” and take a more direct approach, just three trains and a bus (with a three minute connection for the bus – no chance).

One of the benefits of the longer journey is it gives me more time to waffle on about stuff. Last week I saw a film called “Our Land”, don’t worry – its not about all the right wing stuff, but about access to the countryside. It presented the arguments for both sides of “The right to roam” debate in England (Scotland already has the right since 2005). I don’t think I’ve seen a film that caused such a split in the audience, or rather I felt my opinion was probably in the minority. Essentially the pro-lobby feels the land is theirs and everyone should have access. They seemed to see the lack of people getting out into nature (for their mental health) was the barrier of access to land. I’m not sure that is true, there is plenty of access on our current rights of way (as hopefully this blog – about walking and public transport shows), it is just a lot of people don’t care, or want to do it. Opening up the land won’t help them. On the other-side, it was a lot of “Toffs”, of varying degrees of acceptance of the peasants, giving pretty good reasons on why and how they manage the land. I think there could be a lot more footpaths through some of these estates, but I don’t think open access to everyone, everywhere is necessary. The pro-lobby cited that the population would need to be educated, that sounds like an impossible job. The film referred to the rights in Scotland, where looking at it, the best practice document, for camping “...done in small numbers and only for two or three nights in any one place“. Scotland has a lower density population, but in England I can just imaging the state of the countryside near cities if this was “best practice”. There was a Q&A by a guest speaker which was most interesting, and introduced me to the term “free walking”. I’d recommend seeing the film if you get a chance. My take on it is, I quite like the way it is, if you want to trespass or a single night wildcamping you can, but encouraging mass participation for these things seems like a recipe for disaster – please discuss. An interesting fact, more than 50 million Pheasants are bred each year, and given access to land that us 70 million Peasants can’t access (the numbers may be wrong haha, but the comparison is clear).

Also there was an interesting Observer article on the wind farms in Shetland being paid not to generate power due to inadequate transmission capacity to the south. I saw these turbines stationary on my trip there, and this article made me think about the 700 km undersea cable I saw being laid from the Isle of Grain to Germany. It must be so much cheaper to link up undersea, than overland, especially with the UK’s planning system. That said, it is unforgivable that Shetlands electricity comes from oil and gas power stations when they have surplus wind energy! That’s enough waffle – I’d better start walking!

I don’t want to be too down on the Isle of Sheppey, but once again the conversations on the back of the bus revolved around the prisons. Two men with four children (age say 4 – 16) got onto the back of the bus, while one of their partners sat at the front witha double buggy. The kids seemed keen to go to the beach (at Leysdown) and the conversation started as such. Until we passed the turning to the prisons (this bus didn’t go past the prisons), when the two men started saying about “three meals a day” and one chirped in “and work”. This might sound like just chat as they were passing, but the other guy said “I was always on the wait list for work”, so he’d clearly been inside. It does seem the 360 bus is some sort of ex-offenders meeting point. I won’t say anything else bad about Sheppey, as the walk today was one of the most peaceful walks I have done, walking around the marshes on the south of the island which was absolutely teeming with birdlife. Before I tell you about that, I had to stock up on supplies – Cornish Pasty and Carrot Cake – in Boyce’s Bakery. I saw this poster for “Booby Cakes” and as I took a picture one of the servers told me that “it was her”. Presumably the “face” of the Booby Cake, but I don’t know whether in the poster, or maybe the original inspiration, I have no idea – but was happy with my choice of carrot cake.

The first part of the walk was just heading east out of Leysdown-on-sea to towards the eastern end of the island. I just passed a short stretch of caravan sites before getting to the sea front, with a few beach huts and a long beach disappearing in the distance. Even though it was a bright warm sunny day, the water didn’t look too appealing, mainly due to its muddy brown colour. As I got away from the town, there were a few camper vans parked up and some hardy souls were on the beach but I didn’t see anyone swimming.

At Shellness Point, at the eastern end of the island and after the naturist beach, I turned and headed west back along the Swale (the body of water between Sheppey and the mainland). From this point, I would pass one other person in the next five hours. The path quickly became very rural as it followed the top of the flood embankment with lots of marshland on either side.

The path headed inland briefly at Harty, passing a nice church and straight through a farm with the most amazing array of “farm birds”, such chickens, turkeys, pea hens and other unidentifiable birds.It was quite sight. Also at Harty, my map showed a pub, The Ferry House Inn which looked miles from anywhere. It was just after 2 pm and I was quite hot and thirsty, so I decided if it was open I would stop for a shandy and a packet of crisps. Mainly to show solidarity and help keep these tiny pubs open. I needn’t of worried, as I approached I could see a sign saying “Reserved for Wedding” and the tiny pub proved to be a big wedding venue that was completely jammed with guests. I still had a long way to walk, so quickly put the thought of a nice cold glass of bitter shandy out of my mind and headed off.

The next section, essentially about 15 km towards the Kingsferry Bridge, was all about wildlife. The path was either on the top of the bund or more commonly behind the grass embankment, walking on a lovely grass corridor between the water of the nature reserve. There was the intermittent sound of fish surfacing, but I only ever caught sight of the ripples, so no idea what fish are in there. I think the path (right of way) is quite new as they weren’t marked on the OS map when I was planning this section. Looking today, they are not on the 1:50,000 but are on the 1:25,000. However, they are shown on the National Trails website, and I used the Heatmap feature in Strava which gives a good indication if there is a route through (by showing how many people have been that way). By the “untrodiness” of the paths, I would say not many people have been here – yet!

I saw and photographed a Red Admiral butterfly, despite the fact that on a walk earlier this week I was complaining on how do people get pictures with their phones. I think the trick is to have a new phone. I also saw quite a few hares, which is great. They are so big that initially I thought they were small deer, or something else.

There was so much birdlife, I brought some binoculars and spent a few minutes in some of the hides around (mainly to get a sit down)! To prove my bird watching skills have improved; A bird with black and white wings was often swooping and screeching over the marshes. Its a Lapwing I think you’ll find, haha, my knowledge is immense – if I Google afterwards. Although, I did spot a Reed Warbler and (think) I identified it correctly, as it was warberling and flitting amongst the reeds. [Note: Nobody challenged my observation of “two flying penguins” on Kent Day 04, but it turns out they may have been Auks]

This really is a nice place. The Kingsferry Bridge started to get nearer, along with various chimneys and I knew the quiet of the marshes would soon be over. I reached Elmley Nature Reserve, with a number of interesting and basic looking cabins and shepherds huts to stay in. I think I may come back.

I felt good walking the final stretch towards the bridge as it feels like I’ve been on the Isle of Sheppey too long, and I’m ready to leave. In fact its been about two and a half days, but it seems longer. One of my final jobs was to cause a whole herd of cows to go galloping onto a small headland at the end of their field. I was just trying to sneak past quietly when they all charged off, idiots!

Sheppey wasn’t going to let me go easily as I had to cross the railway. My plan was to sneak under the railway bridge  along the water, and then retrace my original steps to the bridge. Unfortunately the water was too high, so I followed the (longer) signposted route. Unfortunately, the signposted route was blocked by construction works (big holes in the ground, I’ve no idea what for), so I had to take the official diversion. It seemed like miles, all along roads.

Eventually, I got off the island. I must say its been quite an experience! It was getting late, but my plan was to get to Sittingbourne for the train back. I had the option of catching a train at Swale station, but the thought of coming back here, spurred me on. I’m so glad I did, as the section around Ridham Dock is dreadful, maybe one of the worst sections for rubbish, fly-tipping, lorries parked up, chimneys spewing smoke and any surface that wasn’t tarmac or concrete having foot deep ruts everywhere. I might be over egging it, but the contrast from the rest of my day (and only two kilometres away as the crow flies) was overwhelming.

The path got better, a bit, as it followed the coast, and then river into Sittingbourne. It was sandwiched between industry, and the surface was really cut up by bikes and 4x4s so there is a lack of care around here. Ironically, I was thinking what should be done to stop this (mis)use, when I came across a burnt out 4×4, perhaps this was the only culprit, I doubt it.

The final stretch into Sittingbourne was actually quite nice, with a few runners out, on a route between the river and wetlands. The path pops out quite near the town, and it was only a five minute walk to the station (and mainline trains to St Pancras and Victoria).

It had been a long day, with no services en-route at all. Luckily, my Cornish Pasty lasted well (I think I got four feeding stops out of it) and I hadn’t even started my Carrot Cake. It hadn’t travelled too well, but I was too hungry to care.

As a passing thought to my first “waffle” on the Right to Roam, generated by thinking too much while walking. How about a Code of Conduct for land owners to help them share the land a bit more. So if they come across people on their land, they offer assistance (rather than shooting them), not putting locks on gates unnecessarily, accepting wild campers who leave no trace (and arrive after dusk and leave before dawn). That sort of thing!