I’m hoping for an easier walk this week, with just over 20 km planned, and easier travel as I’m walking between two mainline stations. In actual fact it wasn’t too bad, except I had to run at Clapham Junction, and I wasn’t really paying attention at Denmark Hill and may have got on the wrong train. I’m still not sure if I got on the wrong train, or the train went the wrong way! There was an announcement about a fallen tree on the line and trains were being routed via Sidcup, or something. I really should pay more attention. Anyway I arrived at Sittingbourne about 45 minutes after I’d planned so it wasn’t too bad. I’ve been through Sittingbourne a number of times on this walk and today should be the last time. The town is a bit run down, but there is clearly a lot of history behind the drab facades.

Behind one of the facades was Boyce’s Bakery which provided me with a Pasty and a slice of Bread Pudding (it travels much better than Carrot Cake and more appealing than the Booby Cake). I headed off through the suburbs, which in reality was a sprawling industrial area, to get back to the coast path. I made a slight diversion to see “Central Park” which is the greyhound track, and was one of the most recent speedway tracks to open, and close (a couple of years ago). The signage still refers to speedway so hopefully there is a chance for it to return. A quick bit of research shows speedway ran between 2013-2021. I have been here once, for an individual meeting called The Laurels that used to be run at Wimbledon before it closed. Some really great names competed for the trophy between 1939 and 2005. The Sittingbourne version bore no relation to the big names from the heyday of speedway. But if I recall, a young rider call Cairns rode, who’s grandfather (or even great-grandfather) was the owner of Wimbledon Stadium when it was built in 1928. So there was a historical link.

I was soon  at the river, and after a few overgrown footpaths, onto the Coast Path. I had noticed the wind on the train journey, but once onto the first path I really noticed it. The path was through trees and the wind whipping through the branches made a lovely sound.

It wasn’t quite so nice when I got out of the trees. The wind was brutal, head on, gusty and really powerful. This was the signature of the walk, absolutely exhausting wind, with only the briefest of respite when I could walk behind the embankment. That said, it was nice to be out in it with “white horses” being whipped up all along The Swale, and great views of my last walk on the other side on the Isle of Sheppey.

The route is pretty straight today, so I should start making some distance, in a straight line geographical sense. The only exception was a brief detour inland along Conyer Creek to a tiny village of Conyer. I would say it is a pretty affluent place based on the size of the boats and the size of the houses.

Its greatest benefit was that it was relatively sheltered from the wind. Even so, when an open pub appeared, I took shelter as I did think I deserved it. I had been taking a battering for a couple of hours.

After a brief rest, I headed back up the creek and into the wind on the Swale. The wind didn’t seem so bad, but I don’t think the wind had changed, but rather the pint of shandy had made me more resilient. There wasn’t too much bird life, but as the tide went out and exposed the mud, more black-headed gulls appeared. I was amazed how low and accurately they could fly in the gusty wind, while I was being blown everywhere. They seemed to particularly enjoy flying low up the embankment from the land side, executing a 90° roll in the face of the wind over the path and swooping back down again. All this was done a few inches from the ground.

I reached the Harty Ferry, which is just a slipway, but used to link up with The Ferry Boat Inn on Sheppey, where I failed to get a drink on my last walk. It seems the ferry service stopped after the second World War, although there was an attempt to start a hovercraft service in the 1970s. I can’t imagine why that failed!

Just past the Harty Ferry was a bird hide, marking the next estuary inland towards Faversham. I sat inside for a while, the wind really does knock it out of you! I polished off my pasty while looking out at the black-headed gulls swooping on the mud flats.

The for almost the whole length of the estuary, the opposite bank was fully parked up by boats of all shapes and sizes (and different levels of “kempt-ness”). They were all beached in the mud and it is hard to understand how they must re-float when the tide comes in, and then resettle in the same holes each tide cycle. Some look quite embedded but, based on relative levels, look like they would re-float each tide.

I think the secret may lie in the quality of the mud. It looked pretty gloopy, and lobbing a stone in proved it, as a perfect moon crater was thrown up as the stone hit. I reached Oare where the coast path takes a big loop around an island. I will be ignoring this detour, as the path follows both sides of the river, so I’m not going to miss anything.  It was a short walk into Faversham, initially through industrial areas, and then (due to a navigational issue) into a housing estate. My route soon popped out, by a bridge and the unmistakable smell of a brewery. It was the Shepherd Neame, Faversham Brewery, professing to be “Britain’s oldest brewer” (but presumably not the oldest brewery!?).

I had only just been (exactly a week ago) on an excellent tour of the Harvey’s Brewery in Lewes (founded 1790), so I recognised the original brewery buildings hidden and surrounded by a huge, more modern, site which was right in the town centre. As I’ve already mentioned, the smell of the hops and grain around the outside of the building was lovely.

Faversham looks like a tremendously historic place, it was a real surprise. Very old buildings, pubs and an elevated market hall right in the town centre. Yet another place to come back to.

It was a couple of easy trains home, and despite it only being a short walk, the blustery wind had really taken it out of me.

You will be glad to know that I’m taking a couple of weeks rest from the Coast Path, but only to go cycling. So prepare yourselves for more regular updates, although I won’t promise to post daily, I will post more frequently. I won’t reveal any more – but it should be a good adventure!