Saturday 23 June 2018: Saxon Shore Way (1) – Gravesend to High Halstow (Linear)

Nine Polyramblers for this Kent walk on a hot and sunny day. After leaving Gravesend and its industrial estate, we walked along the Thames and marshlands described in the map as « danger area ». But Martin reassured us by saying that the army range is only used during the week. It was quiet and we only met a couple of fishermen and hordes of horses with their foals. We passed a fort built by General Gordon before Higham Creek.  The path near Cliffe Fort was quite overgrown. We turned inland along Cliffe Creek and Cliffe Pools RSPB Nature Reserve – where we saw a couple of avocets – before reaching our lunch stop: the Six Bells Pub in Cliffe. After a short break, we continued our walk through farmland and orchards, passing Cooling Castle and Northward Hill RSPB Nature Reserve. We did not stop to sample the strawberries in the field but Anna, who ate a few on the recce, told us they were delicious. An exhilarating climb of a 50m high hill was recompensed with chocolate from Martin. We reached High Halstow where we waited for the bus to Strood. We caught the javelin train to Gravesend where we changed for a train to London.  The walk was supposed to be 9.5 miles but there was some disagreement about the length and it is being investigated.  After verification, it seems the walk was 11.9 miles.