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Walked by Sally and Richard, Monday 28th May 2018
6.6 miles of walking (3 hours), 3.3 miles progress on the Wealdway
For more photos of this walk, click here.
After two days of walking on complicated (if very enjoyable) circuits with a lot to write about, today's walk was very straightforward. Essentially, from Haysden Country Park (entrance at TQ573457) we followed the route of the River Medway east to Tonbridge, then as far as we felt able to go in the time available (we only paid for up to four hours parking, and wanted lunch before setting off for home). Our route to the west of Tonbridge was shared with the Eden Valley Walk whilst to the east of Tonbridge it was shared with the Medway Valley Walk (and yes, the River is the Medway all the way; the River Eden is a tributory of the Medway which joins it further to the west, near Penshurst).
From the Country Park's toilet black and cafe we followed the sign to Tonbridge which took us under the railway and so to Barden Lake. We took the path around the northern bank of the lake. It was a bank holiday so even though it was early there were lots of people about (families, fishermen, cyclists) but one woman altered us to the fact that there were a family of baby coots just ahead and indeed, slightly hidden by bushes, there they were, with their comical orange heads.
If we'd carried on next to the lake we'd have just ended up walking around it, so we took a path through the trees, now shared with a cycle route (which accompanied us all the way to Tonbridge) which took us to Lucifer Bridge, where we crossed one of the branches of the River Medway. A later footbridge took us to the north of the river completely and, after passing under a railway bridge, we continued along by playing fields to Tonbridge.
Our route through Tonbridge took us right past the castle, then over Town Bridge and past modern buildings before following the south bank of the river past Town Lock, modern apartments and the old gas works. At Cannon Bridge we passed back to the north bank.
We were soon out in open country, though there were houses visible in the distance to our left, and the river flowed leisurely to our right. There were quite a lot of dog-walkers about and we stopped to talk to two women with rather a large number of dogs between them, and who were interested that we were "proper walkers" with a map and asked how far we were going - it was a bit embarrassing to admit that the answer for today was not very far. They were at a spot which they obviously knew as good for dog-swimming (and indeed when we passed back the same way later there was a real gathering of dogs and their owners here) though one of their dogs was being firmly held on a lead. Unfortunately, around a quarter of a mile further on, the dog came bolting past us at huge speed, lead trailing behind. There was absolutely nothing we could do.
We reached Eldridge's Lock, one of 11 locks on the River Medway between Tonbridge and the sea, and decided this would make a good end point to today's walk, so after investigating the lock and the overflow channel we retraced our steps to the Haysden Country Park. It was only about 11.45 when we got back there, and the food on offer was mostly burgers and bacon rolls etc.; there was nothing which felt appropriate so we just had a cup of tea and some crisps and fruit from our supplies in the car before heading home to Norfolk.
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