Saxon Shore Way 2017 - Summary

We hiked late into the night and our first night was spent on the edge of a farmers field immediately adjacent to our footpath just below a place called High Halstow.

The following day we started well and headed out at about 0700hrs. After a few hours we hit Rochester, A beautiful city with lots of obvious history including the very obvious castle. We stopped for lunch in the pub taking the opportunity to recharge our phones as well as our ourselves. This is when the first down pour occurred. Looking out at the water pouring from the heavens we were reluctant to resume our hike however after a few hours of hiding were resigned to the fact that it wasn't going to stop and we were going to get wet.

The next few hours were not pleasant. The rain continued all the way through Rochester, Chatham and Gillingham dampening our morale considerably. Still, we weren't ready to surrender to the British weather so ploughed on around the trail which took us past various historic military instillations. 

We were both in in agreement though, that this was a tedious part of the hike, partly due to the weather, partly because it was very urban and mostly because the signs for the path appeared not to exist. We relied solely on our phones and their GPS to guide us. Progress was slow. 

After hours trudging we were back on the the estuary and away from the urban environment. It was still raining but it felt good to be back in the open. 

A few hours more walking and we started looking for somewhere to sleep. Unfortunately the stretch we were on was a nature reserve with signs explicitly forbidding a number of activities, camping included. We trudged on a bit more, the nature reserve continued. We searched Google maps for potential spots. Nothing that met our requirements was obvious. 

When wild camping we are generally very cautious. We look to bed down in a place that is going to impact on others as little as possible. This means taking onto consideration proximity to homes, farms and other buildings as well as the likelihood of causing upset to anyone. The ideal scenario would be no-one knowing we had ever been there.

While checking the map, what we did see was a very small campsite right next to the path a couple of miles further up. It isn't something we usually do but given the circumstances and given that it was now getting quite late, we made a phone call.

The man on the phone was very pleasant and when he heard we weren't even using a tent was happy to let us camp in his field free of charge. 

We walked the couple of miles and arrived at Overshaw Caravan Park as it was getting dark. The camp site was very small with only about half a dozen caravans set up. We picked a spot, rigged a tarp over our heads and went to sleep. 

The following day was a late start. Safe in the knowledge that we weren't going to be in anyone's way we took the opportunity to have a lay in and to give our feet some medical attention. It had only been two days walking but our bodies were definitely feeling it and there were already blisters. 

By the time we were ready it was midday so we set off far later than we would normally have done. 

The terrain during the first part of the day was mostly fields as we moved a little inland. The going was fairly easy but once again the signs disappeared and we were left searching fields of crops for our overgrown footpaths. Even with the GPS mistakes were made but eventually we made our way back on track and back to the riverside. There we hit a major industrial area we needed to pass through the middle of. The light was fading at this point and with no hope of a decent sleeping spot we donned our head torches and pushed on. 

After a few hours we hit Sittingbourne. It was dark and we didn't see much but the lasting memory will always be the horrible smell from industry and the sewage works. We were glad to see the back of it. 

We still had some hiking to do though as we were still in an industrial area and about to enter the old oyster beds followed by a nature reserve. Knowing we still had miles to go despite the fact it was very late at this point we pressed on at a hard march. The walking would most likely have been quite lovely during the day, we could hear the wild life on all sides but we couldn't see it.

We passed through the oyster beds and crossed a nature reserve and eventually chanced upon a nice flat piece of grass between the water defence and the field irrigation. We knew the chance of bugs so close to water was high but we concluded that we were not going to find a better spot that night. Out came the tarp and down we went to sleep.

Refreshed and recharged, we carried on. The plan was to get close to Whitstable before bedding down for the night in order to put us in a  good position for the following day. We walked a number of miles late into the evening and before we knew it, Whitstable was upon us and we were perhaps a mile or two outside of it. We started to look for good camp spots but were hindered by long grass, rough ground and a large irrigation ditch following the path. We had little choice but to push on. As we reached the outskirts it was already dark and our options were limited. We could either march on through the town and hope for somewhere to camp the other side or we could find somewhere locally. 

A quick Google search showed numerous campsites in the area. It wasn't ideal but short of bed down next to the main road, our options were few. 

We started phoning the nearby sites but soon discovered that most were caravan only, much to our disappointment! We did eventually find one, it was a further hour and a half walking, but our best option. 

We called them up and spoke to a man who agreed that we could rock up at midnight and bed down. The fee was £9 per person and he would see us in the morning. 

We set off from the beach front and attempted to navigate our way through the back streets to this campsite. It was a good way from the path and it was dark. Frustrations began to show when we missed or took wrong turns and to add to our misery it started to rain. 

There was one moment of light entertainment for us as we stopped for a short rest aside a long and empty main road. 

There we were minding our own business when a car pulled up out of nowhere. The window was wound down and a female looked at us and muttered something in our direction. We looked over with puzzled expressions, so a male leant over from the drivers seat and repeated what the female had said. Once it was clear we were not who they hoped we were, they did a rapid u-turn and sped off. 

We speculated of course and decided that they were trying to either deal or buy drugs. 

We pressed on and eventually arrived at the campsite at about half past midnight. It was not large but it was busy with lots of caravans and a few tents filling most of the site. Thankfully we don't need much room and soon found a corner next to some empty caravans. A quick setting of camp, and a speedy hot ration from our packs and we were ready for sleep.

The following morning we were woken by text message from SELSAR founder Dave Ryan. The message was to tell us that he was in the area and he was coming to buy us breakfast.

We called him back to find that be was in Faversham and would be with us very soon. 

Hurriedly we started to pack up camp, Dave arrived mid way through. After a brief hello we made Dave wait for us to use the campsite showers. We felt bad about how long we took but this was our first shower in days and we weren't even half way through the hike. We weren't going to pass up the opportunity. Our dirty socks and underwear came into the shower with us before being wrung out and strapped to our packs to dry.

After what seemed like keeping Dave waiting for an age, we were ready. He had dropped his family off by the beach and come back to take us to a seaside cafe he had found, that did a decent fry up and happened to be back on our path in Whitstable.

At the beach Cathy Ryan was playing with their two lads who both had seemingly boundless energy. Having rounded them up she found a table at the cafe and ordered us all breakfast. We each had a giant fry up. Very tasty and very satisfying! 

After food we posed for a few photos with Dave and Teddy the search dog and let the boys try on our packs. It was all lots of fun but unfortunately we couldn't stay too long, there were many more miles to cover. We said our goodbyes around mid morning and set out along the beach front towards Herne Bay. 

The weather was good and the beaches were busy with holiday folk and tourists. The path here was good and flat though so we made good time to Herne Bay where we stopped at a pub called The Saxon Shore for a couple of refreshing drinks.

Next stop was a place called Reculver which had a Roman fort and a very old church atop the cliffs. Here we encountered our first upward slope in quite a while but we handled it without collapsing and headed to another pub for a cold drink and a packet of crisps. 

Reculver marked a change in direction on the trail as we started to head South and inland following the old shore line.

We walked until late evening and stopped, fairly early by our standards, on a farm and waited for nightfall on the edge of a field. Our plan was to watch the shooting stars that were reported in the media. Just our luck that as night fell the clouds came in and obscured our view. We went to sleep disappointed.

The following morning we started bright and early making solid progress. The weather brightened into a scorcher by midday so we decided to stop next to a water pumping station and properly dry the clothes we had washed at the camp site in Whitstable. 

We stayed a few hours with our clothes spread over a fence before we were approached by a man out for a walk. He introduced himself and asked where we were hiking before telling us that he had previously walked the entire coastline of Britain in one go. Wow! 

We chatted for a bit and he offered advice here and there. Mickey was his name and he owned a cider orchard nearby. Nice guy. 

We, of course could not chat all day so said our goodbyes, put our now dry undies away and cracked on along the river. 

We stopped regularly to rest as the heat was draining but we made good time towards our target destination of Sandwich.

An argument with a fisherman was a memorable moment and showed how tired we were but he was totally in the wrong parking his truck in such a way as to completely block the trail which forced us to carve our way through dense plant life in order to continue.

We arrived in Sandwich around early evening. It appeared to be a pleasant and picturesque town steeped in history. 

We stopped at a local shop to buy food and water and sat on a church wall to have lunch. 

After, we found a local pub in order to rehydrate. 

The pub we chose was The New Inn. We  chose it because, from the outside, it looked more like a local pub for local people and a little less touristy than many of the others. 

After a few pints of lime and soda/lemonade we were just about to don our packs to head out when the Landlady who had been sat nearby struck up conversation and asked about our walk. A few moments later and she handed us £10 to donate. Chuffed to bits, we cracked on. 

The next mile or so was easy enough but then we came across a huge golf course. Here the signage disappeared and we got lost among the many mounds and dunes. Once again GPS saved the day and we googled our way out and onto the stony beach the other side.

By this time it was dark and we found a spot  beside the beach to bed down. The sky was clear this time and we lay there watching shooting stars as we drifted off.

After a good nights sleep we arose before the dog walkers found us and headed out along the coast. We had hit the east coast now and were heading directly south and heading to Deal where we knew there was a Weatherspoons and potentially an all day breakfast. A hot meal proved excellent motivation and we arrived in Deal a few hours later and headed straight to the pub. 

The all day breakfast was hugely enjoyed. And the opportunity to charge our devices was also welcome. 

After a couple of hours recharging we headed out again with the aim of getting close to Dover.

The walk along the coast was quite nice. Long, straight and flat with numerous buildings of historic note. We made very good time despite stopping at another pub a few miles outside of Deal. People we spoke to on the path kept recommending the pub and we needed no further encouragement to stop. The pub was busy and looked nice enough but we never really felt welcome. It definately felt like grubby, smelly blokes with giant backpacks were not the norm around here. We drank our drinks in the garden before moving on. 

Another few miles of straight and flat hiking before we hit the stony beach. Walking was harder here but not nearly as painful as the climb up the cliffs that followed. Once up on top however the view was fantastic and the slopes gentle and rolling. Again we made good time, better than expected and the next thing we knew we were overlooking the port of Dover.

This area proved to be a massive tourist attraction and we were soon among a hundred or so people on the cliff tops enjoying the views. We of course didn't hang around long and dropped down into the city where we bought some food and found another pub within which to rehydrate. 

As we walked out of Dover we started to lose the light which was a shame as there were quite a few sights worth seeing. Dover castle looked magnificent on the hill top, the remains of a church built by the Knights Templar was interesting, a redoubt fort looked awesome and impregnable and the huge bastion we could barely see had large enough a silhouette to impress.  All of these were passed in the space of an hour or two!

Next, we were back up the cliffs. This stage of the walk became pretty scary if we're honest, for two reasons. The most obvious was that we were walking mere feet away from the cliff edge in the dark. There were fences but they did not look strong. The second reason was the size of the insects. Never before had we seen a grasshopper that was 3-4 inches long or an inch long earwig. 

Still, we had to press on and find somewhere to sleep. Eventually we came to a steep section next to the cliff and both eventually agreed that we should sleep in the adjacent field rather than tackle it in the dark. 

We bed down and went to sleep.

A couple of hours later we were woken by a storm. When we say storm we mean thunder, lightning and a downpour. Our bivvy bags held out for a while but after hours of relentlous rain we both got pretty wet. One of us was so bad that when morning came and the rain abated long enough for us to make a move, tipped out the bivvy and literally poured water out. Its fair to say morale was very, very low at this point.

We packed up and trudged on. We were soaked through. The ground was soaked through, and to make matters worse the grass was long, causing water to run into our boots. This was a bad day.

After about an hour of walking over the cliffs we were still complaining about our poor luck when we noticed something unusual. Over to our right, about 100 metres or so away we saw people running. At first we thought it was some crazy locals out for a morning jog but as we got further along the path we realised it was a group of 6 males all aged between 16 and 25. They didnt seem to be dressed for the occasion either, tracksuit bottoms and t-shirts didnt seem like the correct attire for the top of a cliff post storm. 

Minding our own business we carried on, and they joined the path and were walking ahead of us. After a short distance they stopped and we caught up with them. One approached us and asked us some questions. Where were they? What was the town they could see in the distance? And how long would it take to drive to Liverpool. 

At this stage it became apparent that they were not English and that the liklihood was that they were unlikely to be legal. 

Being good citizens that wish to protect our borders we stopped and waited for them to turn the corner before calling the police to highlight our concerns. 

To our delight, Kent police took it very seriously and soon we came across multiple police cars out looking for them. Next we saw the coastguard helicopter flying circles around the area which we assume was also out looking for them. Excitement!  With all this going on we soon ignored the moisture in our boots and sped up. 

Our next stop was the Battle of Britain memorial. We stopped to read the info and remember those involved before a change of socks and carrying on. We didn't go far however as it was mid morning, the sun was coming out and there was a pub with a large garden in front of us. 

We stopped at the pub but just our luck they didn't open for another hour. Still we made the best of it. We found the landlord at the back gate and he gave us permission to dry our gear in the beer garden while we waited. 

So we laid out or stuff and rested until noon when the doors opened for business. 

Hot food and cold drinks reset our moods and dry equipment improved our morale. 

Next up, the Kent Downs.

We moved inland and into more rural surroundings with lots of ups and downs. It was already late afternoon so we walked for a few more miles before finding a farm close to a village called Lympne with the trail passing through the middle. We dropped down on the path, got out our sleeping gear and rested for the rest of the night. 

Early the next day we were up and on our way again. A good days hike today and we'd be able to finish the hike tomorrow. We were keen by now to finish the hike and get home to a proper bed and a hot shower.

The going started fairly easily through woodland before dropping down to an old military canal. The path down to this canal brought an unexpected surprise as we discovered giraffes! A quick check of google and we were in the middle of an animal park. We saw no other animals in the park but we did hear some very odd noises. 

The canal took us a few miles on a very good path and we made excellent time before leaving the canal path with the trail going through multiple small villages. The path didn't stay easy for long as it narrowed and became more undulating, making progress far slower. The trek become somewhat of a slog with only a couple of pub stops brightening the day. 

Our aim was to get beyond a place called Stone in Oxney, which we did but quite late in the evening. We trudged on a couple more miles and re-joined the military canal path  before looking for a place to sleep, eventually settling on a spot next to a disused lock. 

We settled down and discussed our options. The weather report showed that there was rain incoming in the early hours and so the decision was made to sleep for a few hours and then be up at 0200hrs for a hard push towards Hastings.

Our alarms went off at 0200hrs and by 0300hrs we were packed up and on the road. The showers had already started although at this stage they were intermittent. We managed a good couple of hours hiking before the heavens opened and we were once again soaked through. Our light wet weather gear was once again not up to the task and our morning became quite miserable. It didn't help that our path soon left the road into long grass meaning the water got into our boots too. A couple of miles in this downpour took us to our lowest point on any hike we've ever done and for the first time the question of giving up came to mind and a serious discussion was had. 

Of course we decided to carry on. We were soon on our way uphill again as we once again hit the coast which, unsurprisingly, did nothing to increase our morale. The rain did at least pause long enough for us to wring our socks out for all the good it did. 

Despite our woes we had managed to close the gap and we knew Hastings was not too far away. 

We forced ourselves to continue and as we started to drop back down the far side of the cliffs the rain eased and Hastings became visible. With hastings in sight we powered our way into hastings and finished the hike. 

The sense of relief was amazing and it will come as no surprise that we waste little time in finding a pub and having a celebratory hot meal and change of clothes. 

This hike was in theory easier than our last hike through wales but ended up being just as challenging and more soul destroying purely because of the amount of rain we had. Given the time of year we were not expecting the intensity of downpour that gave us multiple soakings and as such only prepared for light showers. This error slowed us significantly and were it not for our constant need to dry things I suspect we would have finished the hike at least a day sooner. 

There are of course positives to take. The hike once again proved how wonderful our British landscape is and how many beautiful areas we have on our doorstep. 

Now we have had time to reflect and allow the aches and pains to subside, we can look back with fondness and remember the many enjoyable moments, memories and sights that make these hikes worthwhile. 

For now though... never again!