Rochester, Cobham Park, Luddesdown, Halling and Cuxton

Heading out of central Rochester there are two ways to get to Medway crossing, either follow the Esplanade long the river and head up when under the bridge (see the Downs walk) or cross the Vines garden and head up the road through Borstal. On this particular occasion, we chose to take the route through Borstal both to benefit from the views over the Medway and for a change. Once in Borstal cross over the brutalist bridges and prepare yourself for lots of road noise and fantastic views. Once over the Medway Bridges follow the A228 left where a path leads to a subway in a tree planted section, a plaque commemorates the British Rail Speed Record of 208 mph won by a Eurostar crossing the HS1 bridge. Finally, the road noise can be left behind as the North Downs Way leads you through Ranscombe where a multitude of routes lead to Cobham Mausoleum, we personally chose the route up Mill Hill where the scenic woods made for a pleasant climb to the mausoleum.

After using our National Trust cards, we headed down to Cobham through the woods where a walking path leads behind the church. This is the most lonely and beautiful section of the walk heading through Luddesdown and eventually to an obvious war memorial. Turing to the South East paths lead up to Bowling Alley and Gag plantation, alternatively Wealdway could be followed. It is in these woods that we got a little lost before plopping out at Chappel Lane. This allowed us to take a back road as far as North Halling above the blue waters of an old chalk quarry.

From Cuxton however we rejoined the road where a steep climb took us back over the Medway Bridges. Returning back into Rochester we were treated to a wonderful view of a Medway sunset, Medway consistently offered us the most beautiful sunsets.

Pictures courtesy of Kate Cash.