Road to Home 2022 Day 25: Horton Kirby - Rochester

30 km

It’s a dangerous business going out of your door. You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to. 

J. R. R. Tolkein, The Lord of the Rings 

Today I faced a decision: whether to follow the London to Canterbury branch of the North Downs Way/Pilgrim’s Way or stay on St. Bernard's Way, which I have been following so far, all the way from Yorkshire, with only a few minor variations. Looking at the map, I saw that heading due south to Otford through Wrotham on the Pigrims' Way would mean walking around two sides of a triangle, whereas with St. Bernard's Way I could just cut across on the third side. I then thought I would look for a footpath connecting this route with the Pilgrims' Way so as to take advantage of the new St. Peter's Bridge across the Medway at Halling, further shortening the route, though I still doubted whether I could reach Aylesford Priory by the end of the day. 

But at breakfast, served by our gracious hostess Karen in her beautiful dining room, the guest staying in the other room, a Welsh elevator salesman travelling on business, told me Rochester was a beautiful city and definitely worth going out of my way to see. Karen agreed, and so I set my course for the city, where there also appeared to be plenty of choice for accommodations. The elevator salesman was on his way to Rochester on business, and joked that he could sneakily give me a lift, but I declined: get thee behind me, Satan!! 

Karen wrapped up a couple of leftover croissants for me to snack on along the way, and off I went, across the hills and dales of the beautiful Kent countryside to Speedgate. The name may bring to mind some sort of scandal involving government officials and amphetamines, but in actual fact Speedgate is a stables and riding establishment, with a few houses scattered about, not really enough to be called a village.

More fields and woods brought me out onto a golf course. Golf courses are not fenced off in England, and if there is a public footpath and right of way, you can just stride right on through; the golf players politely pause their game until you are out of the way.

After the golf course, more horses. Walking in Kent is very relaxing: no bulls in fields (so far), no high-traffic roads, no mud... still plenty of stinging nettles, but I have learned to deal with those by now! 

Kent is beautiful, relaxing, but it is not flat. It seems to be made up of ridges, and I was walking across them rather than along them. Up and down, up and down, all day - it was like walking in the clay hills of Tuscany back home, only these hills were made of chalk! At one point I came across an uprooted tree, and I could see how thin the layer of soil was over the bright white, hard chalk to which its shallow roots had clung. 

Chalk, I have learned, comes with flint. Many of the older buildings in the area, such as the church at Hartley where I stopped for my first rest of the day, are made with flint. 

The next village had a name that sounded like a pharmaceuticals company: Meopham. From a distance it looked as though there was a giant windmill in the middle of the village, and I was looking forward to seeing it closer up, but when I reached the village the windmill had mysteriously disappeared. 🤷‍♀️ But there were public toilets, a drinking fountain and a bench, so I sat down in the village green to eat my croissant and sort out my accommodations for the next two nights.

 

An oast house, originally for drying hops

Proof that climate change is real: a vineyard, in England! 

I found myself on the North Downs Way, or the variant thereof that leads to Rochester: a very well-marked trail. It is even important enough to deserve a pedestrian/cycling lane running alongside the M20 motorway and the railway tracks on the bridge over the Medway River coming into Rochester! 

Walking over a bridge shared with an eight-lane highway and a railway line was definitely a new experience for me! From the bridge I could see the riverside neighborhood where I was to spend the night in my airbnb. When I arrived, I dropped off my bag and rushed straight to Rochester Cathedral, where evensong was already underway. My host, Michael, understood because he and his wife are involved in choirs and their children sang in the Temple choir when they lived in London. Attending evensong, or vespers, at least once should be part of every trip to Britain. I love the ceremonial gowns, the voices and the organ playing. On this occasion there was only a very small choir, but the music was still beautiful. The daughter of one of the choristers sat in the choir stalls next to her parent, still in her school uniform, nodding off now and again during the service. 😁

Unfortunately it was not possible to look around the cathedral once the ceremony was over, so after obtaining a proper pilgrim stamp on my credential, I resolved to return in the morning and went in search of some sustenance for the body rather than the soul. It was curry night at the local Wetherspoons pub and £8.10 bought me a dish of mediocre curry with rice and naan, pint of beer included! 

The Medway in the evening light

Home for tonight