In the period before Christmas I’d already decided that the New Year would be a great excuse to dig out my walking boots and start getting some more fresh air – seeing these three posts from Euan just spurred things on a little…
Santa was kind enough to bring me the Time Out Book of Country Walks – 53 easy to moderate walks all within about 90 minutes train journey of the capital – so this weekend it was time to try one out.
For a combination of reasons ended up picking walk 43 – a circular walk based on Otford in Kent (TQ532594) going via the Fox and Hounds at Romney Street (TQ550614).
I’ve not been walking in this area before but the landscape seems very similar to the Chilterns – mixture of farmland and woods with typical lowland chalk landscape – i.e. smallish (but steep-sided!) valleys and lots of mud. Perhaps someone should research the clever physics of mud – how can the same substance be both sticky and slippery, depending on the angle to the vertical?
The walk was hugely enjoyable – short enough to do during a short winter day with a late-ish start – but also far enough both to remind me of how sedentary I’ve been lately (ouch!) and to bring on that simple inner calmness brought about by a combination of exercise, fresh air and being out in the English countryside.
