I start today at Hoo Marina which is a right old jumble of boatyards and other light industrial workshops. The path threads its way through several alleyways, although fortunately it is well signposted otherwise it would be easy to get lost!
Past the yacht club the path continues along the shoreline. This becomes impassable at high tide so check the tide tables before setting off. The shore is very muddy and helpfully it started to rain as soon as I set foot on it!
Within a few yards I come across Cockham Wood Fort. Built in the 1660s in red brick, it is now being eroded by the sea and large chunks have broken off and lie in the mud. I would have liked to stop for a better look but it was starting to rain harder so I kept going!
A bit further on is today’s derelict pillbox. Every walk has to have at least one!
The muddy beach comes to an end as I approach Lower Upnor. A firm path starts and the rain stops!
Taking pride of place on the seafront at Lower Upnor is this lady…
Although the building behind the figurehead is closed and up for sale, the Shaftesbury Young People Trust is still an active organisation helping to improve the lives of young people.
Between Lower and Upper Upnor lies Upnor Castle. Owned by English Heritage it is open to the public from April to October. It sits in sizeable grounds which block access to the shore entailing a short detour inland, much of it following the old wall of the estate.
At the bottom of the High Street the path leads to another stretch of muddy shoreline. Even muddier than the last, it fortunately is only a few yards long!
From here the path turns inland again to bypass a large industrial estate that has no public access to the riverside. Over a hill and skirting Frindsbury, I get back to the river near Stroud railway station. Unexpectedly there is a submarine here! Even more unexpectedly it turns out to be an old Soviet submarine from the 1960s! Once used as a visitor attraction, it is now closed and awaiting restoration.
This area looks very sad. In the fairly recent past it has obviously had some money spent on it, nice railings, benches, kids playground etc, but now it seems uncared for, full of litter, graffiti, supermarket trollies, dog crap and so on. But there are no people. Not even a dog walker! What a waste…
Round the corner is Rochester Bridge which crosses the Medway with a view of Rochester Castle and Rochester Cathedral. Both well worth visiting, the Castle was besieged during the Barons’ revolt against King John and the Bishopric of Rochester was the first to be founded by St Augustine after he converted the pagan Kingdom of Kent at the end of the Sixth Century. There is also an interesting little high street close by.
The final part of today’s walk is a bit of a trek through Rochester and Chatham to its finish point at Chatham Bus Station. A lot of this area is being redeveloped with seemingly endless riverside apartment blocks. The Medway towns area is obviously receiving a lot of investment as the next walk will take me through more new housing that has been built on the site of the old Chatham dockyard. Even the bus station looked fairly new! I wonder if this is a result of the Medway Unitary Authority being formed twenty-odd years ago and given administrative independence from Kent?
Anyway, that’s it for today! Next time I finish the rest of ‘Medway City’ and head back out to estuary marshland and rejoin the Saxon Shore Way!
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