Walk 17. Harty Ferry to Sheppey Crossing

 Today’s walk will cover most of the southern coast of the Isle of Sheppey and take me back to the Sheppey Crossing and the Kingsferry Bridge.

This whole area is marshland and farmland and there are few ways to bail out part-way through. And even if you did, it would still entail a long walk! So if you are planning on walking this section bear this in mind!

So, I’m back at the old Harty Ferry jetty…

Now, there is a public footpath on the map that heads west from here but I can’t spot any signs. Also according to the map, the footpath doesn’t follow the coast but heads inland past Mocketts Farm - a business that seems to have covered the Isle of Harty with signs saying ‘keep out’, ‘private property’, ‘trespassers will be shot’, etc!

My plan, therefore, is to skirt the base of the hill at the edge of the marsh until it reaches an embankment that becomes a public footpath after a mile or two.

There is a gap in the bushes - this must be the path…

Then it turns into this…

Fortunately after a few yards it stops being overgrown and looked like this…

I make good progress along the edge of the marsh and in less than fifteen minutes reach the embankment.

This is nice and easy to walk on and half an hour later I am at Bells Pumping Station. This installation blocks the path and forces a short detour inland. First I have to climb over this gate…

…then it is a short walk to the pumping station itself…

As you can see, this is well fenced off. Here you have to turn right along a cinder track to Little Bells farm, where you can pick up a public footpath for the rest of the walk.

The cinder path…

And the public footpath heading south-west away from Little Bells…

After about twenty minutes I reach the boundary of the Elmley Nature Reserve. This is over three thousand acres of privately owned nature reserve that can be visited for a day, or you can stay in a hut or cabin. They also do weddings. And, as I was about to discover, it’s also a working farm.

I had decided to follow the public footpath across the reserve rather than go all the way round on the embankment. Mostly because it was clearly public access route, but it also offered a slightly better surface to walk on.

The first part of the Elmley Reserve is called Spitend Marshes. So I cross the stile and set off across the field noting that there are some cows in the distance. I’m always a bit wary of cows and don’t really like getting too close, so I hoped they weren’t on the actual path. As I get closer I can see that, of course, they are. Not only that, they are clustered around a gate which I have to go through to get over one of the many small creeks and watercourses which cover the marshes. And the other side of the gate, standing on the bridge, is an absolutely enormous bull!

Bollocks!

I wander off around the field to see if I can find an alternative route, but every direction has a watery end. I return to the stile for a sit down, a bit of lunch, and a think.

After a while the cows, and more importantly the bull, seem to have wandered off to a different part of the field. I pick up my rucksack and set off briskly along the track! Over the bridge and I can see the cows about two hundred yards away with the bull lying down in the middle of the herd. As I walk I try to calculate how fast a bull can cover the distance and how far I am from the end of the path. 

Eventually I reach safety…

Looking back with the cows in the distance…

The other side of the derelict building is another gate and, oh no, another field of cows! By this time I’ve had enough of cows! From this field, however, I can cut across to the coastal embankment via a small bridge with a stile. This will keep a watercourse between me and even more cows in the distance.

Me this side, cows on the other…

Fifteen minutes walking along here brings me to the main part of the Elmley Reserve. There is a well-maintained cinder path to walk along with no cow-access, and benches, bird-hides, and so on. Very pleasant!

At this point I get a little bonus. Flying overhead is the Lancaster bomber from the historic Battle of Britain Flight of the RAF, presumably on its way to an air show. The engines make a great sound!

At Sharfleet Creek the path heads inland to Kings Hill Farm. The map shows a public footpath that follows the coast more closely but this seems to be temporarily closed to protect nesting birds, so I head for the farm.

The farm is the main hub of Elmley and there is a car park, a hotel, and various glamping options…

I walk through the car park and turn left along a path heading back to the Swale. On the way I pass another derelict building called the Old School House. This and the farm buildings are all that remain of a 19th Century industrial village, although looking at the area today you would never guess that it existed!

The path goes around another wetlands area next to the Swale…

…before reaching an embankment that will take me the rest of the way to the Kingsferry Bridge…

On the way, I leave the Elmley reserve…

…and have a look at Ridham Dock across the water which has to be by-passed on the next walk…

At last, the Sheppey Crossing and Kingsferry Bridge…

Now, there isn’t technically a footpath to get from one side of the bridge to the other. So you have two choices. You can either walk a mile up the lane to Straymarsh Farm and then a mile back down the road, or you can go under the bridge if the tide is low enough!

I choose to go under the bridge, although when I see the state of it I question that decision!

At the end of the footpath I turn left down here…

The ground under the bridge is very boggy ‘estuary mud’…

This I was expecting, but I am surprised to find that a four feet deep trench had been dug all the way to the water! The photo doesn’t really do it justice…

The sides of the trench are quite steep and the mud is very soft so at every step my foot sinks into it. A brief muddy scramble and I’m out the other side. As I turn and look back, the Battle of the Somme comes to mind…

So that’s the Isle of Sheppey done! Five walks and about thirty miles, give or take. Its been mostly great, with a couple of dodgy bits…