Walk 9. Hoo St Werburgh to Chatham

 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!

Once that lot is navigated, the path goes through a yacht club with a load of boats of various sizes.

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.

The path emerges at the top of the incredibly picturesque Upnor High Street…

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!

Walk 8. Stoke Airfield to Hoo St Werburgh

The start point for today’s walk is Stoke Airfield which lies just south-east of Middle Stoke. Middle Stoke, as its name suggests, is between Upper Stoke and Lower Stoke just to the west of Stoke Marshes and north of Stoke Saltings. Hope that’s all clear…!

The airfield is very small and, as I mentioned last time, seems to be used mostly by a flying club. 

Past the airfield the path continues on a grass, and only a bit muddy, bank. To the right is a railway line and to the left is the mudflats and marsh of Stoke Saltings. Apparently out there in the saltings lies the wreck of a First World War German U-Boat, although I couldn’t see anything. This was possibly due to the low sun shining from that direction!

After about ten minutes I reach Stoke Creek Crossing. More ‘Stoke’ stuff! There is a small marina here plus some wrecks in the mud…

Another ten minutes or so brings me to the end of this section of path. In front of me is a large industrial area with no public access to the coast. At the end of my last post I lied and said it was a power station. It turns out it WAS a power station but it closed in 2012. 

This end of the site is dominated by a massive Amazon warehouse…

It is guarded by this formidable barrier and some more dilapidated boats, although there is a hole to the left of the gate should anyone wish to go exploring…

To skirt this industrial area I have to cross the railway…

…go a few minutes up this road…

…across this field…

…and back across the railway line…

I now have a short stretch of road to clear the estate before heading back to the coastline. On the road I passed this memorial to the site’s former use, before it was a power station…

The route back to the coast is unclear. The English Coastal Path is well signposted, but that cuts inland at this point. There is a Public Footpath through the marshes but on the ground it disappears into six foot high reeds that look easy to get lost in!

In the end, I decide to follow the outside of the Kingsnorth fence and hope that there is a way across the stream that seems to exist at the far end just before you reach the coast. The going is very muddy…

…but eventually I reach the stream at the end. Even better, there is a way across right in front of me!

Its taken a couple of hours to reach this point so I stop for lunch on the seaward side of the Kingsnorth site.

From here it is only an easy half hour walk to my finish for the day at the marina in Hoo St Werburgh. The path is nice and flat atop a grassy bank. Perfect!

Now, you may have noticed that today’s walk has been suspiciously light on old coastal defences. Well don’t worry, they turn up along this bit! 

Out in the estuary on a small island is Hoo Fort. This was built in the 1850s to protect Chatham Dockyard and is now derelict with no public access.

There are also a couple of World War 2 pillboxes beside the path…

My walk today ends at the boatyards of Hoo marina.

A nice little walk, this one. The sun was out and it was quite mild for the time of year, so it has whetted my appetite for more after a couple of months off! Fingers crossed I can get out again soon…

Walk 7. Grain to Stoke Airfield

It will be a walk of three parts today. First we have a beach section, then a road section, and finally a marsh section!

I begin in Grain village where I pass a rather picturesque church on the way to the seafront...

A couple of minutes later I am back at the beach. The area to the north-east of the village is a Coastal Park with footpaths and benches and stuff.

The park also contains Grain Fort. This was built in the 1860s to protect the mouth of the river Medway. Today there doesn't seem to be much visible, being mostly buried under bushes and trees. It's up there, somewhere...

I have a good seawall path to walk along, and head south into the Medway Estuary. This is a view across the mouth of the estuary with Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppy in the distance...

Soon I pass Grain Tower. This is yet another Victorian-era coastal fortification, built about 500 yards from the seawall out on the mudflats. When the tide is out it is possible to walk out to it on the remains of a causeway. Naturally there are signs warning against this...

Arty atmospheric shot of path heading into Medway Estuary. You'd never think it was nearly midday, would you...

Not the obvious place for a Bonfire Night party...

Further on, the concrete path ends and I walk along the top of a grassy bank. Here I meet a random Cocker Spaniel that has obviously been swimming. He jumps and bounces around me like a canine Tigger! Is this the happiest dog in the world? Then he races off, presumably to find his owner, of whom there is no sign!

Shortly after, I reach the end of the path at a point called Cockleshell Hard on the map. Beyond this point is a power station and container port and there is no public access.

And so on to the road section of today's walk! First I have to go back the way I've come for a quarter-mile or so where there is a footpath that leads to the road round all this lot...

After a detour of nearly three miles past various huge industrial sites, I arrive at a level crossing. This is the only road on and off the Isle of Grain and has a lot of HGV traffic. As you can see in the photo, the pavement stops just before the level crossing and starts up again just past it. Which is fun...

Once safely past the railway I am into part three of the walk. This is a three mile stretch of marsh looking out over mudflats. I am expecting mud, but instead the path was nice and firm and grassy! An easy stroll!

Here is a view from the marshes looking back at the stuff I had to detour around...

And some more arty views of the Medway Estuary...

My walk today ends at Stoke Airfield, a small private field that seems to be used mostly by a flying club. 

Next time I'll be heading further down the Medway Estuary and avoiding another power station!