RAMBLE AT MEDWAY

A RAMBLE ALONG THE MEDWAY AND ON TO EAST FAREIGH

On Sunday 9th May 2004, David Foot, Alison Lanaway, Mervyn Wright, Lesley Gausden, Alan Paull, Adam Foot, Jamie Paull, Thomas Paull and I turned up at Teston Bridge picnic site car park. The day before there was a lot of rain for all day so some of ramblers felt not sure about the weather as it was still cloudy in the morning but no rain! We waited for another half an hour to see if more ramblers would arrive. We had a nice mug of tea from a refreshment caravan. At 11.30am we decided not to wait any longer for latecomers so we off went for a long walk.

We walked across the road to join a footpath in a field beside the Medway River. There were some bulls but they wouldn’t hurt a fly, we walked on a good, wide footpath, which made us easy to chat to each other together. We passed the Baring Bridge with some boats mooring in the river. We walked along the river that took us two miles then we arrived at a narrow and very old East Farleigh Bridge. It was built in 1648. We took great care as it was extremely busy with cars and then walked into East Farleigh. We went on to a steep hill then turned right at a pub and walked along the main road. Soon after it, we saw some beautiful Oast houses on the left-hand side of the road and there was a public footpath sign again that we followed. Suddenly something caught our attention it moved fast then we realised it was some rabbits running away. We carried on walking through a field up to a stile to go over and through a small orchard then saw some lovely black and mixed coloured pigs. Their hair was strong like a broom! We continued to join main road again, turned left and walked up the road. Then turned right at a public footpath and walked up some steps.

We looked at a map and we felt not quite right about the way we were going. We did our best by moving on a little different way to find a right place but we didn't. Eventually we managed to find a track-road. We continued until we found a pub, called ‘Good Intent’ for our break time.

Everybody was glad to have a rest time now with a nice lunch, Alan, Jamie, Thomas and Lesley had a nice roast dinner but David, Alison and Adam brought their own lunch. Mervyn and I had nice thick sliced bread ham sandwiches from the pub. Of course, all of men have a lager except Alan who had only orange juice, ha ha. Alan and Lesley said their roast dinner was delicious as well as a dessert. We had a nice chat for one hour then suddenly the sunshine came out and we felt warm.

After lunch we started to walk again by joining a footpath then Adam, Jamie and Thomas were a bit naughty by trying to pull some of the adult's legs to make them trip over. Although adults did managed to defend themselves but unfortunately David had a fall. He got some mud on his clothes and soaked by wet grass – oh, poor him! We carried on walking through the field. We joined the road and turned right down to the junction then across to the ‘Tickled Trout’ pub, which was very busy at lunchtime. We went through a kissing gate and walked down the field, went over a stile and turned right. We followed the path down to the bottom of the field and over the stile that lies to the right of the wartime pill box.

We turned left then passed lovely Tutsham Mill cottage. We joined another field, there was hundreds of sheep. Adam, Jamie and Thomas were running to try to catch a sheep but they managed to run away quickly from them so they gave up. We continued to walk through the field to join Medway River again. David, Alison, Mervyn, three boys and I stopped about 800 yards ahead of Alan and Lesley as they walked slower due to their large lunch we thought.

We reached the Bow Bridge then turned right and crossed the Bridge and saw lot of boats mooring and plenty of swans. Then right again back to car park but Alan and Lesley were still a long way behind due to walking much slower, ha ha! We carried on walking beside the river, and then we saw a swing hanging by a tree. Lesley enjoyed the swing. She was in her 50's - wow!!!. Alan had a bit of a moan and asked me how long before we get back to the car park. So I said it should not be long. He said he felt he had enough of walking and was tired – oh, poor old man.

At last we arrived at the car park after four hours walking for six and a half miles. We felt it was a longer walk than we had last time. All of us had mud right up to ours knees. Oh dear, Alan brought his trainer shoes with him and they were now full of mud and dirty. We hope he learnt his lesson! Ha ha. We had another nice mug of tea again for a while before we left for home. A few minutes later it begun to rain – oh, how lucky for us to have dry weather for all day. We had a smashing time.

Richard Monk, Ramble Leader.