The Swale and North Kent Marshes

The impromptu and spontaneous often turn out to be good. To avoid the crowds today we decided to walk another portion of the North Kent Coast this time between Teynham, Conyer Creek and Sittingbourne returning to the start by rail.

We intended to have lunch at the Ship Inn at Conyer. When we arrived they were doing a barbeque. That spontaneous decision went down very well. We reluctantly had to leave as there was another 7 miles to go to reach Sittingbourne.

There was hardly a soul about once we'd passed Conyer Marina, extras. We saw one other couple and a group of people splashing about in the Swale and that was it until we hit the last mile of the walk through the industrial estates of Sittingbourne.

Our endeavours earned us a (couple in my case) long drink at the Wetherspoons in Sittingbourne before catching the train back to Teynham.

We were hoping for a cooling sea breeze along the sea wall. Not to be as the tide was out as you can see and although there was a breeze, it was warm and from the south. Never mind, it was quiet! This stretch of the Kent Coast is fascinating, this is the third long walk here in the last few weeks. Desolate, isolated, quiet, with evidence of past activities in abundance - and people riding a bike over a muddy foreshore!

The walk was only marred by litter, as seen in the extra and the debris from a large picnic come drinking session which were strewn around the footpath near Sittingbourne. We must take gloves and a carrier bag next time altough we did clamber down to remove the balloon from the foreshore.