Day 38 – Saturday 5 May 2001 - Gillingham to Queenborough, Isle of Sheppey

13 miles walked today

476.5 miles walked in total (average 12.53)

Vicky and I left Worthing this morning at 9.15 am and, after driving around Gillingham town centre three or four times to try and find somewhere to park, we started walking at eleven o’clock.

The weather today could only be described as bracing!  Very sunny, but very breezy.  I lost count of how many fleeces that Vicky was wearing at any one time!  The stretch towards the country park took us right along the waterside and the tide was right in to the sea wall.  We had our first sit down on Horrid Hill, which wasn’t very hilly, or horrid now I come to think about it.

We were on footpaths again today, which are now open after the worst of the foot and mouth outbreak is over.  This stretch of coast, though, is very marshy with little or no footpaths around the edge, so eventually we got back on roads, through Otterham Quay to Upchurch, where we sat down to eat lunch in the middle of the church yard.  It had warmed up considerably by this time and we found a sunny little spot to sit in and listen to the birdsong and the lawn mowers from the neighbouring gardens.

After our lunch stop, it was roads again and we stopped at the Three Tuns in Lower Halstow for a quick drink before heading on to Iwade along a road that hugged the coast.  We checked the Ordnance Survey map and located the paths that we could take once we’d crossed the Kingsferry Bridge over to the Isle of Sheppey, but all paths on the island are still closed because of foot and mouth.  Bugger!  So we stayed on the main road which was quite hairy as there were some huge lorries threatening to gather us up in their slipstream!  To add to the traffic chaos, there was also an accident on the bridge and we had to negotiate a police car/ ambulance obstacle before we could continue.

Elmley Marsh Nature Reserve takes up a lot of the island and we saw lots of geese, swans, ducks, rabbits and a heron in flight.  Not to mention all the horses, cows and noisy sheep we’d seen earlier.  A day full of wildlife!

We staggered along to the railway station at Queenborough, on slightly quieter roads now, to catch the train back to Gillingham and a taxi back to the car.

Immediately we were back in the car, we were lost again so spent an hour or so trying to find our B&B – we now know the Medway towns very well indeed!  The B&B was very good and the landlady very friendly, despite accusing us of being mad for walking thirteen miles.  However, she did turn her attention to a couple who had cycled fifty miles from London on a pilgrimage to Canterbury.  So we were only second in the “nutter” stakes – what a disappointment!