Day 42 – Saturday 9 June 2001 - Faversham to Herne Bay

15 miles walked today

523 miles walked in total (average 12.45)

Today didn’t start too promisingly – I was run over by a small boy on a bicycle in Faversham High Street!  I quickly decided to leave civilisation and head out to a child/ bicycle free zone.  Faversham is certainly a pretty little town and I passed some very well cared for cottages on my way out to the creek.  I had my map in my rucksack for back up purposes, but was following my Saxon Shore guide book, which gave the route in the minutest detail.  I couldn’t possibly get lost with these instructions.

After an hour’s walking along the creek, which was very peaceful – no other walkers about – I came to the boundary of the South Swale Nature Reserve.  Disaster struck, or, more correctly, foot and mouth.  Luckily, it wasn’t too far to backtrack to a small lane out to Graveney.  From here, it was lanes out to the coast and a point where I could pick up the path again.

The weather was excellent – quite cool, but very sunny.  Not too many signs of the rain that had been forecast all week.  There were plenty of sailors out – I saw two Thames barges out at sea – and fishermen digging for worms in the mud.

I got to Whitstable by walking along the prom from Seasalter.  When I got there, I stopped for a couple of hours to explore the town and the harbour.  I really liked Whitstable – it reminded me a lot of Hastings old town and both towns have the old net drying sheds and the fishing boats.  Whitstable is famous for its oysters and there are many reminders of this – from salvaged oyster fishing boats to the Royal Native Oyster Stores, originally stores but now a restaurant and cinema.  Unfortunately, I was a month early for the annual Oyster Festival, held in July.

Heading out to Tankerton, I stopped at the Tea Gardens set on the beautifully landscaped slopes going down towards the sea.  As if I hadn’t sat down enough today!  Further along the prom at Tankerton, I stopped to talk to a group of sponsored walkers heading the other way – from Herne Bay to Seasalter.  It was good to see so many of them, kids included. 

Herne Bay was reached along the prom from Tankerton and it started to get quite grey as I headed along.  Herne Bay’s pier was the second largest in England, after Southend, but most of it has burnt down.  The end of the pier is still there, but it looks very odd stuck out at sea on its own.

As I got to the station (which was, very annoyingly, a bit of a trek out of town), the rain came down.  Very well timed!