England Coast Path Part 20 Iwade to Gillingham

Distance 12 :19 miles

Elevation gain  405 Feet

Time 4:20

Back in the county of Kent for another section of the coast path we are yet again blessed with a bright sunny day. We walk through a housing estate & fields until we reach the England coast path before we start Strava to record our walk.

The route is not well signposted although it appears to be well trodden & obvious but we soon find ourselves off route going through a private yard, The lady is quite pleasant  but obviously not happy that we are in her farm yard.

She points us in the right direction but we seem to be in the centre of a cricket pitch it is sign posted as a footpath so walk on through, This route is not as well trodden & quite thickly covered in brambles & various other vegetation.

We soon find ourselves on the dock side by the Edith May barge tea rooms grounded on the mud as its low water. Hugging the coast line we progress on  past Frog Farm & on to Shore gate lane where the path turns inland past Horsham Lake The Brown Jug public house & back to the waters edge, Barlett creek.

we are in Kent the garden of England & the apple trees are laden with fruit & a similar amount of wind fall apples are laying on the floor.

Nearing the end of our walk we pass through the strand leisure park where families are enjoying the sun.

A little bit of road plodding & we arrive at Gillingham train station our destination for the day.we take te train back to Kemsley.

Route

England Coast Path Part 19 Sittingbourne to Iwade

Distance 10:43 miles

Elevation gain 109 feet

Time 3:39

We start our walk outside Sittingbourne train station and have to do some road walking past some industrial areas, car showrooms, McDonalds  past an old disused elevated concrete road crumbling now fenced off, (Sittingbourne Viaduct) its here that we turn off into a proper industrial estate with rats & rubbish lining the street.

Then to our right a lovely little gate into the Milton creek country park along an industrial fence line eventually opening up into vast expanse of water, The Milton Creek. 

                       We follow the creek for a few miles as it slowly gets wider & wider 

                            Sign posts along the way indicating the direction of the river 

There are some big ships on this expanse of water bringing in goods with large conveyer belts & cranes to transfer the raw materials for the British Gypsum factory from ship to shore.

The bridge is huge & in our sights for many miles before we finally pass under it  past a yacht club across farm land  continuing  into fields separated by the meander's with the bridge still visible behind us. 

Dry cracked pond bed

                                         Sharing the Saxon shore way with the Ecp

                                                  Another rotting hulk in the mud

Finishing our days walking just outside Iwade we get a bus back to Sittingbourne station. another section completed.
 

Route

England Coast Path Part 18 Faversham to Sittingbourne

 Distance 15.47 Miles

Elevation gain 84 Feet

Time 5:27

Back in Kent we are again walking the ECP we are some way inland due to the River the Faversham creek it's high levies with flat tops are perfect to walk on, giving us commanding views over the land scape.

                           Muddy foreshores with the ships sitting on the dry river bed 

                                               Skellington ships rotting in the mud 

                                                                Grey clouds 

                                                                    A cold statue

                                                                    Orchards

Route

England Coast Path Part 6B Emsworth to Portsmouth

 16:23 Miles

Time 5:22:02

Elevation Gain 113 Feet

We have a long one today but it's a nice day & the scenery again is fantastic. A few miles in we come to a little river with some ducklings & Signets looking for food, So cute.

More miles under our feet & then it happened!

The sea wall had collapsed  & the tide was coming in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The tide was coming in! FAST!! 

No time to loose....

Already Too deep for boots so Quick! 

Get those boots & socks off, pronto!

Boots & socks off N strung around our necks we wade through the fast incoming tide. The water with a hellishly strong current, rushing in, the water already up to our knees & rising, we make it across but any later & we would have had to turn back, Phew.

Now dried off & getting socks & boots back on to our feet we ready to continue the journey with our adrenaline level's receding back to normal. 

we continue along the sea wall without any further dramatic incidents.

Trees full of golden berries

Arriving in Portsmouth with an overcast sky the spinnaker can just be  made out in the distance.

A ww2 D-day landing craft

We made it another day complete