Making the most of the last days of Summer, Brockwell Swimmers headed to Canterbury for another route from the Wild Swimming Walks book. Meeting at Brixton Station we headed for St Pancras for the start of our journey picking up Margaret Dickinson who happens to be the editor of the book. A very useful adition to the party as she knew the way, and had a proper map. Now why didn’t we think of that?

Having arrived at Canterbury West Station, and meeting more walkers, we then had to negotiate our way out of the town. Not exactly easy, but managed this eventually and onto the Crab and Winkle Way which is the disused railway line taking us North to our coastal destination.

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As suggested in the book, we popped into the lovely little church of Blean on the way, with it’s barn-like beamed ceiling, stained glass windows and graves dating back to the 18th Century. Very, very pretty.

Next we had to negotiate the field with the bull, which for Chris in his bright red shirt was a little scary. But we made it in the end, circumnavigated the beast and crawled under a locked gate. Then a hunt for the very overgrown footpath, after which we arrived at Clowes Wood. I must admit we did get a little lost here but luckily we had Margaret and her trusted map and so managed to emerge the right side of the trees.

The walk continued into Swalecliffe, where we had a refreshing pint at the pub before strolling down to the beach where we found a sign saying “Water Polution Incident, Do Not Swim”. Damn!

Undeterred we headed West to Whitstable in the hope of finding swimmable water, which we did. And what fun it was too. High tide, a little choppy and 19°C it made the perfect ending to a perfect day.