September 8. Eynsford to Wrotham Heath.  19.5 grueling km on the A20.

We just love Eynsford, with its quintessential sweet shop, ford across the River Darent and the Castle Hotel.

Cars go over the single lane ancient bridge while trucks, busses and tractors go through the ford. This would never be allowed in Canada as there are fish in the stream but we saw plenty of trout just a few feet away from the ford.

How sweet is this? Putting out a water bowl and a treat box for the neighbourhood doggies! And talk about a door with curbside (literally) appeal.

And then, oh, the irony.  Following the Pilgrim’s Way/Francigena Brittannica was going to be about 19 km, and because we are still struggling a bit, we decided to walk on the cycling path beside the A20 to shorten the day considerably.   We started up and up and up a very very long hill, which Scott promised would be the last (he lied!). And the path was good up to the village where we grabbed some lunch.   Looked okay going down out of the village but then.  More climbing and the path suddenly would end and continue on the other side of the road, so we had to make multiple mad dashes across the extremely busy highway (there was a lorry on fire on the parallel freeway and traffic was rerouted). No rhyme or reason.  But another climb and then the path just randomly stopped. We had to backtrack 1/2 km back down the hill to Terry’s Lodge Road and detour around down a very scary winding road before we reached a foot path. By then Peter had blisters and was walking very slowly.  Crankiness was imminent. And in the end, we still did more than 19 km.  Heavy sigh.

You always have to make the best of things and pay attention to the small stuff. There was a veritable fruit and nut market lying on the path – highlight cranberries, plums, acorns, hazelnuts, chestnuts, horse chestnuts, apples, rosehips, even pears, crunching our feet along the way…not to mention wildflowers.

We were so looking forward to a pint (well, Ken was) and a meal at The Bull Hotel in Wrotham (Rootem), a favourite of ours from 2022 but alas it wasn’t open yet. So Ken made do with the charming Rose and Crown.  3 km more (heavy sigh), back on the A20 (with a path again) to the Pretty Maid House B&B.  Whew!

Banana milkshake.

I think there are sheep in that field.

Ken wants you to pay close attention to the fine print on the Grumpy sign above my head.

At least there were a few blackberries to eat along the way.

Wild cyclamen.

England is full of these blue plaques on houses, stating where someone famous lived (or was born or died).  Our host put one up about himself (note he was very much alive and truly was a great chef)…and a thoroughly nice bloke indeed!

A lady after my own heart. The house was FULL of hedgehogs. I mean the figures along the staircase and not the guy at the bottom of the stairs.

After begging Scott to run across the road for Chinese, we stuffed our faces with lemon chicken and fried rice, decided on the next day’s route, treated blisters and fell into bed.  A bit of a tiring day because of the ugly traffic but…we made it.