The Journeys of a Junior Walking Challenge Star!

Great Stour Way

29th July 2019

During the summer holiday, we had a very busy little boy, Bailey, venturing and exploring Kent to achieve all 3 of the Junior Walking Challenges, Bronze (5km), Silver (7.5km) and Gold (10km) and win his certificates! Throughout the summer Bailey and his family explored some of Kents finest and most beautiful areas all while helping Bailey on his Junior Walking Challange! Read Baileys Blogs below, all about what he got up to on all three of his wonderful walks that he completed to win his certificates!

Bronze Walking Journey...

I visited Shorne Woods country park on a lovely sunny day.

Me and my sister got a trail sheet from the visitor centre. At the start of our walk, we followed the brown arrows of the heritage trail. We completed the trail and got a prize at the end of our walk.

The first part of the trail took us over the bridge, past the sensory garden and into the woods.

We wanted to make the walk longer and reach 5k so decided to follow the green explorer route. We discovered a special ring of seats which on the map told us it was a faerie ring.

I picked a few blackberries on the way round.

We had to climb a lot of steps to reach the top of the hill. Sometimes there are cattle grazing at the top but there wasn’t on our walk this time.

The walk also took us past lots of play equipment. I nearly made it to the top of the pole.

We then had a lovely play in the large play area and had an ice cream.

Silver Walking Journey...

In the summer holidays i visited one of my favourite country parks, Jeskyns.  There is an amazing wood that joins onto Jeskyns so we parked in the car park and set off to find the woods.

Ashenbank Woods is one of my favourite Woods as there are so many exciting things to discover that make it different from other woods. It is educational too with information boards around the woods.

There are loads of really cool dens to play in and fallen trees to play on. Some even have steps built into them which are fun to climb over.

I even discovered an exciting rope swing attatched to the trees.

Some of the trees in Ashenbank Woods have the most amazing bark that makes cool patterns. I always look out for this tree when I walk here as it’s my favourite.

Once we had done a full loop of the woods we went back into Jeskyns and walked to the pond. I love visiting the pond as there are hundreds of goldfish there.

There are also 2 play areas to have fun in and an activity trail you can follow too. So we had a whole day of fun and managed to walk 7.5km too.

Gold Walking Journey...

The start of the walk took us through big apple orchards full of colourful blossoms of pink and white.

We then joined the Stour Way, which was signposted well and followed this. It took us across a farmers field which had been ploughed recently, but the dry weather had dried out the huge tractor tracks so it was great fun taking giant steps over them all.

The Stour way continued into grassy land with drainage channels around us. As we walked 3 swans flew overhead and landed a few fields away but minutes later a whole flock of swans with about 22 birds in it came soaring over our heads. It was the biggest flock that any of us had ever seen before. It was an amazing sight.

Then we crossed a bridge over a stream and when I looked in it there were 2
of the biggest water boatmen I have ever seen.

There were a few times we had to cross the railway line so we were very careful and always listened out for trains.

The path continued past the river where houseboats were moored.

After crossing the train track one last time we headed up a steep woodland path arriving at Richborough Fort where we had a picnic. We had completed half of our walk. It was fun exploring the ruins and especially hiding in the ditches, we also looked around the museum and played Billy Goats Gruff on the big wooded bridge.

After a couple of hours at the fort we continued the second half of our walk, picking up the Saxon shore way footpath.

On the way back we walked through fields and horse paddocks and even on a path made from crushed shells.

It was a fantastic walk and in the end we walked 6 1/2 miles. I enjoyed exploring parts of Kent I hadn’t been to before.

 

If you like the sound of Bailey’s adventure, you and your family can join in with Explore Kent’s very own Junior Walking Certificates.

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