Rambling Man Walks The North Downs Way: Following the pilgrims from Farnham to Dover

By Andrew Bowden

Andrew Bowden was unemployed and getting tired. Tired of looking for jobs. Tired of thinking about what to say for interviews. Tired of visiting the Job Centre to justify why they should give him some money. Tired of sitting in front of the computer all day waiting for that elusive offer of gainful employment to appear. Tired. So very tired. And that was just after three weeks of doing it.

So, in-between scouring the job ads, he decided to go for a walk on the North Downs Way. When not bombarding employers with CVs, or attending interviews, he headed off on a series of day hikes, exploring the south of England, before finally arriving in Dover, about to face one of the biggest changes of his life.

One even harder than trying to talk to a recruitment agent called Tim.

And for those who are inspired to walk the trail themselves, there's also a guide to planning your own North Downs Way walk.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Andrew Bowden
• Release date: Sep 7, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301829408

Book preview

Rambling Man Walks

The North Downs Way

Following the pilgrims from Farnham to Dover

Andrew Bowden

Text and photographs ©2013 Andrew Paul Bowden

All rights reserved

The right of Andrew Bowden to be identified as the Author of the work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998.

First published 2013 by Andrew Bowden

Published by Rambling Man

ramblingman.org.uk

For Sam

Contents

Note from the Author

Introduction

Farnham to Guildford

Guildford to Westhumble

Westhumble to Merstham

Merstham to Otford

Otford to Cuxton

Cuxton to Hollingbourne

Hollingbourne to Wye

Wye to Etchinghill, on the south loop

Etchinghill to Dover, on the south loop

Wye to Canterbury, on the north loop

Canterbury to Dover, on the north loop

Planning Your Own Trip on the North Downs Way

About the author

Discover other books by Andrew Bowden

Connect with Andrew Bowden

Note from the Author

Opened in 1978, the North Downs National Trail crosses across the North Downs from Farnham in Surrey, to Dover in Kent. It runs for 153 miles.

Close to London, the trail has excellent rail links meaning it's easy to walk in a series of day hike. And that's exactly how I walked it over the course of a year between 2011 and 2012.

If you are feeling inspired to walk the North Downs Way yourself, at the back you'll also find a guide to planning your own trip.

intro

Introduction

A nice walk. Peace. Quiet. Rest. Tranquillity. I nodded in agreement with myself as three cars zoomed noisily past at 60mph.

Yes. A chance to relax and clear the head. Release all the stresses; temporarily remove all the worries.

A huge lorry picked up speed in an attempt to beat the changing traffic lights, forcing me to scurry back from the crossing.

Carefree. No one to see, nothing to do but relax for a few hours. I took a side road, began to move away from the traffic, just as a red car screeched round the corner.

I stood for a moment, attempted to calm down. As I stood, the road noise abated before abruptly being replaced by the sound of the Crystal Maze theme tune rendered badly by a battered mobile phone.

Hi, Andrew, a disembodied voice shouted out. It's Tim from Crackington and Planer recruitment agents. We spoke last week about a job. Well the good news is that they want you in for an interview.

I released an inner sigh, put on my best That's great news! voice and began to wish I'd left my mobile at home.

---

It was August 2011 and I was unemployed and getting tired. Tired of looking for jobs. Tired of thinking about what to say for interviews. Tired of visiting the Job Centre to justify why they should give me some money. Tired of sitting in front of the computer all day waiting for that elusive offer of gainful employment to appear. Tired. So very tired. And that was just after three weeks of doing it.

I was getting worried. Not about the job - I'd taken redundancy from my previous role and had enough money to live on for the time being - but more that I had run out of goals to achieve. I'd had some holidays, walked across Scotland and now I was just job hunting most of the time. And job hunting is tiring.

Obviously, I needed something to do. I'd tried doing some day walks in order to get out of the house but just wandering around the south east of England wasn't cutting it for me. I needed a goal. I needed to achieve something.

But what? I couldn't go away anywhere as I needed to be scouring job ads and sending my CV off left right and centre. No, I needed a goal that I could attack in bits and pieces; day long chunks that, when assembled together, would make a perfect whole. The North Downs Way was the obvious answer.

Running across Surrey and Kent the North Downs Way follows, funnily enough, the North Downs over 153 miles of the South East's countryside, from Farnham to Dover. Whilst it can, obviously, be done all in one go or in two or three chunks, the fact that it frequently crosses over train lines and visits towns and villages with a rail link means it's especially easy for the London based walker to complete by doing a series of day long hikes. With a few exceptions, it's easy just to leap on a train in a spare day, do a full days walking and then head back in time for tea.

And that why I was stood next to an elaborately carved signpost at a road junction with the A31 in Farnham that denoted the start of the whole thing, attempting to relax. And talking to Tim of course.

day1

Farnham to Guildford

A junction of the busy A31 dual carriage way just outside of the town of Farnham is perhaps not the most exciting place to start a walk. But that's where the North Downs Way begins, and so that was where I stood admiring the elaborate finger post that started me on the way to Dover.

The fact that the route initially started heading straight down the aforementioned busy dual carriageway really didn't inspire much either, but soon the North Downs Way had headed off down a tree lined track, cautiously moving further and further from the rumbling noise of the traffic. After managing to finally terminate my conversation with Tim and his offers of job interviews I breathed a huge sigh of relief, glad to be away from the stresses and worries of trying to find employment; able to concentrate instead

Reviews for Rambling Man Walks The North Downs Way

[caroline greenwood · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Didn't make the walk sound very appealing,but then again it wasn't! Not really a reflections on life book or guide so is what it is.