Day 2 - Crayford to Rochester

Day 2 always bid fair to be the hardest day, but I think when I look back it will also be the day I'm most proud to have done.

The area between the Thames Estuary and the Medway isn't on your traditional tourist maps, and there's a reason for that. This is the area of the Dartford Crossing, of traffic and motorways and cement factories and pollution. And much of it WAS like that - and yet it was also interesting and inspiring and the end of our day was probably the most emotional time of the whole journey for me.

We stayed in South London for the night with brother-in-law Colin and his wife and son. They were the most wonderful of hosts. We were greeted after our first day's walking with pink bubbly wine and a lovely meal then allowed to rest in comfort before being waved off for day two. I'll write some more about Colin our first "inn keeper" as he deserves a post of his own.

From their house we took the train back to Crayford Station for the beginning of our walk.

Crayford isn't a beauty spot, but the staff at their MacDonalds were as friendly as those elsewhere, and it was a convenient place to start from.

We travelled on, through Dartford which is actually a pretty town with a medieval Church, and not just a crossing. Another Church in the area wasn't quite as picturesque, but had a very good name for their toddler group!


We soon got very tired and the pavements didn't make for easy walking. When I got a friendly text from R asking "where are you now?" I'm afraid the grumpy reply was "In Gravesend where Pocahontas died". Gravesend has its merits, including a very pleasant Inn where we lunched and it's probably worth visiting on its own accord. Ebsfleet on the other hand, as my mother who is a devotee of Ashford International, doesn't yet have much to recommend it as far as I can see although the locals are presumably proud of their football team and their Bishop gets about a bit.

The lead in to Rochester itself is long. At one point I really did think we would make it to Evensong at the Cathedral on time, but it wasn't to be. There was more countryside but there was still a LOT of traffic on our final few miles and we were very tired by the time we saw the Medway. Having been at school in Maidstone and considered the river only fit to throw school hats into at the end of the school year when they were abolished, I was surprised at how emotional I was to see the river. Then again I was VERY tired, and the view from Rochester is VERY different from that from the High Level Bridge in Maidstone. The Cathedral was beautiful, welcoming, calm and restful. The clergy had included us in their prayers AND put out the b-eat information leaflets they had asked for. The choir sang "Lead Me Lord" and I wept with a combination of joy, gratitude and relief.