Guidebook Excerpt:
Charing to Wye (7 miles) .
TODAY BEGINS with a woodland walk. We then visit Eastwell Park and the enigmatic ruin of Eastwell Church, the village green at Boughton Lees and the Tickled Trout pub in Wye.
The Pilgrims Way passes along the northern edge of Charing. To reach it, walk up the High Street and turn right alongside the A252. Forty yards east of Twyford house along the A252 the Pilgrims Way leads off to the right on a lane that passes houses with names such as Little Coombe and Little Rye. For the next half mile you are walking between the grazing meadows of Pett Place Farm, with horses on one side and sheep on the other. Beech trees line this stretch. Look for tiny blue Speedwell, pink Herb Robert and white Stitchworts growing in the hedgerows. At Burnt House Farm, follow the road to the left, then to the right, to reach a woodland path just below a chalk quarry. Immediately after the quarry, take the path to the left (not the driveway to the right) and when you reach a path junction in 150 yards, go straight ahead. Good views now open up across the valley to your right.
On all but the wettest days, the next two miles are a pleasant stroll through the edge of a predominantly beech and maple woodland. On wet days, the muddy bits can generally be avoided by taking the path in the woods made by walkers just above the main track. Many older beeches were blown over in the Hurricane of 1987, and their upturned roots claw the air like stricken dragons -- mute testimony to forces beyond our control in the midst of trim gardens and tidy villages.
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