Preparations begin

 At last! Freedom to travel, with caveats, and a holiday much delayed is getting ever closer. Each week seems to bring a change to the destinations but at last there is a firm set of places and excursions have been booked. I am smiling and starting to get back into that frame of mind I abandoned at the end of 2019.

Time to start again, pick up where I left off, incorporate a lot of SE England exploration and a bit of 'further afield'.

 

So house is cleaned, washing pretty much all done and the garden is getting the work it needs. I'm protecting my neck as much as possible and spending my time organising the stuff I want to take with me. The vagaries of British weather is doing its best to confuse me, but its fairly warm even though we do seem to have moved into a very wet spell. Never mind, I'm excited about getting back onto a ship and this one is with a different company, so new ship too.

 

 

A road less travelled

 

Another of those glorious days, perhaps too hot to go exploring but the desire was there, the place had been researched and the car keys hung heavy in my hand; time to get going.

I am, as you might gather, forever staring at maps, reading about areas and planning routes to get there. My focus this time became a spit of land that juts out into the Swale. On one side of the spit you would see the new bridge onto the island and on the other, Dead Man's island and the village of Grain on the other. I was hooked and suggested to my best mate who is also an explorer given half the chance that this would be a good place to go. We could get the car there, park up and then take photographs, have a wander and be generally nosy.

 This image had enthralled me; what were the black lines poking out into the Swale? And all those white lines? Were they tracks? A motor cycle playground? And this Leo Bay camping place? Any good?

Too many questions so we set off, food, drink and cameras in hand. Parking up a lot further back along the spit than I thought  we could go, we had a look over the bank......Wow! and that was all I could say for the next few minutes, just Wow!

We had arrived whilst the tide was still quite high, so there was water lapping right up to the edge of the bank we were standing on. All I could see was this amazing vista of distant parts of Sheppey, Isle of Grain and beyond. It was about now I realised my binoculars were sitting very comfortably on the kitchen worktop at home! Irritating, because they would have been very useful.

Turning back I looked over to Queenborough and we could see the way in to the harbour there. Two small dingies bobbed about in the water and we noted two spare buoys, oh, no, three in fact. They'd be free mooring there as they would be beached at low tide.

Panning out, the house boat came into view. A small galleon no less with its own sundeck. At one point he came out and sat on his sunlounger, but I did wonder if our presence sent him back on board...or alternatively our presence had brought him out.

The views just went on and on but my next aim was to find that road which so mysteriously vanished behind high fencing just before the Leo Camping place, and the defunct railway line which used to run up here, exporting railway lines to wherever. One of the straight lines out into the Swale that I had seen on the map, was in fact the jetty where the ships would moor up. Originally there were a couple of cranes up there but from all accounts, all traces of them have gone.

                                        Just couldn't resist it, a closer view of the house boat....wow!

 

It was really starting to get very hot now, the temperature heading back up to 30 degrees and we were beginning to flag, but we followed the path and noted something we wanted to find, a sleeper. The hard core from between the rails was still there and every now and then a piece of an old sleeper would appear in the mud but I would imagine most, if still in one piece and serviceable, went off to be sold as were the original rails which could have been sold for scrap.

The pathway continued and although it was quite arduous to walk along, it was firm and there would be few puddles forming in the winter. One of the people who lived on the houseboats further along the spit kept the walk way open, taking his secateurs with him so he could keep the brambles down and make walking all the more pleasant.

At this point the old railway track vanished into a thicket and a slope was clear for us to go onto the road behind the barriers. This was the one which went to the end of the spit and was the one I had hoped we could take the car along. One of the houseboat people had a motor bike to get about and it became clear, this would be the easiest way up and down because you could go down the bank just in front of the gates and then back up the slope as we had done on foot.

Everywhere you looked there were butterflies and other insects. The guy with the secateurs told me there were two types of orchid on the land somewhere (he didn't say where), slow worms, various reptiles and something else I've since forgotten, but all told this did explain why this is an area of significance. I suspect at breeding time there would be a great number of wild birds coming down and ground nesting.

I noted another cleared slope to my left and wandered up to the top to see what was in that direction, and there it was, the new bridge over the Swale and onto the island. I also noticed a cut pathway....interesting, wonder who that has been done by? Its the sort of path I would expect one of the Ecological trusts to do but am not sure as yet if they own any land out here. As far as I am aware it is owned by Peel Holdings (not sure about second word there, is it Ports?) but I do know one small section at the end is owned by an ecological group.

We wandered a bit further, but to be honest we got hardly anywhere. It was just too hot by now and both of us were hungry. Our trouble is, we need longer than a few hours to do one of our nosy sessions and it was already gone 2pm. 

Oh, wow, the tide was on its way out and the sea grasses were beginning to show. Birds came down onto the mud in search of food and I dissolved into raptures of delight. 

Oh, how easy it would be to live here.

Heading back to the car we realised we didn't have chairs with us either (we really must get better organized) so we sat in the car instead of on the bank and had a later than expected lunch.

It was a wonderful nose but we decided it was no more than a quick reconnoiter for a longer  session another day.....and all I could say was, 

WOW!

 

Leybourne Lakes Country Park

The weather has been weird recently with almost monsoon style rain falling almost daily throughout June and to be honest the first part of this month so it was with great relief I was able to get out and about today. 

I've not been 100% recently as problems with my EDS has meant my neck and shoulders have been permanently screaming with pain and have prevented me doing anything that involves hanging my arms down let alone carrying things. It does make travelling around difficult and pushes me firmly towards my car. Until this flare-up calms down travelling will mean I drive there, park up, walk with as little as I can in my hands or hanging off my shoulders and don't expect to do that without painkillers and a generous coating of volterol gel.

So, the drive over to the lakes is very simple and well signposted. The main entrance is via an exclusive exit from a roundabout and clearly indicated as such when you approach. I drove in and parked up in their car park which has access to the warden's office and some toilets. Looking at the map, there are numerous ways of getting to the lakes; Snodland and New Hythe rail, car or coach and the buses 71, 215, 774, 575 and a few others which serve the lakes from the A228 main road.

 

 For those who might want to have a look at what goes on here, I have enclosed the URL for their website. All information about what goes on, the sort of sports you can take part in, the walks and the connections by rail as well as bus and car, then its all here plus much more. The map you see below is also available on the website. There was indication the Warden's office had paper versions at one time but when I was there these displays were all empty. I'm not sure if that was because they had run out or they were no longer providing paper versions.

 https://www.tmbc.gov.uk/leisure-parks/parks-leisure-facilities

The route I took is called the Ocean walk and is 2.5k long and frequented by numerous dog owners.
 

 The lakes, like many places which have become wetlands and lakes, started life as quarries. When they became redundant they were left to slowly naturalise (more by accident than design) and wildlife had a chance to re-establish itself. At some point Japanese balsam got into the waterways as it has in many places around the UK and began choking out the native plants and animals. It is quite clear there is now a war on this plant and the people who work here are doing their best to remove it and allow a more native habitat to establish. I did see a few examples of the balsam but far less than in their other country park, Haysden in Tonbridge.

 The car park is easy to navigate and the cost is very reasonable ( £1.40 for the first 4 hours and £4 after that). At least, that was the price when I was there. At the time I was there, you could still use cash to feed the meter but notices indicate it will cease to accept cash later this month and to park it is expected we will all have downloaded the RingGo app and registered with them. I have been with Park Mobile until now and I suspect the two apps have merged because once I had downloaded the app and set a new password it seemed to do the rest for me.

So on with the visit. I knew I wouldn't be able to do a great deal as I had already noted the pain in my shoulder muscle. I decided to try it anyway and as the main walk around the lake is only 2.5Km I set off with my small compact camera in the hope I might be able to get a few nice shots of the lake and the water.  Sadly, it wasn't really a day for photography. The light was flat and the sky was filled with that leaden grey which produces a nondescript light. I managed to take a few but most were dismissed as flat, boring and, well just rubbish really. I had a few left, so I have included them here.

All the lakes are interconnected by land bridges which I suspect are the original truck ways back to the main road, weigh bridges and beyond. Now they are wonderful walkways which are wide enough for those small farm trailers pulled by four wheel golfing trolley type vehicles, ferrying the people around with their equipment. Either side of these bridges are some of the lakes all of which serve specific functions; swimming, fishing, subaqua, canoeing, sailing I think and..... well check the website. The one they call the Ocean appears to be the hub for most activities.

In some areas where the banks are less steep, there are dark (and well fenced off) areas which look more like the wetlands one would expect along river banks. As we have had a very wet summer so far this year its hard to tell if this area also dries out as it does in the Haysden lake system (again, another set of disused quarries).

As I walked across one of the land bridges I realised there was a lake on the other side. This one is called Roaden Island lake and would be of great interest for bird watchers. A pair of binoculars would give a wonderful view of the island and I suspect easy sight of many of the nesting water birds. I get the impression people feed the birds as you do find you gain an audience quite quickly.

I do wonder what the vegetation is usually like. As I've said before, there has been an unusual amount of rain and the grasses and other quick, opportunist plants have grown with great vigor. This particular area appears to be a water vole release area with a narrow, wooden bridge and a shallow stream; perfect for voles and similar bank living animals. This year everything has gone mad and what one can see of the stream and perhaps traces of the water voles living there is pretty much obliterated by the reeds.

I love signposts, they act as excellent orientation points. Next time I come I anticipate walking the other way round the walk and taking the path which indicates Neville Park; I am intrigued.

One thing to bear in mind if you come here and that's the geese. They graze the grasslands and are very territorial. If you have a young child or a dog I would think about educating both not to run up and try to scare them or touch them; geese have a nasty nip and its normal for them to draw blood. They looked at me ready to gesture their displeasure at my passing them. The trick is not to look at them and to just walk past, the threat is removed if you avert your gaze. If you stare at them and they stand up tall and open their wings as they walk towards you then walk away. This is not necessarily a good photo opportunity especially if they break into a run :-)

It was only when I got to the end of the walk that the sun broke through the clouds so taking a break I sat in the car and had a cup of coffee. 

On this front, yes there is a cafe by the Ocean lake but when I passed, it seemed to do sweet things, ice cream and drinks. Unlike the cafe in Haysden Park, there wasn't the hot food that I could see or smell; I was glad I had brought my own.