16 assembled on a sunny day - T shirt weather, surprising for late October. Not entirely perfect, though. Water had fallen from the sky and, in some fields, it had interacted with the ground to form what is called ‘mud’. Not too bad, but Mr Tiger’s boots are pristine no more.

Some ate in Shipbourne churchyard. The Chaser had said they were ‘fully booked’ to those who rang but the spacious garden had empty tables and orders were taken. The food looked sumptuous and, by all accounts, it was. Mr Tiger got himself a pint of ‘Bonkers Conkers’ and sat next to someone with chips. It wasn’t long before they turned into a kindly benefactor.

Service was a bit erratic.One person’s meal arrived just as we were fixing to go.We left him there cos that’s the kind of people we are.

One or two, maybe three, were heading for Tonbridge and were never seen again. About six paid a second pub visit to the Kentish Rifleman. Mr Tiger realised to his horror that the group he’d joined were taking a shortcut that avoided that establishment.

Eventually, Hadlow was reached. Some went straight for the bus. Others took a stroll round Broadview Gardens. Interesting despite having an air of neglect.

A glimpse at the tower, now sealed off from the public, then home. All agreed, a grand day out.

A lovely misty start redolent of old poems like Horses by Ted Hughes.

.... And I saw the horses:

Huge in the dense grey — ten together —

Megalith-still. They breathed, making no move.........

The mist cleared by the sun never happened as the sun never made it out and the day was grey and damp for the most part.

Lunch was at Shipbourne during which we dried off shoes and socks by the fire and discussed bailing out with a bus from there but in the end decided to continue to Hadlow.

For all the the greyness the day was lovely and a thoroughly enjoyable walk and we wouldn't have had any rain at all if it hadn't been for a newbie out of the blue announcing 'Well we seem to have dodged the rain'. Four of us dashed to touch wood which to a great extent nipped the damage in the bud and we only had a few spots of rain. Three of us had tea and the other four took the bus before us 7

Grey but great day.

Anyone planning to go?

Yes

I missed the scheduled train and did catch up with, if any, other walkers. So number of walkers i can report 1

As I was running late, I didn't stop at either of the recommended pubs, so the rest of the group may have been in one of them. Walking across fields was tough going with mud clinging to the boots.

At Hadlow I caught the bus to Tonbridge as the light was fading.

overcast

22 departed from Hildenborough station. A hot and humid morning becoming sunnier and hotter as the day wore on. Most of us opted for lunch at the Kentish Trooper where we sat in the garden. Despite initially being somewhat overwhelmed by a sudden influx of walkers and locals, the pub coped admirably, delivering our food with commendable speed and good grace. After a longish break (it was that sort of day) 15 or so of us set out together on the afternoon leg. Five(?) decided to finish at Hadlow and were last seen heading for the Broadview Gardens tea room. The rest of us decided to press on to Tonbridge where one of our number, acting on a hunch found an excellent little tea room (Beyond the Grounds - http://beyondthegrounds.com/ ) overlooking the river and castle on the other side of Big Bridge. The two staff here dealt with our incessant demands for tea (in copious quantities), cake (very nice) and hot and cold water with good humour. Thus refreshed we departed for the train back to the London.

After Hadow Tower, you could also detour to the PM of the Tonbridge Circular walk, passing Tudeley Church and it's fabulous Chagall windows: http://www.tudeley.org

It's open until 6pm over summer (until the clocks go back).

Tudeley church is on the morning of the Tonbridge Circular walk, not the afternoon. You could do this section in reverse to return to Tonbridge, but even if you took the short cut at Five Oak Green this would more than double the length of the walk, from 13¼ km to about 27 km.

The Tonbridge Circular was posted on two Saturdays in 2015 and I'm rather pleased to see that Walker has chosen to give an outing to its relatively neglected cousin.

A curiously slow and gentle day out.

Out of 30 people on the walk there was 1 who got an earlier train and 2 arrived on a later train Train dropped us into a sunny with a light breeze day so excellent walking weather and dry under foot which made for ankle breaking journeys across several fields of ploughed hardened mud though as far as I know the day was without incident.

Incident free ( even for the sock and sandal crew ) the walk is nice and gentle with no real slopes and very green views throughout.

Throughout there are excellent foragong options for the last knockings of blackberries and a patch of plentiful hedgerow damsons which delayed a few walkers who seemed to be trying to make this their lunch

Lunch at The Kent Rifleman was good though service slow but ameliorated by a friendly barman and server and nice food at reasonable prices.

Prices for tea at the Hadlow Garden Centre were standard but don't bother with the chocolate cake ( toooo dry ) and a poor selection of teas and extremely slow service, served I would guess by students from Hadlow Agricultural College but otherwise it was fine ?

Fine for most of us to get the bus at Hadlow but 6 people or so did the extra 5 miles to Tonbridge with one miraculously being on the station at Tonbridge when we got there.

There were loads of orchard and windfalls on the last part of the walk acording to the walker who beat us to Tonbridge where it turns out though it is a fair size twon there is no cinema

Cinema beckoned to a couple of the walkers who spent some time sussing out the cheapest Bridget Jones Baby and ended choosing Shepherds Bush which seemed to fit the bill

Bill wasn't on the walk this time

Time – too much on my hands