This blog recently celebrated its 3rd birthday! And what is a more fitting way to celebrate than to kick off a brand new journey for 2023. It was a toughie, but the lure of Kent has proved too much and I've set my sights on the Saxon Shore Way.
The SSW is around 260km (about 160 miles) from Gravesend in Kent round the coast to Hastings in East Sussex. Contrary to what the name suggests, it follows the coast as it would have been in the later period of Roman Britain, around 1500 years ago. The Romans were plagued by Saxon raiders along the coast and they created a line of forfitications to repel them; the SSW traces this line and includes four Roman forts built in the fourth century. There were no North Kent marshes, Thanet was still an actual island and Romney Marsh was under the sea back then, so chunks of the route will be inland.
There will be plenty of familiar ground from travels on the Ways both Old and Greensand and I think by the end of this I will be officially Hamstreet's most seemingly-enthusiastic tourist judging by the number of times I will have gone through it. The place is a nexus for long distance paths! And of course old friends Rye and Winchelsea. But also lovely new places to explore and marvel; despite living so close growing up I've never walked the White Cliffs and I'm looking forward to exploring more of the north Kent coastline.
On a trip last weekend to Faversham I did a quick 3 miles of the SSW and was suitably awed by its beauty. And I really do like to be beside the sea! As an added bonus, I will be road (path??) testing a new guide to the SSW for the Kent Ramblers.
The first stages being rather marshy I'm not going to start in earnest until March, to avoid the worst of the mud. But watch this space, its going to be glorious!
PS: I haven't forgotten about the Vanguard Way, I'm gonna do that too this year... just for kicks.
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