Green River Canoes: Garden of England

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This brochure is provided by Green River Canoes Ltd and details some of the Inn-to-Inn Guided Canoe Trips described on the website at www.greenrivercanoes.com . You can also reach us at: https://www.facebook.com/greenrivercanoes https://twitter.com/canoegreenriver For any questions please email us at info@greenrivercanoes.com or use the form at http://greenrivercanoes.com/contact-us You can subscribe to our infrequent newsletter to receive news of new trips, schedules and offers. Steven House


“Contents Green River Canoes

4

Introduction

6

2, 3 or 4 Day Garden of England Tour

9

Where We Stay

39

Canoeing

40

Hiking

41


Green River Canoes We provide Inn-to-Inn Guided Canoeing Tours on beautiful calm green rivers in the county of Kent, often called the garden of England. This brochure describes the following tour: A 2, 3 or 4 Day Tour. The tour is different from our usual tours in that the schedule & itinerary is not fixed. We have described the tour as a series of half- and full-days which can be mixed and matched to suit you. Usually our tours are all inclusive of accommodation and meals but if you decide you wish to organise you own hotel (or selfcatering accommodation) and breakfast/evening meals, then we are very happy just to organise the daily outings and lunches. We are on hand to help you choose such accommodation if you would like our advice.


All our trips are guided. Our guests will be accompanied on the river and trail by an experienced guide who knows the area and rivers well. Our other guide will accompany us in the background by driving our vehicle between lodgings. When necessary this vehicle will be transferring our luggage, meeting us for lunch and generally being available as and when needed. All the accommodation on our trips is in small local Hotels, Chambre D'Hotes or B&Bs: All our trip prices include transfers, canoe hire, accommodation (with breakfasts) all lunches and all evening meals.


Introduction This tour is run on demand so feel free to choose your own dates. The minimum tour size is 4 persons but we can provide a private tour with a surcharge. The Prices and Dates page is self explanatory and the Details and Queries page may also answer some of the more technical questions you might have. If you have further questions then please do not hesitate to contact us, we are only to happy to help. If you are a group of 4 or more then we are also happy to arrange a private trip just for your group. Provide us with the dates you would like, the itinerary you have in mind and we will do our utmost to provide it.


Although our regular and scheduled trips have a maximum of 14 guests and 3 guides, larger groups can be accommodated with private and custom trips.



2, 3 Or 4 Day Garden Of England Tour This is a mix & match tour exploring the trails and rivers of the County of Kent in S.E. England: often known as the Garden of England. On this tour you can canoe the River Stour which passes through Canterbury on the way to Sandwich, the River Medway in the north of the county and the River Rother which flows from E. Sussex into the western corner of Kent. In addition we will also hike some trails in the area: in particular a section of the Pilgrim's Way (famous from Chaucer, and also known as the North Downs Way) and a section of the Kent coast trail where we will stride over the White Cliffs of Dover overlooking the channel. .


Day to Day Schedule Day 1. Arrival and first meeting. We will meet at our hotel in the early evening and go over the details of the trip before settling down to dinner. If some of our guests arrive in the afternoon then we'd be happy to include a

short walk for them (also guided), perhaps a city walk in


Faversham itself, or a longer walk out onto Faversham Creek and the Oare Marshes. These marshes are a renowned Nature Trust site famous for bird-watching and this area is also notorious for being the setting of Dicken’s Great Expectations.


Half-Day A. Canoeing the Stour: Fordwich to Grove Ferry After a hearty breakfast we will drive to Fordwich to rendezvous with our canoe outfitter for our  paddle. We will take a leisurely meander down the river to Grove Ferry. Fordwich, during Roman times the port to Canterbury, and where in the 12 & 13c the white Caen stone used to build Canterbury

Cathedral was unloaded. It is the smallest town in England and ha s a Town Hall dating from 1555 where Shakespeare is said to have performed in one of his own plays in the upstairs chamber. The Church of St. Mary the Virgin has a sarcophagus said to contain the remains of St. Augustine who brought Christianity to England. As we paddle downstream you may notice trout swimming in the reeds beneath. Isaac Walton, author of The Compleat Angler (1653), mentions the famous Fordwich Trout.


Our meander downstream will take us past the gravel lakes at Westbere and those at the Stodmarsh National Reserve before arriving at Grove Ferry which is little more than a boat-yard and a pub. As we make our way downstream we may have to contest the tide which reaches this far upstream. Not that you will hardly notice.


Half-Day B. A hike along the White Cliffs An afternoon hike on the White Cliffs begins on the Langdon Cliffs with the Port of Dover below us and the famous Dover Castle behind. Indeed we could spend the whole afternoon visiting the castle if we wish.

This walk takes us above the White Cliffs with the Straits of Dover glittering beside us as we take the undulating path to St. Margaret’s Bay. Along the way we can visit the Fan Bay Deep Shelter which is where soldiers lived deep underground during the Second World War. We can also stop at the South Foreland Lighthouse for tea & cake. The lighthouse is also a museum and we can see the mechanisms used to rotate the light - which although it first burnt whale oil - became the first in the country to be upgraded to electricity. Marconi also experimented with radio waves from here. If we continue down to the beach at St. Margaret’s Bay we can visit the Coastguards pub or walk along the shore to see the


houses below the cliffs where Noel Coward and Ian Fleming once lived.


All-Day C. Paddling the Medway: Tonbridge Castle to Yalding The paddle begins in the town of Tonbridge, after we have had a short visit to the 11C Castle. After a mile or so we will pass out into the countryside of the Medway valley before reaching the canoe slide at Porters Lock (a portage is available too).

The riverbank is lined with Alders and Willow trees as we look out for Otters and Grey Herons. We have another small portage at Oak Weir Lock. Later we will slip under the metal Wagon Bridge and hopefully see plenty of dragonflies and damselflies in the riverside vegetation. Passing another canoe slide (or portage) at Sluice Weir Lock we

will pass through the village of East Packham, the old disused


lock at Stoneham and meander our way to Yalding where we can visit the cafe on Tea-Pot island. We disembark at Hampton Lock.


Half-Day, or Full-Day D. Hiking the Pilgrims Way: Eastling to Chilham to Canterbury We start in the village of Eastling in the Stour valley where we can visit the grave of a Plantagenet prince. The trail takes us through Challock Wood and Kings Wood with a distant view of the spires of Canterbury Cathedral. We drop down into the historic village of Chilham with its castle & church. If it's a full-day walk we wil continue on via Old Wives Lees and the many apple orchards along the way before entering the city of

Canterbury.





Full Day E. Bodiam Castle, Steam Railway, Rother River and Great Dixter Gardens For this day we drive down to the very edge of the County of Kent and visit the Castle at Bodiam. We will also visit the conserved Kent & East Sussex Railway line

at Bodiam Station and catch a Steam Train along the line to No rthiam. At Northiam we can canoe on the river Rother for a short stretch. If we have time we can also visit the famous gardens of Great Dixter, also at Northiam, and made famous by the gardener Christopher Lloyd. We'll try and fit everything into this packed day.





Half-Day F. A Visit to Canterbury Cathedral and the city We will visit the world famous and iconic Cathedral in Canterbury, including inside the church and its surrounding cloisters and garden.

Afterwards we will wander the narrow streets of the small city and discover several hidden gems, such as the Greyfriars Chapel, Blackfriars, the Norman Castle and the Westgate Gardens. We will also explore the Great Stour river which braids through the city.





Half-Day G. Canoeing the Stour: Grove Ferry to Sandwich This section of the river takes us on a meandering course from the marina at Grove Ferry through the flat country of the Wantsum Channel to the small port town of Sandwich on the Kent coast at

Pegwell Bay. If we have time we can visit Richborough Castle, the ruined remains of a Roman Fortification built by the army of


Tiberius Claudius Caesar on their arrival in Britain in AD43. This

was the site of a Triumphal Arch, the formal gateway to Brittania.


Full Day H. Canoeing the Medway: Yalding to Allington Lock This continues the paddle down the Medway to Allington which

follows a winding way past several pretty villages


Half-Day, or Full-Day I. Beach & Cliff Walk: Margate to Broadstairs This walk starts in the iconic seaside town of Margate besides the harbour and the new Tate Contemporary Gallery - we can take the time to visit an exhibition here.

After this the walk follows the coast around North Thanet passing the beautifully picturesque sand bays and white cliffs at Botany Bay, Kingsgate Bay and Joss Bay before arriving at another famous seaside resort: Broadstairs. This is also a pretty seaside town famous for the visits of Charles Dickens over many years and where he wrote ‘David Copperfield’ whilst staying at Bleak House. The 39 Steps of John Buchan and Alfred Hitchcock fame are situated in Broadstairs - allegedly used by smugglers in days gone by.



Half-Day, or Full-Day J. Crab & Winkle Walk: Canterbury to Whitstable This route follows one of Britains oldest railway lines, now a

footpath, where Robert Stevensons famous Rocket Engine once plied. In fact the railway engineering was so primitive when it was first built that a standing engine and rope was used to haul locomotives and carriages up the main hill.

The walk finishes at the port and fishing town of Whitstable, famous for its oysters.


Half-Day, or Full-Day K. St. Augustines Walk: West Stourmouth to Fordwich Augustine was the prior of a monastery in Rome when Pope Gregory the Great chose him in 595 to lead a mission, usually known as the Gregorian mission, to Britain to Christianize King Æthelberht and his Kingdom of Kent from Anglo-Saxon paganism. Kent was probably chosen because Æthelberht had married a Christian princess, Bertha, daughter of Charibert I the King of Paris, who was expected to exert some influence over her husband. Before reaching Kent, the missionaries had considered turning back, but Gregory urged them on, and in 597, Augustine landed on the Isle of Thanet and proceeded to Æthelberht's main

town of Canterbury. We shall follow in his footsteps from the hamlet of Plucks Gutter following a footpath that tracks both the Great and the Little Stour rivers past some interesting villages and churches. It also goes


through the Nature Reserve at Stodmarsh before returning to the Stour at Fordwich.



Where We Stay The Sun Inn, Faversham, Kent We shall be staying in the country market town of Faversham, 50 miles south of London on the south east coast. With plenty of history from Roman times through to it's use as a capital for Saxon Kings. Later it became famous for its Gunpowder Factories and in time Brewery. It is the home of Britains oldest brewery. These days the town has plenty of interest as you walk around. Old buildings, small individual shops, the walks down by the creek and of course its pubs. The town has a lively market on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday mornings and you can visit the Shepherd

Neame brewery. The local church of St. Mary's is famous for an u nusual flying spire and reputedly the tomb of King Stephen. The surrounding countryside is famous for its fruits, in particular apples and hops. A short distance from town is the national collection of fruit trees with over 2000 varieties of apples alone.


Canoeing All the canoes for the trips are provided by us and include paddles and a life-jacket. The price is included in the trip. We always prefer open Canadian style canoes, which are paddled in tandem - with two people aboard (usually). If you prefer to paddle solo then this can be arranged. These canoes are especially suited for the calm water conditions we will be paddling on and are stable and safe. They allow plenty of room for yourself and your stuff. From time to time we get clients who wish to paddle a Kayak. We can arrange this for you if you prefer but we do stress that the rivers we canoe do not really warrant the use of a kayak and we feel tandem paddling in a canoe is the way to go. Most of our clients have been canoeing before but we will insist on reviewing safety procedures at the beginning of paddling each day and revise paddling strokes for those who haven't paddled for a while or have paddled on lakes rather than rivers for example. For those who have never paddled before their will be plenty of time for lessons as we go. These rivers are ideal places for learning. If time and the inclination allows we can also practise other paddling procedures such as Eddy Turns, Peeling Out and Ferrying. Our guests will not be expected to lift or carry canoes at any time.


Hiking The hiking in Kent is easy. The Downs are only moderate hills that rise to about 300 feet and have very few steep sections which are always, in any case, short. We will always adjust the length of our walks to suit the time we have - either a half-day or a full days hike - and also taking into account the ages and fitness of our guests. Our minibus is always on hand for a rendezvous if we decide to cut a walk short for any reason: perhaps tiredness or inclement weather. Usually we will take our picnic lunch with us, although sometimes we will meed the minibus at a pre-arranged point. Alternatively we can ensure our walks pass through a village somewhere with an attractive pub. There are, of course, many of these along the way.



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