Days out

Autumn is being so much better than summer ever was this year, so much so that Martin and I have had two days out this week, and a third day spent at home in the garden.

With beautiful blue skies and no supply work booked (I only managed to get work for Friday this week) we decided to take advantage of our English Heritage membership again and took ourselves off to Upnor Castle (via the Papermill for some card making supplies I may add.

Upnor is a rather strange little village, right on the bank of the river Medway, well its actually on St Mary's island in the middle of the river, but who is counting. The Castle itself actually juts out into the river as it was built as a sea fortification. The village consists of about 10 houses, 2 pubs and a castle, all set along a cobblestoned road.




We didnt take up the audio tour this time as they wanted to charge us, and since in every other EH building we have been in, it has been free we put up a principled stand. A shame really as it would have been nice to be a bit more informed about the few rooms we were walking through. There was an interesting re-enactment model of a sea battle against the Portugese though.




Then today we decided to just get in the car and go... well we didnt know where but to help us decide I grabbed our two circular pub walk books - not intending to walk you understand, just as a hint on where to go. We ended up in Pluckley, the village where Darling Buds of May was filmed, as it is not that far from us. As we meandered along the country lanes we passed a pub full of classic cars. And not just any classic cars, but sporty convertibles!!


Well it was a pub, there were cars ... Martin stopped.




Having looked our fill at the wheels, I happened to mention that the pub starred in one of the walking books, and before I knew it we were strolling across fields, crossing railway lines


and walking through woodlands




At this point I have to point out that not one time when following the instructions in the books have we managed the whole route without getting lost. And today was no exception. We thought we had followed the book to the letter, but found ourselves in a delightful field of mooy cows, with no sign of the promised style, gate or farm buildings in sight.





I think we managed an extra mile trying to find the road back, and that included barbed wire, a bridge out of Indiana Jones, and some pretty rough arable fields.

But the sun was shining, the sky was blue, the birds were singing, and the pub was shut when we got back desperate for a drink!! Oh and we did the whole thing in tee-shirts because it really was that hot. Who would believe it was October.