North Downs Way - Canterbury to Dover

This walk marks the last of a three day walk along the eastern (or I suppose southern) section of the North Downs Way from Rochester to Dover, with a walk from Canterbury to Dover on this day. For the previous day please click the following link: Day 2 - Harrietsham to Canterbury

The previous day had ended in Canterbury and I was staying in the centre, which also meant I was already as good as on the North Downs Way as I headed out of my hotel.

The first task of the day was to make my way out of Canterbury, which meant passing all the school traffic and kids walking to school, before heading out on a quiet farm track heading out of Canterbury to Patrixbourne. If you are doing a shorter walk you could probably save yourself a bit of a trek through the outskirts of Canterbury by instead starting at Bekesbourne train station.

Heading out of Canterbury

As you get to Patrixbourne, you do start to have to navigate some of the slightly more impatient commuter drivers - and although it is a country road that you would normally consider to be quiet and a road you can have a relaxed walk down, in reality the cars will be setting their best qualify times for the upcoming race - presumably held later in the day on their way home. As a result, once you hear the cars coming it can be smart to stand aside and wait for them to go by. Blind bends don't tend to mean much to people driving to work in the mornings. 

That aside, Patrixbourne is a very pretty town - albeit with a slightly quiet vibe of a town that has a lot of people who disappear off to London during the week and then have quiet time at home over the weekend.

The church at Patrixbourne

Shortly after passing through the village, the path moves away from the road and here there are more people out and about either for dog walks, cycles or morning runs. 

The path itself heads up to run along the edge of the A2, but does it's best to keep the going pleasant - with some trees to walk under and once you get past the farm on the left, the path starts to drift leftwards away from the A2 as you begin to head through a quiet section of fields.

About to drift right and leave the A2 behind

This next section is pretty standard countryside, and whilst not unpleasant is not particularly spectacular either. Still I found it quite an enjoyable wander and although not quite as good as the previous days, I still enjoyed this day of walking - other writeups can be quite negative about this final day on the North Downs Way.

The pretty standard countryside passing Womenswold

At Woolage Village - just after Womenswold - there is a big park that offers a good spot to have some early food - or if the mood has really caught you, a chance to have a play on the swings.

From here it is a pleasant walk along tracks - passing over the railway line at a minor road - and heading into Shepherdswell, where the path takes you through the middle between the horse fields. This is a nice little village, a pleasant place to be and there are again some good places to stop along here - and it was here that I took my first break of the day.

After heading through the village, it is back into typical chalky countryside.

Typical chalky countryside

On this section there are no ridges or particularly dramatic countryside, but I found it quite a relaxed and pleasant day and probably the highlight was the next section passing through the grounds of Waldershare House - which is a big monster of a house that sits a little bit awkwardly in the open countryside. 

The estate itself is very pleasant to walk through and its a proper country manor with numerous estate cottages, although the house itself doesn't have much of a lived in feel and instead feels a bit of a monument to a former time rather than much of a home.

A seat at Wandershare Estate

I didn't actually take any photos of it, but as you leave behind the estate you pass a small church that whilst slightly modest - and perhaps a bit ugly on the outside - is nevertheless pretty once you take a closer look.

After passing the church the route joins up with a minor road, which helps provide a route over the A256 - and then after passing through the village of Ashley - a more modern village that signals that larger towns are coming up ahead - the path starts to head south on its way to Dover.

Beginning to head south towards Dover

Slightly further along

This section of path is very pleasant if again unspectacular and this general feel continues until you start seeing signs of more urban life as you begin to pass Whitfield (notably lots of buses in the distance). 

Here you find the main annoyance of the day, as you have to head a third of a mile to the east to cross the A2 before heading back another third of a mile on the other side. to rejoin the original route. Here the path is an old roman road and it does appear that at one point the footpath simply crossed the A2, which makes the diversion feel slightly more painful as you can see on the other side where in about 20 minutes you will be. Still a big diversion beats getting flattened by a car or truck - so the diversion it is.

Having cleared this diversion, it is now a clear run from here into Dover. For now this continues more on tracks, but eventually you are following a fairly quiet road, dropping down fairly steeply and slightly surprisingly you don't really get much of a glimpse of Dover on the way. 

But having reached Dover and navigated through Connaught Park, you do get a feel for Dover and the remainder of the walk is an urban wander through Dover itself. The town does feel like it has a bit of a rough vibe to it (although that may just be my fear of the schoolkids on their way home), but the highlight is undoubtedly the view of the Castle on the hill. 

If you wish to view the castle properly (and from here it is more of a little bump on the hill in the distance), really you need to allocate some time and energy to head up the hill to the castle - but instead I did the bare minimum of getting to Dover and heading on to the station for onward travel; journey complete.

UPDATE - click on the link to see the writeup for a follow up walk from Rochester to Farnham to complete the North Downs Way in the opposite direction.

Disclaimer: This writeup provides a narrative of what to expect rather than a route guide to follow. The route is covered by the 179 OS Landranger map - while there is also a North Downs Way guidebook which includes OS mapping (links redirect to Amazon). The route is in general well way-marked.