The Isle of Sheppey was now off the list due to the bad weather, perhaps another time. The forecast was still not great so I headed out of Sittingbourne by the most direct route – the A2, which follows the line of an old roman road in almost a straight line all the way to Rochester.

I soon became bored of the A2 and, with the weather improving, I decided to cut back to the coast and rejoined the shoreline path at Lower Halstow. The path now followed the estuary of the River Medway and the outgoing tide had exposed great swathes of marsh and mud.

The path then itself headed inland through the village of Upchurch and it was nice to be walking through orchards and decent woodland (of chestnut coppice and oak standards). The path soon headed back along the river after a few miles and then linked up with the Gillingham Riverside Country Park.

I was making good progress but all of a sudden the park stopped and the way forward was blocked by a marina and industrial works. I was still a couple of miles from Rochester but it was no longer possible to stick to the river, I had to take to the roads and cut across the housing estates and built-up areas of Gillingham and Chatham to complete the day’s walking.

I had only walked 15 miles today but it seemed more. The weather had improved and the outlook was good for the weekend. Having missed out the Isle of Sheppey meant I now had an extra day in Rochester – I decided to have a day off to explore some of the Medway towns and to watch the Six Nations Rugby.

Center of map

Route

See all the pictures from all the days walking here in this gallery.