Destination Cooling, a weekend walk . . .

With what seems like more Christmas events in the offing than there are days in the month, and the associated risk of enjoying far too many mince pies, I made an important decision last Sunday - to get out and do a lot more exercise! (Well a bit more anyway.)

So setting off from Hoo as the fog cleared last Sunday morning, I headed towards Cooling starting out at Dux Court Road, and joining RS45 onto Wybournes Lane. This leads to Wybournes Way bridleway, which runs along the northern side of Lodge Hill Wood and down towards New Barn Farm. It’s here where I then joined the lane to Cooling, walking under the railway line and by Cooling Court Farm.

Arriving at Cooling Castle I realised I had left my wallet at home, so without the possibility of a pit stop in the Horseshoe and Castle pub, I headed back up towards Mount Pleasant - watched intently by a flock of sheep, clearly a little annoyed that I had interrupted their lunch. When I got back to the bridleway, I then started retracing my earlier steps back towards Wybourne Farm and Dux Court Road.

I’ve marked on the map below the route I took.

I did this walk just a few days before Christmas last year when we were all up to our knees in snow. So with the sun shining brightly and sky clear blue (once last Sunday morning’s fog had cleared) the scenery looked a little different this time round.

The walk took about two hours, but it could have been done much more quickly had I not stopped so many times to take in some great views of our local unspoilt landscape. But what's the rush on a Sunday?

I'm not sure exactly how many calories I used up, but surely enough to compensate for festive treats enjoyed this week!

There are quite a few other good walks around High Halstow and Cooling. Click here to visit High Halstow Parish Council’s website, where there's a dedicated section about local walks, including an easy-to-use map with details of the many marked walks in this very special and peaceful corner of the peninsula.