The creek at Conyer QuayThe route is detailed below this descriptive section
Map: Ordnance Survey Explorer Series 149
Our favourite B&B was full, but they had friends who were just starting up and we stayed there on Saturday. It was close to Canterbury and handy for Whitstable too.
It was a glorious day and we wasted little time getting to Whitstable. We parked in a side road outside a house with the following notice in the window, "17ft snake in residence. Enter at your own risk, you will be eaten, signed Jack the Snake." We walked to the sea front via the village green and passing a number of alleyways, including one aptly named "Squeezegut Alley."
We tried to book a table for dinner at Pearson's Crab and Oyster bar, but were too late, so we thought we'd give the Whitstable Oyster Fishery Co a try for once. For some reason we have never fancied it.
They did have a table left, so we booked there and headed for the fish market. We still had around four hours to dinner. The shingle beach was bustling with yacht people, windsurfers and loafers like ourselves. The market has changed a little to reflect the growing affluence the area has attracted in the last few years. A good range of fresh fish is on offer and a decent selection of smoked fish too. Outside, a stall does a great trade in kippers in buns and superb marinated fish kebabs, char-grilled on a huge Portuguese style grill. We just missed the Oyster Fishery Exhibition in the harbour, so ate our kebabs, crab meat and mixed seafood on the beach.
After a coffee in "Tea and Times," and a wander around the town, we were ready for our evening meal.
The Whitstable Oyster Fishery Co restaurant is built onto the beach and is a simple building with the look of a converted fishyard. The standards of cuisine and service are excellent though. The menu is changed to reflect the season's produce and is therefore written on a blackboard.
We had noticed the bass was very fresh in the market, so we went for that. It was baked whole, with fresh springs of rosemary and whole garlic cloves. It may have been simply cooked, but it was divine.
The house wine is a vin noble and a superb accompaniment to the fish. I did indulge in a dessert.
It was a chocolate truffle cheesecake with fresh raspberries and a little cream. The cheesecake was gorgeous, nothing like those awful gooey fast food concoctions. It tasted as if it was made from 80% cocoa solids, firm and not too sweet. It was not a cheap seaside meal at just under £60, but it was worth every penny.
We had a good night's sleep at the B&B and shared the breakfast table with a family from Cologne, Germany. They were staying in England for 5 days and were horrified at the cost of living here. Nevertheless, they enjoyed it and were surprised at the loveliness of the Kent countryside.
The B&B was really well run, even though the owners started it 6 weeks previously. They kept to a high standard and I'd advertise it, but it's getting harder to find somewhere with vacancies at weekends.
The breakfast was cooked with the minimum of grease, with generous helpings of cereals, fresh strawberries, grapefruit halves and other fruit as well as the full monty English job.
Sunday was not that good looking. I've seen better days in mid-winter, but it was not cold. We were going to have our walk anyway. I fancied a coastal walk since we were close by and don't often get the opportunity. The Saxon Shore Way covers much of the local coastline and we have walked the Oare to Conyer Quay section before, so we opted to try the section from Conyer Quay to Sittingbourne.
The road to Conyer meanders through fields and orchards. There is little there except a few houses, two pubs and a yacht marina. It is a picturesque place and it is possible to walk to the coastal paths in a few minutes. The Ship Inn has a reputation for good food and is full of character. There is an open fire inside and a lending library on one wall.
The creek at Conyer Quay
Very soon after leaving the marina, we wandered across the marsh on a raised path. On the left are some tall purple stalks of Wild Clary (salvia verbenaca). Once over the iron bridge, we entered a pea field lined with Common Mallow (malva sylvestris) on one side and a huge swathe of Field Poppies (papaver rhoeas)on the other. We passed a couple of farmhands trying vainly to keep the woodpigeons off the peas. They shot a few, but could not cover the whole field.
Poppies, Blacketts
Farm
Just before the farm, we saw a damson bush smothered in unripe damsons and plenty of blackthorn bushes with a healthy crop of sloes on them. Further along we passed a pear orchard ringed with plum trees heavily in crop. The lane after the farm had a cherry orchard on the right and a number of strawberry fields on the left and we could smell someone making jam from them in another farmhouse.
In the garden boundary of the farmhouse are two walnut trees with the biggest crop of walnuts I've ever seen in the UK. The church at St Giles is a delight. It is mostly built of flint, including the square tower, but a front chapel is extended on both sides with brick. A large wooden door fronts the chapel and a huge, ancient, oak porch adorns the right side and entrance. A sign of the times, is a notice which declares the church is patrolled 24 hours.
Past Lomas Rd, which has some yellow vetch and blackberry plants in the hedge, the track heading to Sittingbourne has an abundance of Common Mallow and tall Ox-eye Daisy (leucanthemum vulgare).
Mallows,
West Tonge Farm
It really is pretty sight. Another attractive sight is the farmhouse at East Hall, worth a pause to admire.
If you are short of horseradish (armoracia lapathifolia) for the Sunday roast, there is a lot growing in the wayside from here to the iron stile after the Brickmakers Arms.
The caravan park is very small and very scruffy. The lane hedges to the left are a welcome contrast, with a wealth of herbs and flowers. Great Mullein (verbascum thapsus), wild asparagus (asparagus officinalis), teasels (dipsachus fullonum), purple loosestrife (lythrum salicaria) and dead nettles all trying to outdo each other.
By the creek we came across some poppies with a silvery white fringe in the outer edge of the petals.
We passed a shrub with flowers rather like large woody nightshade flowers. On the other side of the creek we were surprised to see a steam train heading back from the giant paper mill at Kemsley Down. It is the Sittingbourne and Kemsley Light Railway. We weren't aware it existed before.
At the ferry point, the Emsley marshes on the Isle of Sheppey are under 1km opposite you. The rotting hulks of the two wooden ferries lie abandoned in the water. One close to the shore, the other in mid-channel. The concrete steps are a good place to sit for an apple stop, especially if the wind is offshore.
Elmley marshes,
Isle of Sheppey 
The Saxon
Shore Way following the Swale
On the shoreline we saw a number of birds, from Pied Wagtails (moticilla alba), Oyster catchers (haematopus ostralagus), Shelduck (tadorna tadorna), Swans, Sandwich Terns ( sterna sandvicensis), Grey Herons (ardea cinerea) and the ever present mallard.
At the end of the walk, we noticed on the left opposite Conyer, the marsh was covered in purple Sea Lavendar (limonium vulgare) and the edible Glasswort or Marsh Samphire (salicornia europaea). We did see some for sale in Whitstable fish market later. Just before the walk ended, we noticed a haze of purple blue in a field some 200 metres away. They were a crop of Bergamot flowers (mentha citrata).
It rained heavily at 3pm, just as we got back into the car, but it only lasted about 15 minutes.
There was enough time for a couple of hours in Whitstable, so we returned there via a cherry farm, where we bought a lot of cherries to eat and to add to a rumtopf.
Once in Whitstable, the sun returned, so we headed along the promenade, after another couple of fish kebabs, towards Herne Bay. Since last year, the council have been raising the sea defences along this bit of coast and the bulldozers and dredger were still working their way south. When more rain threatened, we returned to town for a coffee and visited the fish market for some fresh halibut steaks.
They were beautiful, cooked at home and helped on their way with a bottle of Pouilly Fuisse.
The Route. Approx 9.66km (6 miles )
The start of the walk begins at a track close to the entrance of a road called "The Moorings." A red public phone box stands by the start too. It skirts the south of the Swale marina and heads west away from it, before turning sharply back towards it. You can see the famous "Ship Inn" before you as you follow the raised path through the marshlands.
Presently, you cross an iron bridge over a tank of water and turn left to a farm track which takes you to Blacketts Farm on the Swale Heritage Trail. Just before a cottage, you follow the farm track until you reach a tarmac lane lined with topped poplar trees, heading roughly south-west.
Take the lane for about 1.2km (3/4 miles), until you reach a junction, where you turn left at the sign pointing to the London Rd. ), You pass a golf course screened off to the right by trees and ahead of you is the square turret of the church at St Giles Houses. This you pass on your right.
Just before the railway bridge, turn right towards Sittingbourne. This is Lomas Rd and is quite busy, so take care. After 227 metres (250yds) take a footpath through a gate to the right heading north.
After 100 metres (109 yds), when St Giles church can be seen to your right across the fields, take the track to your left through a field. A chain bars the track to vehicles, but you can pass it to the side and continue towards a junction of tracks.
Turn left and left again, skirting the farm buildings at East Hall. With the housing estate on your left and the attractive farmhouse of East Hall on your right, carry straight on. Soon another, track leads off to the right heading towards farm buildings. A sign on the left shows that this is Murston Park.
Passing a children's playground on the left, turn right at a junction towards another farmhouse.
Follow the track to the right just before the farmhouse and skirt around it and a fenced off sports ground. Carry straight on through a poorly cultivated field on an ill defined path.
Head for the caravan site and pass through two concrete posts into it's boundary. Immediately turn right over a mound of earth, to follow the path around the boundary. At the other end, pass between two huge concrete blocks to the lane. Here you can take two routes. A goes right and is shorter and more scenic. B takes you left through an industrial estate, but is 1.2 km (3/4 miles) longer.
From here the route is straightforward. Continue east along the raised sea wall, over the occasional stile, until after 3.5km (2.17 miles) you meet the same iron bridge near the beginning of the walk. Retrace your steps back to Conyer Quay.