We went late. When we got to Ide Hill we found a fair taking place. It was a noisy funfair atmosphere which did not attract us. We quickly took the Greensand Way by the school down a slope to pasture land and presently turned off the Greensand Way to cross a field to Scord's farm with it's very fine duck pond.

There is a footpath there which is well hidden, but runs beside a number of houses. It comes out at a lane with a gate in it. There is then a pretty field with sheep in it and a guess where the next stile is. We did find it and passed beneath Toys Hill to join a path from Bardogs to

Obriss farm. This is a long stretch of meadow and small shaws (narrow woods). There are great panoramic scenes along the stretch.

The flowers there were mainly red campion (silene dioica)in large clumps by the paths and Germander Speedwell (veronica chamaedrys) lying in large beds of blue mist. In many of the fields we were to see the greatest concentration of buttercups (ranunculus repens) we have ever seen. It was a delight to see those golden seas against a background of deep green.

At Obriss farm we continued ahead past a stile on it's own with no fence to a broken stile at the next fence and turned left, entering a wood across a lane. There were a couple of ponds in the wood which appeared to have been largely cleared of willow trees, probably for duck shooting in winter. Soon after we turned sharp left to cross a large field covered in buttercups to a road just south of Boon's Park, a large Manor House which is used to sell garden furniture these days.

The next part was a bit confusing, but by sticking to the compass bearings we managed to find our way to the next stile just north of Cackets wood. After a junction of paths in another shaw we crossed another sown field due east, to a small lane where we turned left to Henden Manor where we could hear a peacock calling and saw a cat carrying off one of the farmer's white fantail pigeons.

After a long valley, we got to a fairly busy road. On the other side we walked through Woodgrove Farm, a scruffy looking place with unmaintained stiles. From there we made our way through some tiny enclosures to a junction near Scallops farm and took the track heading north back up to Ide Hill. It was a long steady trek uphill and we felt our legs getting stretched. That part is just over 2km. At the top, we climbed a bank by a wood edge and heard a turtle dove calling. Below us, Bough Beech reservoir shone in the late sun. Soon after we were walking along the road past the funfair and stopped to buy water and some nice local bottle-conditioned beer called "Old Dick." The walk was 10.5km long.