Sunday Walk #3 - Otford Circular Walk, with a new gadget!

Beautiful Kentish Countryside

Ah, a walk post. Its been a while. We have been walking, its just I always seem to forget to take my i-phone camera when we go on our walks. I remembered this time though which meant I take photos of my favourite new gadget, my trusty pedometer, my Ozeri 4x3motion Digital Pocket 3D Pedometer with Tri-Axis Technology to be completely exact (try saying that after a glass or two of wine).

 

Now before you raise a quizzical eyebrow I have had many pedometers in my time but this is by far the best one I have used. I choose the yellow colour as I find black a bit boring and its nice and bright. When you first get it, its really easy to set up so it is personal to you and means it is more accurate when it comes to your results. It doesn't need to be clipped to your belt, which can be annoying; you can either have it around your neck as it comes with a strap or put it in your pocket (as I tend to do)

 

Back to the walk,  with said pedometer in my pocket we set of on our Sunday walk, I thought it would be quite easy as it was only a six mile walk, but my goodness it was a tough six miles, with lots of steep hills. Steep hills are not my friend.

I found these steps a bit daunting (in my defence there were about 200 of them)

 

 

But getting to the top felt pretty good.....

 

There were lots of muddy fields to traipse through with lots of lovely views of the beautiful Kentish countryside which I am getting to love more and more as we have our Sunday walks.

We walked for around two and a half hours and my trusty pedometer told me lots of interesting facts like how many steps I had taken and how many calories I had burned.... it was a little off on the distance we had walked but that's not the main reason I have this. I love the design and the way the data is so easy to read and how it is displayed which even a novice like me can understand.

**While I was sent the pedometer to review by the lovely people at Ozeri, all opinions expressed are of course my own.**

Sunday Walk #2 - London (Thames barrier to Greenwich)

 

 There are many times that I count my blessings that I live so close to the best capital city in the world, London. Sunday was one of those days. As a shake up in our ordinary routine we decided to do a walk along the Thames. It was a beautiful day and an interesting and exciting walk. Seeing so much of beautiful London Town made my heart happy.

The Thames Barrier

The view ahead of us - Canary Warf in the distance



We started at the Thames Barrier - lots of people think its really ugly but I think it looks pretty cool and it stops London from getting flooded so it's a really important piece of engineering as well. The water looks pretty ugly and brown but apparently The Thames is the cleanest river in Europe and has around 56 species of fish living in it (50 years ago there were none)

 

 We walked past the O2 and that bought back memories of when we went to see Fleetwood Mac a few months ago.

 

 

We walked for 4 1/2 miles until we got to one of my favourite places in London....... Greenwich. Its a great place to go, especially on a Sunday as it's really busy and has a great vibe

 

Greenwich is also where they filmed a lot of Les Miserables (fun fact)!

There where lots of signs that the river was really high due to all the recent rain. These are the Royal .Steps, usually you can walk down these but the tide completely covered them. These were the Royals own special steps to get to the huge Naval Collage that is situated in Greenwich.

 

 

 

The very impressive Cutty Sark. I love this boat and I always get that "British Pride" thing when I see it, Its a beautiful ship.

 

 

 

We then wandered around the market which is full of lovely street food stands, vintage clothes shops and some funky other stalls, its a great place to be.

We then got the river boat back down the river - I loved getting the boat, it goes so smooth and its nice to sit back and relax. Te boat took us down to Woolwich and so we then had to walk back up the river to the Thames barrier - another two miles or so. It was dark by then so we walked beside the river and saw lots of beautiful lights.

 

 

 

The walk took us all afternoon but then again we stopped in Greenwich and had to wait for boats etc. I think we were both surprised at how quickly we could walk a mile when it was on a flat surface. I loved this walk and we're looking forward to doing some more of the Thames walks later on in the year. 

Sunday Walk #1: Hever

There is something comforting about routine. Routine can also be boring. In my world full of change and uncertainty, I enjoy the routine of our Sunday hikes. The months have past and we do longer more tricky hikes now, and every minute is happy for me (except when we are at the bottom of a hill and I know a-bit-of-an-out-of-breath struggle is ahead). Being in the beautiful Kent countryside, having the fresh air and enjoying feeling my body respond so positively to the exercise it is getting makes me grateful for where I live and what we have access too. I also treasure the time with my beau, no distractions, just the two of us; him often a few paces ahead and me taking some photos. At times we are having in depth discussions, there are often moments of silence and peace. Sometimes we get lost, but we always find our way home.

One of the beautiful villages we walked past (once we'd finished hiking through woods and fields)

Yesterday we walked in Hever, famous for the castle where Anne Boleyn and Henry 8th met and started an odd sort of courtship. Reminds me that I should really watch the film again, historically inaccurate but Natalie Portman is great in it. We didn't look round the castle, it was closed and I looked around it a long time ago when I was at school and supposed to be doing a project.

Random discovery on our walk - A British institution

We walked about 6 miles in about 2 1/2 hours through a lot of mud. Every walk we go on is muddy at this time of year, thank goodness for a Christmas present of walking boots, the boy knows me so well. Makes me love so much.

On we walked and at the end was a historical pub, and a soda water and a bowl of warming soup next to a roaring fire.