The Oast to Oast Marathon
It was the first truly hot weekend of the year. Easter weekend. Temperatures were in the twenties and the sky was a clear blue. Matt and I had just completed the Squerryes Vinery parkrun and now we were setting off on a marathon in the Kent countryside.
Matt had discovered a route on Strava that started and finished in Westerham. A circular tour of the garden of England taking in some big hills.
From the village we headed south past The Long Pond which is fed by the River Darent. Then it was into the woods full of spring life. Fresh lime green leaves and buds, celandines sprinkled liberally along the verges and thousands of bluebells spread like a blanket across the woodland floor. Robins, wrens, skylarks, tits, warblers and woodpeckers accompanied our footsteps with their songs.
Mariners Hill was the first climb. We descended and continued through farmland, passing young lambs and their mothers, ponds containing duck houses and, of course, numerous oast houses, their conical rooves topped with white pointed cowls that turn with the wind.
Brewing seemed to be a theme with the hop drying oasts and the vinery parkrun, but it was just water we craved as the heat built up. Our bodies, that had become attuned to cold weather running over the past six months, strained to adapt to the radiating warmth all around us.
We crossed the railway line and just before reaching Edenbridge took a turn to the east, then south and again east as we completed the first half of our anti-clockwise loop.
Approaching Hever, we were low on water and a timely sign for a cake sale was very welcome. The local village was raising funds for Ukraine by offering tea, coffee and home made cakes (and Creme Eggs).
Neither of us had cash and expected the six elderly women hosting the event wouldn't accept card payments. We were wrong. They whipped out a payment terminal and added our donation to the £1400 they had raised that morning. £1400!
Fuelled by tasty cake, Creme Eggs and water bottles full of chilled water we headed off in good spirits.
More beautiful English countryside revealed itself before us as we slogged on under the now oppressive temperatures along the Eden Valley Way.
Now heading north we passed Penshurst Place, a 14th Century Manor House and gardens. The Sidney family who have lived there for almost 500 years have now opened it to the public. On the grounds a game of cricket was taking place. It was a quintessential English summer scene like something out of a PG Wodehouse novel.
The next stop was the village of Leigh with its stunning church. Another stop for water was much appreciated, as were the signs. I pointed at a house name which said Well down. "We're well close" I said to Matt. "Should have Ranmore" he replied pointing at the sign opposite. Maybe it was the heat, but it made us laugh.
More woods, fields of sunshine yellow rape seed, and oast houses followed as we ran past Hill Place Lake and Bough Beech Reservoir.
All that was left now were two big climbs; Ide Hill and Toys Hill. Ide Hill sits at 200m above sea level and offers a dramatic view of the Kent Weald. Apparently 70% of the tree cover was lost during the 1987 storm but much has now recovered.
The trail dipped in to a small valley between the hills where we found another shop for more water and then ascended again through Scords Wood to Toys Hill. At 240m this impressive woodland covers 200 acres of the Greensand Ridge.
A long descent and another climb to the summit of Hosey Hill and we were just a couple of miles from the car. This extended the marathon to 28 miles helped by a couple of laps of the car park which, with parkrun, made a nice round 31 miles or 50km.
