A walking weekend to the beautiful north Kent Downs. Enjoy a steak and sausage BBQ and celebrate the bi-centenary of one of our most famous novelists, Charles Dickens.

September – time to enjoy a late summer escape to Kent, the garden of England. We stay in an excellent farmhouse hostel on a working farm near the village of Doddington. Here in the North Kent Downs (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), our excellent walk will take us through beautiful countryside and charming medieval villages on the North Downs path.

On the Saturday evening, weather permitting, we will enjoy a BBQ with steaks and local sausages accompanied by farmhouse cider and local cheeses.

2012 is Olympic year but did you know it is also Charles Dickens’ Bi-Centenary? It is very appropriate that we visit Rochester on Sunday with its famed Cathedral, a unique and special place. From Rochester Castle, one of the best preserved and finest examples of Norman architecture in England there are dramatic views across the River Medway.

Rochester and its surrounding countryside is the setting for Charles Dickens’ famed novel Great Expectations. Our visit to Rochester and walk in the surrounding countryside will give us an opportunity to sense and feel the spirit of this great literary work.  

Great Expectations – to be delivered all weekend long – I promise.