Hargra one

Slow Way not verified yet. Verify Hargra here.

Accurate and decent route.

Not as good as it should be. Noisy roads through Gravesend, a long stretch of badly kept footpaths mid route and a scary road crossing at New Barn Road. Since walking this I've tested out and uploaded a better route as HarGra 3. I'd also walked some parts before as it overlaps with Slow Ways from Longfield (Hartley) to Northfleet and Swanscombe.

I walked from Gravesend to Longfield on a late summer evening. It started raining heavily soon after getting off the train very much not per the forecast! But it only lasted about 20 minutes and had been dry recently.

The roads within Gravesend were busy and noisy, frustratingly the route avoids even some very simple parallel roads away from the traffic.

The route between Hazells Farm and Red Street (Southfleet) is a problem. First was an arable field where yes, the diagonal footpath had been reinstated but clearly only after the crop had fully ripened! There are polytunnels next which is clearer but was ridged where irrigation and rain water run off. I could step across but it has potential for problems in wetter weather. Next two fields, perhaps abandoned pasture, which had no sign of any visible track and a lot of unavoidable thistles.

The worst part was the crossing of New Barn Road. I've crossed it here, and further south, several times now and it is always very fast and busy. The hedge goes right up to the edge of the bank, you can't see much and it's tricky to lean out to be sure of a gap in the traffic. It was a steep jump off the bank and then I was in the road, no space on the road itself to stand or look both ways. I was lucky that someone coming up on the near side (who I hadn't been able to see) slowed to let me across. I've flagged it for safety. The hedge on the other side is better, slightly less prominent but there was a slippery and slightly rotten plank to negotiate, or maybe it is a collapsed stile.

The cricket pitch the other side is fine, but things went badly again after a crossroads between two footpaths (around the back of Broadditch Farm). This route goes through a slightly overgrown gap between two high banks then comes out into a field that's more of a junk yard. You can get through, but the line of the path is blocked by a couple of structures and possibly some tractors that you have to negotiate. Beyond the junkyard part, slightly separated by a bank is a greener part of the field. The exit is in the far corner of that, next to a large wooden telegraph pole. You come out into a field of asparagus and then onto the road called Red Street. The first time I walked this I admit I gave up at the sight of the junk, and walked fully along Red Street instead, it was pretty quiet and polite, even in rush hour, same when I walked along the other previously.

From Southfleet onwards the route overlapped with the Slow Ways from Northfleet and Swanscombe which I've walked before. It's very pleasant and there's a good view towards London near the end.

There are also kissing gates, steps and a steep hill on this route.

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