Lymbar three

Slow Way not verified yet. Verify Lymbar here.

I caught the 17 Canterbury/Folkestone bus from Barham down to Lyminge and walked back (this bus route even has some services on a Sunday at the time of writing).

The land was bone dry after a month of no rain and the Spring sun was shining. The first half of the walk is a beautiful, easy, flat or gently undulating walk up this wide chalk valley of wheat fields and sheep grazings, with views around. The Slow Way visits the pretty village of Elham on the way. This place gives a fleeting impression there are 3 pubs and a tea room but all of them are now closed/converted into dwellings. The last pub stopped trading in February this year shortly after the previous review of this route but there is a village shop that was open, even though it was a Sunday, and there was a hopeful sign offering a tenancy on one pub, so maybe the situation will change again sometime in the future. I was also entertained by a woman leading a donkey up the main street. The donkey was a proper donkey, coming to a questioning stop every few paces. Progress was slow.

After Wingmore the walking becomes harder work as the route zigzags back and forth across the valley and onto the higher ground either side of it. This is necessary to avoid using a kilometre-long section of fast road (I had a look at that and even on a quiet day with good visibility, I wouldn’t have been much tempted to walk it). The change of walking effort was somehow annoying, even though I like walking up and down hills, as it had been just so relaxed and pleasurable ambling along in the valley. It is like two different walks. From here on the route is more of a mixture, with some big arable fields and paths through woodland, including a lane running under conifer forestry (nice and cool on a warm day). Some wooded sections had beautiful displays of spring flowers - wood anemones, bluebells. Finally the Slow Way descends into Barham. No problems with a flooded causeway today, unsurprisingly.

As almost all of this walk is on the Elham Valley Way, the route is well signed, which didn't stop me overshooting and having to backtrack a bit where the path heads down to Wingmore Court Farm, but I wasn't really concentrating. Judging by the ongoing path, which peters out eventually, it looks like I’m not the only person who has done that. Just make sure you head down towards the farm gate in the corner rather than continuing along the same line here. Also I encountered a short section of path on the top of the hill east of Wingmore above the wood that had been obliterated by ploughing and harrowing and hadn't yet been remade this early in the season. However there was a helpful marker post in the middle of the field which gave me a clue. There were also sheep in some fields, especially at the Lyminge end.

I walked from Lyminge to Barham after doing LymHar 3. This was a wonderful walk along a beautiful valley, steep sided but wider than typical in the North Downs. Although the hills were shrouded in low clouds and often rain that day it was very atmospheric and I enjoyed the various views. Perhaps my memory has glossed over the effect of the rain and wet though, this is 11 months late.

Thanks to Tim for uploading this as LymBar 2. It is a slight tweak to make it as easy to follow as possible and also to go through more of Elham village which is attractive and such a small detour that it's worth it to go past the shop and several places to eat.

It follows the Elham Valley Way nearly from one village to the other. First beside the River Nailbourne then it climbs halfway up one side and down again before climbing up and over the other side, mostly through woodland and back around to Barham. This avoids the "busy/dangerous road" from the LymBar 1 review and follows the Elham Valley Way for longer. The signage is useful and it is more likely to be well maintained.

Elham village has a shop, several pubs, tearooms plus bus route 17 which also stops at Lyminge and a few other places along the road can be easily reached. Lyminge has a shop, a gorgeous coffee place and an extra bus route. Barham has at a pub, shop and the no. 17 bus again. You can also walk to the no. 16 route, on the main road, which has a more extensive service.

Going was steep in places, wet obviously, uses (kissing) gates, stiles, steps and there's a steep rooty path through woodland and some fallen trees across the path. The river was flooded, or at least there was standing water above the river level. The field in Lyminge at ///half.camcorder.imported was the worst place as neither tussock hopping nor skirting pools was possible. In Barham the river had truly burst the banks and "The Causeway" was hidden below rushing water, very dramatic! But bear in mind this is an ephemeral chalk stream and has been known to be totally dry for three years straight, it's highly unlikely you'll meet such conditions.

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