North Downs Way

Dover → Boughton Aleph

Distance: 25.91 miles
Ascent: 938 metres
Duration: 7 hours 38 minutes

Coda
« Folkestone | Not walked »

"Hold on," you're thinking, "didn't you finish the North Downs Way last week? How can you be back for more?"

At its eastern end, the North Downs Way presents two options for getting to Dover. We took two days over the northern option last week, which goes via Canterbury. The southern option is more direct, continuing the line of the Downs to Folkestone before turning to Dover. It's a bit tricky to split the southern route into two sections so I've come back for a mammoth final leg, walking from Dover back to where the routes split just outside Boughton Aleph.

I'd done much of the first half before — but in the opposite direction — on the coastwalk almost fifteen years ago. Things have changed though: it's great to see the new England Coast Path waymarks.

Something else I didn't see last time was the Channel Tunnel terminal. It's huge — and noisy! Although operational for almost 25 years I've still not used it myself, so I found it fascinating looking down at this, our new frontier with Europe.

Once past the tunnel I turned inland, gained the crest of the downs, got my head down and walked. Ultimately today was a trudge, a "ticking-off" exercise in the warm sunshing. When I finally got home I'd walked over thirty miles, the most I've ever done in a day. These National Trail codas are getting to be a dangerous habit.