3 Men on a walk 2017: Around Knockholt

Knockholt to Downe loop

A cold start after a very heavy frost but the day was scheduled to brighten up after early morning mist and that's what it did. With Ivan in bed with a heavy cold it was Trevor and myself that parked up at Knockholt for this 8.5 mile loop walk via Downe.

As the crow flies we were only about 20 miles from central London yet the countryside and almost wilderness of this sector of the North Downs is amazing. The trail took us through open fields, woodland and the occasional piece of farmland, all in peaceful seclusion.

As we approached Downe we saluted the one-time residence of Charles Darwin and the place he wrote his initial papers on the theory of evolution. We couldn't help but wonder why evolution hadn't yet given us a new set of stronger legs because the steepness of the valleys we were heading straight for were real tough on our ancient original versions.

We arrived to early at the village of Downe for lunch - two great pubs in this village - and with an ETA for completion of around 1-15ish we decided to push on and complete the loop and then visit the pub in Knockholt. As previously mentioned, this second half of the walk has three big hills to climb and we huffed and puffed at all of them but generally agreed we needed the exercise to finally rid ourselves of the Christmas excesses. It was indeed a good sight to see Knockholt church come into view because the car was parked just outside it!.

We changed out of the dirty walking boots and drove the half-mile into Knockholt to the pub for lunch only to find it closed on Mondays as was the second pub in the village. Still in Kent you are never more than a mile or two from a decent watering hole and as we drove through Chipstead we spotted the Bricklayers Arms and what a find it was too. A lovely old pub with a lively atmosphere, good food and good beer. We enjoyed our visit so much we thought about planning a walk sometime in that area just so we can sample the wares again!