We decided to go “green” today, and have a country walk and a pub lunch without using the car. It took a bit of planning correlating bus routes and footpaths, but it worked out really well in the end.

First off was a walk to the High Street to catch a R2 bus:

The bus was there, but we had to wait a few minutes for the driver to appear. We took the bus to Keston:

where 100 yards from the bus stop was the footpath by Holwood Estate, and a chance for Rocco to stretch his legs:

Not long after, we stopped to look at the view from the Wilberforce Oak:

After a failed attempt to get a coffee at Holwood Farm Shop, we had to navigate our way through fields with horses in and very poor stiles. This one was easy though:

The path then climbed up the side of the valley, with nice views, albeit of a golf course:

Further on, the path was blocked by a fallen tree, and we had to divert onto the golf course to get past it:

We then walked past Downe House and Christmas Tree Farm into Downe itself, and headed for the pub:

Rocco made himself comfortable:

and we enjoyed a few beers and a lovely meal:

I was expecting to have to walk down the road to get to High Elms, but a path went along the side of the road allowing Rocco to run around and play with sticks:

We then walked through High Elms down into Green St Green:

Of course, we just missed the R11 bus back, so we had to wait a few minutes for the next one:

6 miles of walking and 1 geocache today.