Filmed Saturday 27th August 2022

Ever since about the age of 14 I've always wanted to know if it was possible to walk around the Isle of Sheppey in one day. Today was going to be the day I was going to find out.

I started at Minster Leas beach at 6am, hoping to get a decent sunrise but it was pretty much fully obscured by cloud. It was warm though, and not raining, so I couldn't really complain. The other reason I'd chosen this ungodly hour was to take advantage of the tide being out; had the tide been even halfway in I wouldn't have been able to pass.

After a couple of hours walking on sticky London Clay, shingle and sand, I made it to the World War I pillboxes at Warden Bay. For pillboxes that are over 100 years old, have fallen from the cliff and been battered by the sea for decades, they're in pretty good condition. Again, these are only accessible at low tide.

Next up was Leysdown where I had a bit of brekky and continued onto Shellness and the World War I bunker on the very south-eastern corner of the island. After drifting around a mile off-course I made my way over to Harty, then over some marshland onto Elmley Nature Reserve. Miles of walking over the open marshland ensued before reaching Kingshill Farmhouse where the second wedding I'd seen that day was getting ready to take place (the other was at Harty Ferry Inn).

I was then coming up to Kingsferry Bridge where disaster struck; the footpath was impassable due to high tide and it looked like I was going to have walk miles inland to get over to the other side of the bridges. I improvised and waded through some huge plants, climbed a barbed wire fence and got up to the road where I could climb down onto the other side. This was energy-sapping and took almost an hour but I was now almost in Queenborough where a Co-op was waiting for me. After feeding and watering myself (a late lunch at 4:30pm) I continued along the sea wall into Bluetown and then onto Sheerness. From here it was the home straight back to Minster where I arrived just before 6pm - 12 hours and 73,250 steps after setting off.

Other YouTube channels I'd recommend for information on this area are:

Beyond the Point
Kent Survival

I hope you enjoyed the video, if so please leave a like 😁

#hiking #sheppey #isleofsheppey #kent

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