I had selected a few locations within Kent that looked interesting from a landscape photography and walking perspective.  With a description of steep escarpments of the north downs and glorious views over Kent, Boxley was next on my hit list.

From Boxley up on the North Downs

Boxley on the foothills of the north downs in Kent was quite a drive from my base in Bexhill east Sussex and if I was going to catch good directional light I would need to be up bright and early as it was still summer.  Early morning, summer, long drive not a good combination.

Still I arrived in Boxley, parked up near the church and began my walk towards the escarpment of the North downs and the Pilgrims way.  I was early enough to catch some good directional light from the  south east, it was a beautiful sunny day, cool but the sky was featureless.

Views over Kent

I made my way along the Pilgrims way, I was looking forward to getting up on the north downs and the apparent glorious views of Kent from there.  The north downs is far more lush than the south downs, I enjoyed my walks along the Kent downs around wye and along the surrey hills.

From the OS map I could see the footpath along the north downs way back to Boxley was woodland, but I assumed there would be some breaks in the trees with great views.  Unfortunately there was none and after walking a couple of miles was very disappointed.

Heading back down the escarpment through Boxley woods I had come all this way and had no good landscape photos to showcase.  Lower down the views opened up a bit looking back up at the north downs with some white fluffy clouds having moved in adding alot of interest to the rich blue sky.

Finally capturing a telephoto landscape shot of the church at Boxley as I headed back to my car for the long drive back home.  I got chatting to a walker on the way down who told me its better to walk along the north downs pass Detling where the views open up.  Its a good tactic to chat to locals to get some intel on where the best locations might be when you are first exploring a new area.

Lessons learnt

Driving home I nearly fell asleep at the wheel, there just are not enough laybys on the A roads.  Oh well, lesson learned, no more early starts and long drives, talk to the locals, and look for gaps in wooded areas on the map.