• Day 2: Dartford to Wrotham, 32km
• Weather: cool and grey in the morning, sunny in the afternoon
• Accommodation:  The Bull Hotel
• Stamps: Royal Victoria & Bull Hotel, Dartford

After a decent Full English for breakfast, we set off in cool and grey conditions just before 9.30am.  According to the Cicerone guidebook, the route for the day was meant to be around 17 miles – 11.5 miles to Otford Pond, then 5.75 miles to Wrotham. We needed to head south following the Darent Valley Path (passing under the A2, M25 and M20 in the process), then at Otford do a sharp left east to Wrotham, shadowing the North Downs Way.

Past the surprisingly grand Dartford Library we entered Central Park where there was a metal silhouette of Dartford’s most famous son, Mick Jagger. Then keeping close to the River Darent (which near to Dartford suffered from the scourge of litter), we went through, or skirted by a series of villages, sometimes with a pub (which was assiduously resisted): Hawley, Darenth, South Darenth, Horton Kirby, Farningham, Eynsford, Shoreham and then Otford.

In South Darenth there was a photo opportunity with The Bridges pub and a railway viaduct behind.  Horton Kirby had a cricket pitch and Franks Hall in the distance, mostly hidden by trees (it must have been recently renovated because from afar it looked very clean for an Elizabethan mansion). Farningham was rather nice, despite being very close to the M20, with the most ornate cattle screen in the country. With the path up on a ridge, we didn’t go into Eynsford to get the stamp, but could see the remains of the castle.

We missed the entrance to Lullingstone Roman Villa – one of Britain’s most outstanding and it may have had a stamp – and Lullingstone Castle was closed but looked impressive from the outside.  Then after a quick march through a hops field, at 1.20pm, we reached the first pub in Shoreham, The Crown.  Time for lunch, we sat out in the pleasant beer garden and I ordered a pie with chips, while John stuck with a starter.

From there we walked directly south past Shoreham & Otford golf course to Otford, reaching The Pond, just before 3pm. Ever optimistic, I walked up to the nearby church to see if there was a stamp, but it was locked.

Looking at the map, The Pilgrims’ Way was mostly going to be road walking to Wrotham. There was a lot of traffic and it didn’t look very appealing, so we decided to follow the longer route of the North Downs Way up on the ridge.  It was a very steep ascent to the top of Otford Mount – we went from 70m to over 200m elevation in 1.2km.  It must have been the steepest ascent of the whole walk, and it was hot work despite it being only 15°C.  

Reaching The Bull Hotel in Wrotham at 5.25pm, there was some confusion and we ended up with our own rooms, right next to each other.  After a cheeky drink at the nearby Rose & Crown we had a delicious dinner back at the hotel – the Korean fried chicken wing starter will stay long in the memory.

These are some photos from Day 2: