I love the days between Christmas and New Year.  No emails, no obligations, nowhere particular to be.  After our lovely day at Ightham Mote on Boxing Day, we were keen to get out of town for another ramble before the holidays ended.  While I packed some lunch for us, Matt hit the internet and found a 5km circular walk from the little village of Cudham near Sevenoaks.

It’s within the M25 and is technically inside a London borough, but it felt like a million miles from the city.  We parked by the 11th century church and pulled on our muddy boots ready for another squelchy stroll.  But thankfully, this route was much less boggy!  We immediately found ourselves crossing open fields, passing farms and climbing styles.

Occasionally we found ourselves on small lanes but we didn’t see a car all day.

The fresh air inspired some rather surreal skipping from Matt – Sophie was shocked to discover her daddy could actually skip!

I love how much Alex and Sophie seem to enjoy our walks!

Loving the toothy grin – this little lady finally lost her first tooth last week and is extremely proud of the gap!

Sophie in particular was full of energy and seemed to run for so much of the route!

While the first half of the walk was in open fields, we headed into pretty woodland for the latter sections.

Sophie took this opportunity to try and find a walking stick – but kept choosing impossibly long ones!

I loved how the path was sheltered by an archway of trees – it was so pretty, despite how bare and wintry it all looked.

Just before we stopped for lunch, we tried a family photo using a tree trunk to balance the camera and some comedy timer runs.  It didn’t turn out too badly!

Sophie selected a super picnic spot under an enormous tree and we settled down amongst the roots to enjoy some lunch.  As we were eating, the gloomy morning suddenly cleared into the most beautiful, sunny afternoon.  The light was glorious.

The children took the lead after lunch guiding us on through the woodland.

It’s incredible to believe that this is just a 45 minute drive from our London city home!

It’s hard to see at this size, but just to the right of the tree on the right of this picture you can see Canary Wharf’s skyscrapers.  A reminder that we weren’t too far from home after all!

I love this photo of Matt and the kids in the stunning afternoon light.  I had such a maniac grin on my face once the skies had cleared – what a treat!

We had lots of fun with our long shadows as the winter sun started to set – a more unusual final Agar family portrait of 2018!

As the light was beginning to fade, we saw the spire of the old Cudham Church.  Amazing to think there’s been a church there for over 1000 years.

For a spur of the moment walk, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  We’re already planning more walks for 2019.