Sadly a notice on The Boathouse's website says that the pub is closed this weekend for planned maintenance. Google confirms that two former pubs in Yalding village (the George and the Walnut Tree) have both closed so it looks like the café on Teapot Island is the only place available for refreshments.

Thanks Sean. Apologies for not checking

The late announcement of a closed lunch pub is a good way of discouraging walkers and not surprisingly only four teetotallers alighted from the train at Paddock Wood. In typical fashion they were joined on Teapot Island by a notorious late starter who'd decided at the last minute to do the second part of the walk. In theory that would make 5 on a muggy but dry day, but two soon slipped away and only three completed the circuit.

The Boathouse pub was fenced off with no sign at all of the 'planned maintenance' supposedly happening this weekend. Not a good sign. And a little research revealed that Teapot Island has been on the market for a year but with no takers so far. The owners are keeping the café open until October but it might not survive into next year. Needless to say they're doing their best to discourage customers by closing at 4pm and so we had a tea-free as well as a beer-free day.

The focal point of this walk is very much the riverside pub and café at Twyford Bridge and if these both go there won't be much to commend it.

7 walked on a sunny day to Yalding. 4 ate at the Boat House which was quick and high standard. After lunch we found folk singing New Age Gypsies by Tea Pot Island and had ice creams later. An enjoyable day out.

7 sunny

The undoubted highlight of the morning half of this walk was at Sluice Weir Lock on the River Medway where we watched a succession of kayakers hurtle down a steep water channel into the river 9 feet below. We cheered them on and then watched, with some apprehension, an open Canadian style canoe containing two adults and a child follow them down. They hit the bottom pound with a tremendous splash and took on quite a quantity of water which they cheerfully proceeded to bale out as they paddled on. Kudos.

The Boathouse is glossy, vapid and has overpriced, and very ordinary, food.

The Ramblers Rest at Wateringbury Marina has home-made cakes and is handy for the station - as is the Railway pub.

It seems, on Trainline, there's a 10 minute change at Tonbridge in the morning also, to arrive Paddock Wood 10.40 rather than 10.30.

The omens were not propitious for this walk: dire weather warnings from the BBC were supplemented by posted comments about the awfulness of the lunch pub and a last-minute assertion that the outward train journey information was incorrect (it wasn't). For a few moments it didn't look as if any other walkers had alighted from the train, but eventually a few turned up from the other end of the platform and a band of 6 set off on a cloudy day.

Arriving at Twyford Bridge on the stroke of 1pm, one or two looked wistfully at Teapot Island but went along with the majority decision to patronise the "glossy and vapid" Boathouse across the river. Rather surprisingly there was no problem getting an outside table. The menu had a good selection, our orders were taken promptly and although the food and drink took a little while to arrive, it was all fine and there were no complaints.

Those looking for a very short walk claimed to have felt a few spots of rain but we decided to press on with the short afternoon loop out to Cheveney Mill. At this point the walk author was startled to be recognised by the mill's owner, who turned out to be a workmate from the 1980s; a brief delay ensued as we exchanged gossip about other colleagues. More delights followed when we passed a large array of polytunnels, where a friendly greeting to the strawberry pickers resulted in them kindly passing over a punnet of fruit for us to enjoy.

A short tea break at Teapot Island and a leisurely stroll through the Community Orchard (sadly denuded of pickable apples) got us to Yalding station in good time for the 16:12, but our return journey was slightly marred by the knock-on effects of earlier signal failures and we had a 35-minute wait for a London train at Tonbridge. On a sunnier day some of us would have happily carried on to Wateringbury, but I think everyone was satisfied today with this easy 7½-miler.