A walk is one of the best ways to enjoy the countryside but map reading and long distances can be off-putting. A new book tramples out these problems. Chris Price reports.

The sight of an Ordnance Survey map generally evokes two feelings deep in my stomach: the first is panic and the second is a kind of inverted snobbery.

Using a map to work out how to navigate a field on a country walk seems unfathomable, even having tried my hand at orienteering at school. They feel alien and immensely complicated.

Yet apart from a fear of being completely baffled by grid references, I am overcome even more by the fear of being seen with an Ordnance Survey map. Put plainly, Ordnance Survey maps are not that cool.

Pubs are cool. A pint of beer or a crisp glass of wine in a garden on a summer’s day is cool. Sharing time with friends is cool, feeling fit, being an outdoor person – you get the picture.

Combining all those things with a nice walk to the pub in the Kent countryside sounds grander until the nauseating map phobia comes creeping back in. Thankfully help is afoot courtesy of a wanderer from Chatham.

Author Geoff Rambler – not his real surname, but Geoff thought it sounded catchier than Ettridge – has written a book linking together 21 of the county’s Shepherd Neame pubs in easy to follow treks.

Heroic Yomps not only makes the process of taking a stroll in an unknown part of the county enjoyable and easy but it has the added touch of all proceeds going to Armed Services charity Combat Stress, which takes soldiers on long walks as a way of dealing with warzone trauma.

“Most people don’t trust their map reading skills so I wrote the book with handrails,” said a smiling Geoff after leading myself and a troupe of his pals from the Medway Ramblers from the Carpenters Arms in Eastling to the George Inn in Newnham.

“It has instructions like 'follow the path with the fence on your left to reach the kissing gate.’ They’ve been simply put so people can just walk to the pub,” said Geoff.

The book has short walks like the 1.3 mile trek we took but in reality they can be as long or short as you like. Each series of walks is circular and they all intersect, meaning you can link the Leeds and Sittingbourne circles at the Ringlestone Inn, or Sittingbourne and Teynham at the Plough Inn, or link the whole lot together. It is just as ideal for an afternoon stroll before a roast dinner as it is for a weekend of full blown, stress-free yomping.

“It is a book aimed at anyone who wants to get out and about,” added Geoff.

“Make sure you have got decent footwear and just do it. I want people to get out and enjoy the countryside and feel the achievement of following their own walk.”

Hop to it at two traditional pubs

The Carpenters Arms in Eastling and the George Inn at Newnham are two of Shepherd Neame’s oldest and most quintessentially Kentish pubs.

Hops hang from the beamed ceiling in the George while the Carpenters Arms is dotted with brass horns. The inn has been under the brewer’s ownership since 1736 and was where Pimms was invented.

“Most people want the flexibility to do a long or a short walk and be able to have a drink or a meal at the end of it,” said Shepherd Neame’s chief executive Jonathan Neame, who joined us.

“Details like knowing the terrain and where you can leave your car make the difference between an enjoyable day out and not.

"A family can go to the pub and while the children can play, if dad wants a longer walk he can do that and come back.

"The book is versatile, detailed and raising money for a good cause.”

Heroic Yomps by Geoff Rambler is available from the Shepherd Neame Visitor Centre and from Amazon as an ebook for Kindle. Cost £5. Proceeds go to Combat Stress.