417 Cliffe – Cliffe Woods – Higham – Gravesend – Northfleet – Bluewater

The 417 makes an unusually varied day out for a single rural service, because it strings together marshland, ancient woodland, a riverside Victorian town and one of the biggest shopping centres in the South East. Start at The Six Bells in Cliffe with an early coffee, and take the morning bus out across the peninsula.

If you have time before boarding, the RSPB Cliffe Pools reserve sits a short walk from the village and is one of the best places in North Kent for avocets, lapwings and over-wintering ducks across its lagoons and saltmarsh. It sets the tone for the journey: big skies, low horizons, and the Thames somewhere just out of sight.

Stay on through Cliffe Woods and Lower Higham and step off at Higham for a Dickens-themed wander. Gad's Hill Place, the novelist's final home, stands on the main road and is occasionally open for guided tours; the parish church of St Mary's, down a quiet lane, is one of the most atmospheric medieval churches in Kent. A pub lunch at one of the village inns sets you up for the next leg.

Rejoin the bus and alight at Shorne Woods Country Park, the scenic high point of the route. The visitor centre has a small cafe and the waymarked trails through coppiced sweet chestnut and hornbeam are gentle enough for an hour's stroll. Children tend to make straight for the play area and pond dipping; serious walkers can pick up the Darnley Mausoleum trail into the neighbouring Cobham Park estate.

Back on board, ride down through Chalk and Denton into Gravesend. Get off near the Clock Tower for an afternoon by the river: the Victorian Town Pier (the oldest surviving cast-iron pier in the world), the Pocahontas statue and gardens at St George's Church, and a clutch of independent cafes along the High Street. The Borough Market hall is worth a look for local produce.

If shopping is on the agenda, stay on as the 417 continues through Northfleet, past Perry Street and the Cygnet Leisure Centre, and drops you right inside Bluewater Bus Station. The centre's lakeside boardwalk and the surrounding landscaped chalk pit make it a more characterful stop than its size suggests.

The return journey gives you all of it again in reverse, with the late light over the Thames estuary as the bus heads back towards the marshes and Cliffe.