Often, when it comes to writing these occasional walking features, I’ll simply pitch up in some or other glorious corner of the county and just see what it is I find along the way. Hopefully something beautiful, interesting or simply mildly diverting – before stumbling across somewhere agreeable for lunch.

On this occasion, however, the objective of the day is both straightforward and established from the outset: I am off to see some elephants.

Incredibly, it is possible to come within metres of these majestic creatures simply by following a public footpath which leads right through the heart of the Howletts wild animal park, outside Canterbury.

I start out from Bekesbourne railway station, one of the county’s least-used stops, where I am unsurprisingly the only person to alight or board the train from Dover to London. The plan is to take a broadly circular wander through the surrounding countryside, stopping to admire the elephants en route.

Exiting the station, I come across an information board which proudly describes this corner of the county as the “Valley of Mills and Manors”, blessed with countryside boasting “many contrasts and much beauty”. It certainly sounds promising.

Heading roughly south-east, I walk along School Lane until I reach the Nailbourne, a tributary of the Stour which has its source at St Eadburgh’s Well in Lyminge. This is a rather curious type of chalk stream, known as a winterbourne, which only flows intermittently.

The reason for its sporadic nature is the fluctuation in the water table. Between Lyminge and Elham the river usually flows throughout the year, but between Elham and Bekesbourne often no water will run at all.

The website of the Kentish Stour Countryside Partnership informs me: “Tradition has it that the intermittent section of the Nailbourne flows once every seven years.

“Of course it could never have been that predictable, but we can perhaps assume that was a rough average. If there ever was a pattern, climate change is now disrupting it, with successions of dry years with no flow, and unusually wet years causing flooding.”

Given we’ve just seen one of the wettest periods of persistent rainfall on record, it is no shock to find the Nailbourne running fast and deep – at least, one presumes, by the standards of a chalk stream such as this.

I follow it under the railway line before the path I am taking diverges and heads in a more northerly direction towards the first point of interest on my walk – the ruins of Well Chapel.

This medieval chapel, built of flint rubble with ragstone dressings, was founded prior to 1300 and served the nearby manor house known as Well Court. It is listed with Historic England as a Scheduled Monument, and according to its listing it once served not only the manor but the surrounding community too. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII, it was used for agricultural storage and as a weavers’ workshop before eventually falling into ruin.

Today the remains of the chapel walls still stand above ground, although much overgrown. It is pleasing to linger for a while and try to imagine the history of the site and those who once worshipped here.

From the chapel it is just a short walk up to Bekesbourne Lane and the footpath which leads through the heart of the Howletts site. The path is narrow at first, sloping gently upwards, and after crossing a small footbridge I suddenly find myself face-to-face with the stars of the show.

Howletts is home to a herd of 13 African elephants, the only herd in Kent and the largest anywhere in the UK. In the wild their population has been in decline over several decades, because of illegal poaching for ivory and loss of habitat, leading to both species of African elephant being listed as endangered.

The Aspinall Foundation, which runs both Howletts and its sister park Port Lympne, is working on a first-of-its-kind project to return the elephants to Africa.

“We believe that elephants belong in the wild,” Amos Courage, the foundation’s overseas project director, told KentOnline earlier this year.

“They don’t belong in this climate, they need a lot of space in order to thrive. We also believe it will have conservation benefits – by reintroducing these animals we’re not only protecting their habitat but also they will send a message that individual animals matter, be it captive ones or wild ones.”

But for now these remarkable animals – the largest and most powerful of all living land mammals – have a home in Kent. And coming face to face with them is a quite magical experience. I am captivated as they move around their dusty paddock, one moment seeming to share a tender embrace, later tussling with one another in what comes across to the untrained eye as a play for dominance among the herd.

It is impossible not to feel a pang of sadness that these incredible creatures are not in their natural habitat. The plans for returning the herd to Africa have drawn criticism from some quarters, but as a neutral observer one can only hope that if it does become possible in the future there will be a successful outcome.

I linger a little longer, before heading onwards for a walk through some of the nearby woods and then swinging back towards the village of Littlebourne where I stop for a light bite at the Evenhill pub.

The bluebells are out among the trees. But sadly they are joined by all kinds of rubbish thoughtlessly tossed aside along the lanes and footpaths. Having pondered the man-made factors that have made the elephants so at risk, it’s just another reminder of how careless we can be with the precious natural world around us.

After lunch I meander back towards Bekesbourne, crossing the Nailbourne again at a point where its waters have flooded out onto surrounding land, creating a marsh-like environment. After crossing the railway line, over this time rather than under, I swing through the pretty village of Patrixbourne, where the Nailbourne is flowing so deeply it has forced roads to be closed.

The sign outside Bekesbourne railway station promised a landscape of “many contrasts and much beauty”. This walk has delivered that and more. From an ancient chalk stream to an encounter with elephants, this corner of Kent delivers an invigorating dose of nature in all its many splendid forms.