With the nights drawing in, and this week seeing the temperatures outside take a definite turn for the wintry, it can easily feel like the time has come to hunker down inside.

It’s an obvious temptation, and one I feel the pull of very strongly at this time of year. But I know it is to be resisted. So in the spirit of getting out there and making the most of the ever-shorter hours of sunlight, I thought it a good time to embark on another of these occasional rambles around Kent.

The walk starts with a stroll from the railway station through the pretty streets of Sandwich towards the River Stour. I am particularly taken with some of the rather unique road names in this charming old town. ‘Breezy Corner’ and ‘No Name Street’, anyone?

It was the Stour, tidal in its lower stretches, that made Sandwich. Such was its strategic importance for both trade and the military, it was one of the original Cinque Ports, a confederation whose member towns had to be ready to supply ships and men for the Crown.

According to the town council, Sandwich has the highest number of listed buildings per head of population in the country, and was the first town in Britain to have a preservation order placed on the entire town.

Although its strategic value waned centuries ago, the Stour in Sandwich remains busy with boats, mostly pleasure craft and the odd houseboat. On reaching the quayside, I turn eastward towards the coast, initially following the course of the river and then across open countryside until the path reaches the boundary of The Royal St George's Golf Club.

A public footpath crosses the golf course, and it is funny to think that you are striding across a truly elite sporting arena. The club was founded in 1887, by the Edinburgh-born surgeon Dr William Laidlaw Purves, and in 1894 it was here that golf’s Open Championship was played outside Scotland for the first time.

In all, 15 Open Championships have been played at St George’s, more than at any other course outside Scotland, with Sandy Lyle, Greg Norman and Darren Clarke among those to have lifted the famous Claret Jug here on the Kent coast.

Thousands descend on Sandwich for Open weekend when the championship comes to town, but today the course is quiet, with just a few pairs of golfers making their way around in the weak November sunshine. The well-marked footpath winds its way across the course, occasionally crossing a fairway, and passing through the undulating dunes as it heads towards the sea.

Then, all of a sudden, the shore appears before me, with Ramsgate looming on the horizon across Pegwell Bay. These are certainly historic waters, a stretch of coast that has been the scene of momentous chapters in the story of these islands. Archaeologists believe it was here that Julius Caesar landed in Britain in 54 BC, and later in 597 AD St Augustine arrived on these very shores to bring Christianity to the English.

My route turns away from Pegwell Bay and southward along the coast towards Deal. Apart from the occasional dog walker, I have the coast path to myself, listening to the gentle lapping of the waves against the shingle to my left and hearing, at one point, the cry of ‘fore’ from a golfer on the Royal Cinque Ports course to my right. Signs dotted along this stretch of the walk do warn of flying golf balls, so it’s worth having your wits about you just in case.

Looking out across the calm waters of the Channel, where huge container ships and tankers make slow and steady progress away in the distance, it is hard to imagine that just a short distance from here lies one of the most notorious graveyards of shipping in the south east.

The Goodwin Sands, stretching for around 10 miles off the coast of Deal, have claimed thousands of ships over the centuries - Shakespeare described them as “very dangerous flat and fatal” in his play The Merchant of Venice.

In August 1940, during the Battle of Britain, a German Dornier Do 17 bomber was shot down over the Channel and ditched on the Goodwin Sands. It was only decades later that the wreck was identified, and in 2013 a complex operation was undertaken to raise the remains of the aircraft from the sea. Now, after a decade of conservation efforts, a portion of the plane is expected to go on display at Royal Air Force Museum Midlands next year.

With the French coastline now appearing more clearly across the sea, the coastal path reaches the northern outskirts of Deal, passing by what little now remains of Sandown Castle. One of three fortresses built on the orders of Henry VIII to guard the anchorage in the Downs, it was eventually breached by the sea and now the site is home to a small community garden.

From here it is just a short walk along the seawall to my final destination, Deal Pier, which was built in 1954 on the site of two previous piers. Extremely popular with local anglers, the 1,026ft structure affords fine views of the historic town and is home to a striking restaurant building at its far end.

After a two-hour 15-minute walk, covering almost seven miles, the Deal Pier Kitchen makes for a perfect spot to take the weight off and enjoy the views out across the Channel. They are serving an all-day brunch menu, and I am soon furnished with a very fine dish of Eggs Royale.

It has been a walk with lots to recommend it, and with easy public transport links at both ends you could just as happily follow this stretch of the Saxon Shore Way in the opposite direction from Deal to Sandwich. Both towns have plenty of fine pubs that would provide ample reward at the end of a few hours hiking.

By the time I finish up and head back out onto the pier and into the town there’s a definite chill in the air. But as Alfred Wainwright famously wrote, “There's no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing.”

Winter may be knocking at the door, but there’s still all the reason to get out there and explore the many wonderful corners of the county, whatever the weather.