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This Week's Walks - Archive

Please see the Saturday Walker's Club This Week's Walks page.

This is an archive of walks done by the Saturday Walker's Club. You should only need to use this page if the SWC website is down.

Wednesday 18 January 2017

Wednesday Walk - Watts Gallery and Chapel, Compton and then beside the River Wey to Godalming

Book 1, Walk 2 - Wanborough to Godalming

Length: 12 km (7.5 miles)
Toughness: 2 out of 10

Options to extend to Guildford or mix and match with Book 2 walks available

London Waterloo: 10-15 hrs (Haslemere train)  CJ 10-22 hrs
Arrive Guildford: 10-50 hrs
Leave Guildford: 11-00 hrs (Ascot train)
Arrive Wanborough: 11-06 hrs 

Return: Godalming to Waterloo: 15-25, 15-51, 16-25, 16-38 and 16-51
or from Guildford to Waterloo- frequent trains

Rail ticket: Buy a day return to Wanborough plus a single from Godalming to Guildford (if returning from Godalming)

A short winter's main walk today but one which contains lots of variety and places of interest. Shortly after leaving Wanborough station the walk proceeds along an (often) soggy or waterlogged path across fields to Wanborough Church, then it's a steady incline through a strip of woodland to cross the busy A31 road. Onwards then through a vineyard and along the North Downs Way to Watts Gallery (worth a visit) where an early lunch can be taken in the Gallery's excellent cafe. Nearby is the Watts Chapel (also worth a visit)  for those who like or dislike art nouveau.  You then walk past a farm and along paths which skirt woodland to Compton and to your suggested lunch stop at the popular Withies Inn. Please phone ahead with numbers: 01483-421158
After lunch your route takes you through more woodland and across fields before you walk beside the River Wey into Godalming for tea at Cafe Mila or one of the other establishments in the town.
Although today's walk is short in length, most SWC walkers find it quite sufficient and enjoyable for a winter's outing. However, if you are one of our "I don't get out of bed for less than 12 miles" walkers, you can "go long" today and continue the walk from Godalming by disappearing into the fading light on a route march along the Wey Navigation towards Guildford.
T=1.2
Walk Directions here L=1.2
Next Week: Wednesday, 25 January: SWC Walk 7 - Knockholt Circular

[Comments on this post have been hidden. Apologies to all who commented, *especially* the un-anonymous ones  -- Andrew]

1 comment:

Andrew said...

n=12 walkers for this very short walk on a w=cold-but-sunny day, through near-perfect wintry scenery: frozen ground (apart from some stretches exposed to the sun), hoar frost on bushes and fields, clear far views.
We visited all the sites en route (Wanborough Church, Watts Gallery [2 even paid to see the exhibition], Church and Cemetery, looked (unsuccessfully) for a wine tasting hut at the new-ish Greyfriars Vineyard and had a (very long) delightful lunch at the Withies Inn (we even took a bottle of their self-branded wine home for the return journey). This very traditional pub, with veeeery low ceilings, proved that even a reassuringly retro menu can be expensive, although in this case everyone agreed that it was well worth every penny.

1 walker went off to take a bus from somewhere nearby, the others got to Godalming for 1/4 to 4, so a couple of us continued on to Shalford or even Guildford (2 others would've wanted to, but had early evening appointments back in The Smoke).
5 others were up for tea and cake at Cafe Mila; 16.38 train for those.

Not a walk many had done before (it being so short...), but thoroughly enjoyable all the same. [pp TG]