SANDY IS AWAY.
Hopefully the heatwave will have begun to die down by Wednesday, so here is a lovely walk with plenty of shade.
LENGTH 8.7 miles (ending in Oxted but omitting Tandridge)
You can finish earlier at Hurst Green (7.8 miles) but there no facilities there.
DIFFICULTY 4/10
TRAINS. London Bridge 10.21 (East Croydon 10.36)
Arriving Redhill 10.52
Change to the Tonbridge train on platform 1A departing at 11.00 and arriving Godstone at 11.10
Return trains from Oxted are at least half hourly, mostly to Victoria
Hurst Green also has half hourly trains, three minutes earlier.
Buy a return ticket to Edenbridge all stations which is valid for any ending (remarkably inexpensive)
LUNCH
Slightly more than half way.
TEA Most tea shops in Oxted may be closed by the time you reach there, however the Morrisons supermarket has a cafe which opens until 6pm.
I for one will be visiting the Wetherspoons by the station which has a cider festival this week.
L=swc.277
4 comments:
Only 2 arrived at Godstone on the posted train. 7 others on the delayed London Bridge train were compelled to plan an alternative from Redhill.
Don and I took 3 hours in light drizzle and a breeze to get to the lunch stop at 2.10pm owing to the uneven hard ground, unending high stiles, a couple of wrong turns and nettles and brambles that deserved a good thrashing. ( I had bare legs) The woods were a welcome break from the fields with struggling crops gasping for water and we found a nice little short cut approaching the pub from the rear.
We dined in the garden of the grumpy mole Royal Oak with fab views and fab food with exemplary service as it should be. Fully booked and fully carpeted for celebration hospitality we weren’t dressed appropriately to eat inside and thus avoided any service charge levied by the main dining room.
Later in the afternoon after yet more difficult stiles we stopped at the Haymaker for tea coffee and an ice cream in the manicured garden and admired the lovely terrace resplendent with hanging baskets and flowering troughs.
The full menu had much better starters and light dishes than the Royal Oak lunch menu but similar pricing. The interior is vast and beautifully designed as a proper pub with library books and rustic dining tables. No expense spared on the refurb which still looked immaculate and clean.
At Oxted the Victoria train arrived on time at 5.57pm both of us changing at CJ for onward trains.
A lovely walk with fine views. Thanks to Joe for posting and sorry everyone else missed it but I must confess it’s jolly nice walking in peace and tranquility without the need to chatter incessantly.
7 set out from London Bridge five minutes late, but with an 8 minute window to change at Redhill we felt we could still make it. Alas the delay caused by speed restrictions following recent hot weather increased, and we arrived 16 minutes late, missing the Godstone train by 8 minutes.
A mobile call informed us that 2 walkers from Victoria had arrived on time and were now Godstone bound.
We decided not to wait for the next train as the morning was already well advanced, and opted to do the Redhill circular instead.
We set off in slight drizzle which soon cleared. We lunched in the churchyard at Nutfield, having decided to give Bletchingley a miss. One walker returned fron South Nutfield station while the rest returned to Redhiil and visited it's Wetherspoons where some nice cider was consumed.
1629 back to London for most. A report from the two who made it to Godstone will follow. n=9 in w=warm-humid-slightly-drizzly conditions.
One final comment for the walk author, we found the Gpx file easy enough but the written walk directions don’t have any distances or compass bearings.
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