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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.

Saturday, 23 November 2024

Holmwood to Shamley Green

t=SWC.287

Length: 19km (12m)
Toughness: 8 / 10
Transport: Take the 8:41 from London Victoria to Holmwood, arriving at 9:47 (I know, it's early, but it will get dark by 16:30). Buses from Shamley Green to Guildford at 17:12, 17:42, 18:12, 18:49, 19:19, 19:49, 20:22. Return trains from Guildford at xx:00 and xx:20. Buy a day return to Gomshall.

This beautiful autumn walk through woodlands follows the Greensand Way and climbs up to several great viewpoints. The recommended lunch pub is the Royal Oak in Holmbury St Mary. For adventurous types, it is another 9km walk from Shamely Green to Guildford, initially along a disused railway line and then along the Wye navigation.

1 comment:

Walker said...

Wet and windy it was forecast to be and w=wet-and-windy it was. Actually not too much of either in the morning, but more after lunch. There was the odd moment when the swaying of the trees got a bit worrying, but mostly it was within acceptable limits.

On days like this you discover who the tough ones are. (Also those prepared to get up for an 8.41am train…). A merry band of N=6 we were, and as always with such small groups, cohesion was good.

To my amazement the tea kiosk was open on Leith Hill, but we did not stop. This was not a day to linger at viewpoints (and there was not much view anyway). Later in the day on Holmbury and Pitch Hills there was no view at all, just mist.

All six of us stopped at the Royal Oak for lunch. We had booked for five, but in fact the place was nearly empty. Ordering was a bit of a faff (the staff seemed unfamiliar with the till system) but food came quickly. Two also had puddings, which turned out to be enormous: the rest of us helped finish them.

After lunch, more wind, rain, woods and hills. The ground was covered in golden leaves and there was still a few good patches of tint on beech trees. We filled the afternoon with happy chat.

Much though some of us (OK, me…) cursed the early start, it paid off, as we got to Shamley Green just about in the daylight (an unprecedented feat on this walk at this time of year). One of our number had streaked off mid afternoon and we later heard he had walked all the way to Guildford, arriving there at 5.50pm.

The rest of us went to the cosy Red Lion and had wine, beer, tea, mulled wine, crisps and nuts, and generally passed a very pleasant hour. We then went to the bus stop and spent half an hour there in the dark, being given contradictory information by the dot matrix indicator. Just when we were wondering if we would have to walk to Guildford ourselves, a bus turned up. It didn’t have any heating, but it got us back to civilisation.