Length: 11½ km (7.1 miles). Toughness: 3/10
10:53 East Grinstead train from London Bridge (Norwood Jct 11:06, East Croydon 11:10), arriving Woldingham at 11:25. Buy a return to Oxted. Note that there are no trains from Victoria or Clapham Jct to East Croydon.
Trains back from Oxted are at xx:29 & xx:59.
With ongoing threats of rail strikes and planned engineering works almost everywhere I look, I've been a bit stuck for a novel New Year's Day walk to complement the Wind-in-the-Willows saunter. However, this modest little outing has worked reasonably well in the past: we can have a late start and there are plenty of pubs en route.
After a long but gentle climb onto Oxted Downs you'll reach a fine viewpoint overlooking…OK, it's the M25 and not the Thames valley, but it's still a good spot to whip out your bottle of fizz and toast the New Year. But don't overindulge, as there's a precipitous descent down the North Downs escarpment on the next leg into Old Oxted. The walk notes actually nominate The Haycutter a bit further on as the suggested lunch pub on this variation, but unless you've booked a place there it might be worth trying to squeeze into one of the three hostelries on the High Street, with walkers tending to favour the Crown Inn.
The afternoon leg is a short loop out to Tandridge with its ancient yew tree, but as Old Oxted is only 1 km from the main town you could choose to skip this potentially muddy finale and head straight into Oxted from the lunch pub. There are several cafés and coffee shops near the station as well as a conveniently placed JD Wetherspoon's pub, the Oxted Inn.
You'll need to bring the directions from the L=swc.2.a – clicking 'Short' on the Walk Options heading line will cut out the 4 or 5 sheets of paper containing the main walk directions via Godstone.
1 comment:
N=19 on a w=warm-cloudy-and-dry day. The shortest route was suggested and that’s what we took. though, in the afternoon, some may have strayed as far as Tandridge. I don’t like to use the L-word, as you know, but, in the morning, there was a little confusion about the official designated spot to drink prosecco (a sort of cider made from grapes). This resulted in there being two separate stops, with some people maybe having more than the prescribed dosage,
This did not put us in best condition to tackle the precipitous slippery descent from the Surrey Alps into Old Oxted. Miraculously, we all survived to reach base camp in the George. Here, sustenance was a long time coming but did eventually arrive. To help pass the time, more alcohol was consumed. A merry band then proceeded to Oxted where some went for tea in the old cinema and others just went home,
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