Length 16.2 km (10.1 miles), 2/10 or 20.6 km (12.8 miles) 6/10 with the Godalming finish
A Surrey wood and heathland walk today, with a lot of solid or sandy surfaces making it suitable for muddy conditions, but with the option of switching to walk 1.12 Farnham to Godalming after Charleshill if it's not too wet. You will have to make a good pace to get to Godalming in daylight after a pub lunch, but there are good pubs to finish in either way!
Travel: 0953 from Waterloo (Clapham Junction 1000, Woking 1029), to Farnham, arriving 1055. Return trains from Farnham at 28 and 58. Plenty of trains from Godalming.
Get a return to Farnham; if returning from Godalming you will also need a Godalming-Woking single.
Lunch: the Barley Mow in Tilford (tel 01252 792 205), just off the route, would be an early lunch stop and the green there is probably the best picnic spot. The Donkey in Charleshill (tel 01252 702 124) comes about 45 minutes later and is nearer half way through the walk. Booking is recommended.
Tea: in Farnham, we usually end up in the Mulberry pub by the station, but there are interesting options in Abbey Street across the A31. In Godalming, the Star on Church Street is a favourite post-walk watering hole, but those looking for a tea room should head for Cafe Mila (tel 01483 808569) in Angel Court, just off the High Street. Other tea options include the usual suspects such as Caffè Nero and Costa Coffee.
For walk directions, map and GPX click here
T=2.12.c
3 comments:
I wasn’t planning to do a walk report so did not count, but about n=17 on this walk in w=gorgeous-sunshine. This was a good choice for this time of year because lots of the route is on sandy soils, so relatively little mud. But today it was largely irrelevant since the ground was mostly frozen. There were some fascinating ice patterns in the puddles.
Some sandwichers stopped for lunch in Tilford. Eight of us headed to the Donkey for a pub lunch, having booked a table. We turned out to be the only customers in its sunny dining room, and were royally attended to, with generous portions of food. Some of the sandwichers popped in for drinks and seven of them headed on to Godalming, following the book one route, and arriving before dusk, I hear. Their train home was very crowded with passengers from Southampton (the main line being closed by a landslip at Hook).
The eight pub lunchers did the circular walk to Farnham across the heaths (I hear a couple of sandwichers did likewise separately). We got to Farnham as the sun was dipping below the horizon and felt well satisfied with our outing. Three went either for the first train or to the pub; five of us went to the Bush Hotel for tea. Here after some negotiation we were served with a ridiculously huge selection of cakes (we had expected little petit-fours) and struggled to eat half of them. Yet all this and tea came to just £7.50 a head.
N=22 were counted at the start. W=sunny all day, a perfect day for a walk.
#22 in fact. My correspondents indicate that 10+3 did the circular while nine made it to Godalming: 6 of the 7 who picnicked at Tilford were caught up by one pub-goer. Two others, well, let's just say they pioneered an alternative route from Charleshill along paths further to the north.
There was a huge flooded area of path around Fullbrook Farm which most circumvented by crossing nearby fields. Wishing to avoid more potential flooding on the way into Godalming, we later we left the book route and followed the "Fox Way" which turned out to be a good winter alternative apart from a few hundred yards of horrendous busy road around Upper Eashing. Most of us headed for the Star, where we were joined after about half an hour by the two who had had a more roundabout journey. A convivial time was had in the pub before we caught the busy train Walker mentions.
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