Length: 12.1 miles or 19.5 km (with options to shorten in the instructions). 3 out of 10
The walk links together several surviving and diverse heaths and commons in metropolitan Surrey. The most scenic section of the walk follows as the route descends through Winterbottom Wood to take in a section of the River Mole, heading North, then climbs up to the Ledges with views down to the river.
Late in the walk you have an option to go to Epsom or Ashtead stations, but Ashtead will be a rail bus to Epsom.
Trains: Get the 1003 train from Waterloo (Clapham 1012, Wimbledon 1019,) arriving Oxshott 1038. Frequent return trains from Epsom to either Waterloo or Victoria. Buy a day return to Effingham Junction, which is where the two lines meet .
Lunch: The recommended lunch stop is the Star (8 miles/13.1 km into the walk).
Tea: In Ashtead, the Woodman is recommended and in Epsom, the Cricketeers Inn is suggested.
t=swc.178
3 comments:
If any updates to the directions are needed, please let me know.
Waterloo was heaving with people, doubtless heading for fleshpots and places of resort, so it was a relief to get a relatively quiet train to the Surrey Heaths.
N=16 assembled on the station platform on arrival and I am not aware that any joined later. The weather was w=cloudy-but-with-increasing-sun-after-lunch. Quite hot and sticky near the end.
Early on there were good displays of heather on Oxshott and Esher Commons. Not quite at its best but getting there. Two of us looking for butterflies recorded seven species, with three types of moth and one hornets’ nest (never seen one of those before!). There were lots of blackberries to eat en route.
The walk author asked for comments on the walk. Nothing to say about the written directions, since all of us used GPX as far as I am aware. But it was widely felt that the route dives up narrow (and sometimes overgrown) paths a little too often, when wider ones were available.
The morning was also felt to be too long. Several shortened it by missing out the loop down along the river and I wished I had done the same, frankly. The river path was blocked in several places by minor fallen trees and provided no scenic interest, not even a good view of the river. Simply turning right onto Esher Common would save a mile and a half without reducing the charm of the walk at all in my opinion.
Two tables of four had been booked at the Star for lunch, but alas when (or in some cases before) we got there we learned it had had a power cut and would not be doing food. Two of us speedily diverted to the Woodman in Ashtead, a chain pub which served reasonable food with reasonable rapidity. Two more joined us and we found on our way out that another five (?) had also turned up and were tucking into meals. Did I also hear later that some people managed to get food in the Star after all? So all who wanted to got a pub lunch, I guess.
In the afternoon we crossed Ashtead Common, hoping for some lingering examples of the cornucopia of butterflies that are found there in late June and July. But we had to content ourselves with a southern hawker dragonfly (and later the hornets’ nest). We rounded up a few sandwichers en route.
At the end I got to the Cricketers pub on Epsom Common expecting to find a happy crew of walkers there. But apparently people have social lives or significant others they have to get back to, so there were only four of us. We had a nice drink anyway and some good chat, before going for the train at…..(whenever: I never note the return train time)
Three of us got separated early on after diving up a narrow path which most others eschewed. We misread the directions to the A307 and made quite a detour to get to the River Mole (with hindsight we would have been better off reversing that bit). I thought that section was quite enjoyable although we did have to dodge round a path closure - hopefully only temporary. But there were no views of the river from above as the greenery was very thick; maybe there are only views in the winter.
I did use the directions, at least until Prince's Coverts, where after our detour and being a bit hungry, we took a bee-line to the pub. There we heard the news about no lunch and encountered some of the others mentioned in Walker's report. One group was about to leave in search of lunch and later another did get served, so we left them to it and headed for Epsom as the afternoon heat built up. Mike, I'll drop you a line separately.
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