Book 1 Walks 42 and 49: Surrey Peaks Challenge -- Holmwood to Box Hill t=1.42
Distance: 17.8 miles (28.7 km) for the full challenge; shorter options available – Holmwood to Gomshall as written (10.4 miles/16.7 km) or Holmwood to Box Hill (without going up Box Hill (about 10.8 miles/17.0km)
Ascent: 914 meters for full challenge (coincidently, just reaching Munro status)
Difficulty: 12 out of 10 for full challenge; 6 out of 10 for walk to Gomshall and 8 out of 10 for walk to Box Hill without ascending the Hill
Train: Take the 9:41 AM Horsham-bound train from London Victoria arriving in Holmwood at 10:47. Given the length of the full challenge, some planning to do the full route, may wish to start an hour earlier by taking the 8:41 AM train. Return trains from Box Hill & Westhumble are at 35 and 46 past the hour until 18:46 and 19 and 35 past the hour until 23:35 (plenty of time to finish the full route!) and from Gomshall at 17:01; 17:53; 19:01; 19:53, 21:01 and 21.43. Unless walking to Gomshall, buy a day return to Holmwood. If walking to Gomshall, buy a “any permitted” day return to Gomshall.
First, apologies to the Wednesday walkers, as this walk was recently posted for them. HOWEVER, it appears none did the full challenge and only 2 did the modest challenge of including Boxhill (but not White Hill or Norbury Park). SO, it only seems fair to allow the Scottish contingent an opportunity to test those legs and it is hard to find a Munro sized peak in the Southeast!
The route takes in several “local” peaks to make a “Surrey Challenge” and with 914 meters of total ascent is the perfect warm-up walk for those heading to Glen Affric next week. The walk route is bookended with two Book 1 favorites – Walk 42 (Holmwood to Gomshall) and Walk 49 (Box Hill Circular option). There is a map-led middle section across the valley and up to the North Downs Way along the escarpment and across Ranmore Common before descending to Denbies where the circular option of route of Walk 49 can be picked-up.
You can find more information about the two component walks here and here. It is proving a challenge to get the challenge route uploaded onto the site -- but you should be able to download it from here : #/test/karen/SurreyChallengeConnector.gpx .
The recommended lunch stop is the Wooton Hatch pub in Wooton (about 7 miles/11 km into the walk). Tea, afternoon and/or evening refreshments can be enjoyed at the café at Denbies or the Stepping Stones pub near Box Hill station or at the Abinger Hammer Tea Rooms or Compasses Inn in Gomshall.
Enjoy the walk!
3 comments:
I intend to take the 8.41 train.
I plan to get on the 8.41 from Victoria at Clapham Junction.
Quite a fabulously fun big day with a great turn out in w=partly-sunny-conditions-with-one-late-passing-shower. Congratulations to the 15 who completed the challenge! A job well done!
In more detail:
6 walkers off the train an hour earlier, all also going to Scotland in a week's time. The railway crossing 15 minutes into the route was closed for 'emergency' repairs (closed since early March), necessitating looping back to near the start. They split into 4 + 2, stopped at Leith Hill Tower for a drink and at Wotton for lunch. After lunch, 2 joined the main group and 1 from the main group joined them. 1 then diverted to Denbie's and later met the full challenge walkers from main group on the way up Box Hill. No more significant stops for this group who caught the 18-something.....
18 from the posted train gathered on the platform and were met by 1 other on the way up Leith Hill who had taken an earlier train via Horsham (10 of these are heading to Scotland), making for n=25 in total. The main group separated into smaller sub-groups early on the ascent of Leith Hill where most enjoyed the fine views stretching from Canary Wharf in the north and Chanctonbry Ring in the south -- but did not indulge in any drinks.
A good number lunched at Wotton briefly seeing the advance party before their departure. A group of 13 from the main group set off promptly after lunch with most of them planning to complete the challenge..... On the way, 2 carried on at speed and were not seen again until on the way home with the advance party, 2 took the lower route towards Box Hill (one going on to Dorking) and a further 2 dropped out at Box Hill (claiming evening commitments) -- but, we gained 1 on the way up Box Hill (from the advance party having stopped for tea) and 1 more on top of Box Hill (1 of those who had taken the lower route initially). 8 stopped for restorative drinks at the William the 4th with 1 carrying straight on without a stop. After drinks, 4 took a lower route with 4 taking the designated route up to Norbury Park where we encountered a closure and route diversion. We arrived at the Stepping Stones about 8pm where we met a non-challenge walker who had kindly arranged a table for 9 of us to enjoy a well earned evening meal and some wine tasting -- dispersing for the 9:19; 9:35 or 9:37....as desired....
Post a Comment