Length: 15.4 km (9.6 miles). Toughness: 3/10
10:07 Alton & Basingstoke train from Waterloo (Clapham Jct 10:15), changing at Surbiton (arr 10:29, dep 10.32) for the Guildford via Cobham train waiting on the adjacent platform, arriving Horsley at 10:53. This connection is a bit tight and journey planners tell you to get the 09:57 Hampton Court train instead, arriving Surbiton at 10:26. Your choice!
Trains back from West Byfleet to Waterloo are half-hourly at xx:10 & xx:40. If you're not in a hurry you could also take the xx:56 on a meandering and very leisurely route via Staines and Hounslow, but it gets in later than the next xx:10. NB. Horsley and West Byfleet are on different lines and South Western Railway onboard staff can be strict about tickets, so buy a return to Guildford to cover both journeys.
This walk has had a succession of winter outings and doubtless deserves a posting in a more favourable season, but as reports have claimed that it makes a good winter walk I've decided to prolong the sequence. I've only done snippets of the route myself but it looks nicely varied: starting through woods and fields, continuing across heathland and past the RHS Garden at Wisley, then finishing with a stretch along the towpath of the Wey Navigation. Along the way I recommend taking the suggested detour to the 19thC Semaphore Tower on Chatley Heath, although something that was designed to be visible from 10 miles away can be surprisingly hard to find now that the surrounding trees have grown up. There'll be a bonus for anyone who stumbles across another oddity hidden in the nearby woods, the Samuelson Mausoleum.
The walk's only real drawback is that if you want a pub lunch you have to stop quite early or very late. Near the start you'd need to take a small detour for the Black Swan at Martyr's Green, but The Anchor is more favourably placed at Pyrford Lock on the Navigation. At both places you might be able to eat outside without booking, but you'd certainly need to call ahead if you want a table inside.
In the middle section of the walk there's a café at the car park near the A3, and if you can put up with the road noise this would make a convenient spot for a picnic lunch. At the end of the walk some of the cafés near West Byfleet station should be open on a Sunday, but you could also stop for tea a little earlier at The Anchor.
The Basingstoke Canal runs through West Byfleet and in the past a few people have extended the walk to Weybridge (the start of the West Byfleet to Hampton Court walk), but be aware that Weybridge station is a fair distance from the town centre.
You'll need to bring the directions from the L=swc.214
1 comment:
The sun disappeared half an hour before the start and reappeared half an hour after we finished, so n=10 + 1 dog had a w=rather-cold-and-cloudy walk through varied Surrey countryside. Neither a very early or very late pub lunch seemed to appeal so we all stopped at the picnic area around the Ockham Bites café, which although exposed to traffic noise from the A3 got high marks for its bacon rolls and other snacks. Lots of trees have been felled here for the A3/M25 junction widening, but the footbridge over the A3 remains open and it was easy enough to pick up the route from the café. At the end of the walk there was talk of stopping for tea'n'cake in West Byfleet but in practice all but one followed me onto the station platform and caught the 15:10 train.
Some gremlins seemed to have got at the GPS route so a new and hopefully more accurate version has been uploaded. I've taken the liberty of revising the main GPS route to take in both the Samuelson Mausoleum and the Chatley Heath Semaphore Tower; it's more interesting and no longer than the "twisty route through a boggy section" described in the written instructions, which has been left in as an option.
Post a Comment