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This Week's Walks - Archive

Please see the Saturday Walker's Club This Week's Walks page.

This is an archive of walks done by the Saturday Walker's Club. You should only need to use this page if the SWC website is down.

Sunday 16 April 2017

Easter Day walk: Bluebells and wood anemones in Surrey's Green Belt

SWC walk 43 - Whyteleafe to Woldingham
Length: 14.3km (8.9 miles) to 19km (11.8 miles)
Toughness: 4 out of 10

10:21 East Grinstead train from London Bridge (10.40 East Croydon) to Upper Warlingham, arriving 10.51
Don’t try starting from Victoria today, since there’s a lengthy rail replacement bus service to East Croydon.

Trains back from Woldingham are at xx:04 and xx:34.

For walk directions click here.

Ticket advice from the walk’s author: You can use Oyster or LT travelcards (zone six) to Upper Warlingham, but Woldingham is one stop outside the boundary. If you buy a single from there to Upper Warlingham you have the problem of how to tap in at Upper Warlingham if using Oyster. A six zone travelcard with a Network Card (£7.90) would save you a dash across the platform, or just buy a day return to Woldingham from your starting station of choice.

With today’s other walk involving a long journey and an early start, this one is definitely for those preferring a late start. It is just outside London, but very rural in character, traversing woods, fields and isolated valleys. It was previously a popular walk, regularly posted twice a year, but hasn’t been done for a couple of years now, so it’s overdue an outing. The walk offers a plethora of woods with wood anemones and bluebells, and the latter should be starting to make a nice show, though may not be quite at their best yet.

There are shorter and longer options - see walk directions. The recommended lunch pub is the Harrow Inn (01883 629031) about 11km into the walk.. For tea, the Dene Coffee Shop in Knights Garden Centre is ideal if you can get to it in time, but it closes at 4:00pm on Sundays. There are no other tea options in Woldingham.
T=swc.43

4 comments:

Sean said...

I can confirm Chris L's rather gloomy prognosis about the woodland flowers on this walk: the wood anemones are just past their best and the bluebells won't be fully out for another week or two. But look out for some unusual violet-coloured wood sorrel in Ledgers Wood.

Celine said...

Interested in coming! Do you think there will be room in the pubs (Easter Sunday) or do you recommend bringing packed lunches?

Sean said...

Hard to say, Celine. The Harrow Inn is not the sort of pub to turn people away and I've seen it cope with lots of people eating on the outside tables when it's warm enough, but if it's very busy it may take a long time to get served. The later lunch pub (now The Bull Colosseum) has changed hands again and I haven't tried it in its latest guise of an Italian restaurant.

Judging by the Sunday walk reports there are always some who go for a pub lunch and others who bring sandwiches, so you'll have company whatever you decide to do.

Ian T said...

N=17 (including a fleeting visit from the walk's author). A sizeable proportion took the long walk. Lunch at the Harrow. Fast service, food well received. Bluebells were mostly still greenbells, though Kings Wood put on a good show. As did the stitchwort, dandelions, buttercups and some of the trees. Some unusual violet wood sorrel in Ledger Wood. Some walkers went to the Dene for tea. Some didn’t. w=cloudy-some-sun-no-rain-cool-wind