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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.

Thursday 28 December 2017

Thursday Walk: Woldingham to Oxted - A North Downs Breezer

Woldingham to Oxted (SWC walk 2)
Length: 16.8km (10.4 miles)
Toughness: 5 out of 10

9.53 train from Victoria (9.59 Clapham Junction, 10.10 East Croydon) to Woldingham, arriving 10.26

Buy a day return to Oxted. You can't use your Network Card, as the train is before 10.00, but as the fare is only £10.90 and this is a weekday when there is a £13 minimum on Network Card discounts, it makes no difference anyway

For walk directions click here. For GPX click here.

This fine romp along the ridge of the North Downs, then descending to the valley to walk along to Oxted, made a convivial post-Christmas outing two or three years ago. There is a bit of M25 noise en route but you will be too busy telling everyone about your Christmas presents to notice that....

The lunchtime village, Godstone, has three pubs and a tea room, so we won't starve. Oxted has two tea rooms, a Caffe Nero open to 6pm and a modern pub conveniently sited right by the station (didn't you have enough booze at Christmas??), so you won't die of thirst either.

Trains back are at 19 past to London Bridge (slightly quicker) and 24 and 54 past to Victoria, though mysteriously no 24 and 54 train is shown on the National Rail Enquires site for 18.24 and 18.54. There are trains 17.24, 17.54, 19.24 and 19.54 so I am assuming the lack of 18 past ones is a typo. T=3.2

4 comments:

Walker said...

It is a bizarre fact, but 28 December is often a w=sunny day. It was so in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016, and it was so in 2017. A glorious day in fact - cloudless, windless, a deep blue sky, frozen ground with just a few flecks of snow in places meaning there was much less mud than there might have been. What a joy it was to be out.

N=18 took advantage of all this, 2 of them late starters who we only met at tea. The rest of us enjoyed a lovely ridge walk in the morning, with sun-drenched views, though it has to be admittedly plentiful motorway noise too.

We had been helpfully informed at the start that all three pubs in Godstone were deficient. One certainly was - the Beafeater chain pub has closed and shows signs of being redeveloped into housing. We had been told that the Hare & Hounds was slow but some ate there, I understand, and had no complaints. Six of us went instead to the upmarket Bell Inn. It was fully booked but we squeezed into the bar. The food was OK, I guess.

The afternoon with its low lying country is a nice contrast to the afternoon. We six Bellers had coffee in the Barley Mow and got to Oxted in time to join a few other walkers in spreading more mud onto the floor of the Papillon Cafe, whose staff were just sweeping up the last lot. We all got the 16.54 train, but one (me) got off at Woldingham for a lovely hour long moonlight walk. Stargazer, you were missed.

Anonymous said...

I can recommend Coughlans' Bakery as another tea stop. It's on the high street on the other side of the station to Cafe Papillon. It has a nice selection of cakes and mince pies and about 4 or 5 tables at the back for eating in. It was still open and serving just before 17.00.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for your walk report Walker but the real number of walkers was a little over 18, though I am not sure how we quantify someone who joins us for say and hour and a half. You missed the ‘Inspector’ who supposedly had come out to check on the lunch venues but it seems that he only visited the Hare & Hounds where he had several pints and scrounged loads of chips from us 4 diners.
He then had a short stroll with us before returning to his car outside the Hare & Hounds as he had ‘an important meeting’.
All the best
A. Wellwisher


Garrie said...

We noticed that The HayCutter Inn, which is stated as closed in paragraph 13, has now re-opened.
https://www.brunningandprice.co.uk/haycutter/