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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 December 2018

Sunday Walk: Riddlesdown to Coulsdon South

Book 2, walk 15
16.8 km. 10.4 miles or, with shortcut, 7.8 miles 12.5km.
Difficulty 4/10
This walk, all within travelcard zone 6, goes through some of the finest preserved commons in the green belt, including Happy Valley and Farthing Down. You also get to marvel at one of England's oldest - and biggest - wall paintings in Chaldon Church .
Travel:
Get the 10:22 East Grinstead train from London Bridge (E Croydon 10:39) arr. Riddlesdown 10:47. (No service from Victoria today). Get a Zones 1-6 travelcard.
Returning from Coulsdon South at xx:04 involves 10 minutes on a replacement bus to Purley where you pick up the xx:28 train to London Bridge. Total journey time 51min.
Returning at xx:34 (also via bus to Purley) involves a further change at East Croydon. Total journey time 55 min.
Lunch 
The Fox, Coulsdon Common 01883 330 401- Busy, efficient and "oozing rustic charm and rural character" according to their website. There's a possible earlier stop at Wattenden - the Wattenden Arms, open from 12.
Tea:
There is a Caffe Nero, 5 mins north of the station at 132 Brighton Road, open until 5pm.
The Poppy Cafe in the Memorial Gardens (across the road from Reddown Rd) is open till 4.
There's also a drinks machine in the station's cab office.
Additionally, the walk's intro page gives directions to a pub, the Pembroke, 12-16 Chipstead Valley Road, CR5 2RA.
(The Pembroke and Caffe Nero are not that far from Coulsdon Town station where trains run to Purley at xx:11 or East Croydon at xx:41 - directions not in text, continue north along Brighton Rd and turn right into Leaden Hill).
Walk Directions:  here.
Bearing in mind it gets dark early, consider the shortcut (option a), soon after the Fox.
T=2.15

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Anyone is interested in doing this walk an hour earlier to get it finished before the dark?

Margarita said...

Hello,
I’d love to join.
Where is the meeting point to meet the group and what time?:)
Thank you

Mr M Tiger said...

Margarita - Check out the link "guide for new members that explains all" near the top of the page. Normally you meet on the destination station platform (in this case Riddlesdown at 10:47), or look out for the group at the ticket barrier if you're not arriving by train.

paul said...

Did anyone do this walk? I set off but got distracted....took the Tattenham Corner service, got off at Reedham and set off for Riddlesdown...took a wrong turn and arrived at Kenley. On a positive note, I don't know that area so it was a learning experience...I hope!!-

Mr M Tiger said...

My extensive network of spies tell me there were about n=6 on this walk that was largely w=dry-with-a-little-light-rain-over-lunch. That's not counting Paul.

Anonymous said...

They were about 10 or 11 and one well-behaved dog. loosely separated into two groups. most enjoyed lunch at the popular Fox. the advance party charged on through stretches of mud to reach Coulsdon station. lovely walk but two GPS holders registered about 12 miles for the full walk instead of 10.4 ?..

Walker said...

n=10

Mr M Tiger said...

My extensive network of spies have been booked back into Espionage School. They can only have been snooping on part of the group. :(

Walker said...

Either that, or the Russians are feeding disinformation about walk numbers to us in order to destabilise Western democracy...