t=SWC.148
Length: 17km (10m)
Toughness: 4 / 10
This is a pleasant section of the Greensand Way, passing through gentle Surrey countryside, with a mix of pasture, arable fields and woodland, and some fine escarpment views typical of the Greensand Way.Toughness: 4 / 10
Waymarking on the route is often fairly poor, hence these directions. While the route largely follows the Greensand Way, in a couple of places alternatives are suggested to avoid walking on busy roads.
Trains: Get the Thameslink 0950 Gatwick train from London Bridge (St Pancras 0935, Blackfriars 0943, East Croydon 1006 etc) arriving 1027. Buy an Edenbridge return (the fare is under £13).
Return from Oxted are xx23 xx53 to Victoria, xx20 to London Bridge plus some slower Thameslink trains
Lunch: The Red Lion in Bletchingley after 3.8 miles gives an early lunch.
Tea: Oxted has various options.
5 comments:
Hi. In the walk report, please mention if this is an apple-rich walk. Thank you.
I wrote it. It isn’t.
The walk author
If you are looking for a walk with apple orchards on, see this page:
https://nature-and-weather.walkingclub.org.uk/p/where-to.html
and scroll down to “Apple blossom”
So where woz the rest of you? Just n=3 on this walk. Was it the slightly early train? The weather forecast? The walk? Or could you not tear yourself away from the news coverage of the Brexit negotiations?
You were possibly right about the weather. The Lying BBC Weather Forecast promised rain soon clearing to sun. Instead there was w=grey-cloud-with-a-bit-of-rain. The rain was a tiny bit at the start of the walk and a big dollop at the end. In between there was a tussle between grey skies to the south and somewhat brighter skies to the north. The south won.
We got to the lunch pub in Bletchingley at midday (ie, a later train would not have been a bad idea). It turned out I was the only potential pub luncher, but I guilt-tripped another into joining me. The pub menu, to its credit, included a full vegan menu with three starters and three mains: I had the not unrespectable veg curry. My companion, for the sake of balance, had a sausage baguette.
In the afternoon there were little bits of leaf colour, though the most autumnal sight was the large variety of leaves on the ground. There were also oodles and oodles of fallen sweet chestnuts - one could have filled a bucket. Less cheerfully, MUD is back - big, gloopy, sticky, slithery, sloppy, trouser-spattering mud. (Heigh-ho: only five months to spring....)
We got to Oxted at 3.30, in time for tea at the ridiculously early-closing Robertsons, where we had Darjeeling, Assam and an Americano respectively. Then to the 16.20/23 train, with sunshine on the way back into London.
One other did the walk on Tuesday in hopes of better weather and was rewarded with brilliant sunshine in the morning though grey later on.
I did the purists version of the Greensand Way (12 miles versus 10 for the SWC ) and was rewarded with some splendid views though the text is right to complain of an excess of road walking, which is strange for an official long distance path. Some of these roads were rather busy and without pavements or grass on either side.
Tuesday was Steak day at the Oxted Wetherspoons. I hope that my teeth will eventually recover!.
Post a Comment