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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.

Wednesday 29 July 2020

Wednesday walk Farnham to Godalming - River Wey, Waverley Abbey and Peper Harrow Park

Book 1, Walk 12 - Farnham to Godalming

Length: 20.6 km (12.8 miles). Continuing along the river at walk-end to Guildford adds 4 miles to the walk.
Toughness: 6 out of 10


Meeting place:  outside Farnham station building at 11-30 hrs

We will do a socially-distanced meet up there and split into groups of no more than six. You must please be prepared to swop contact details with others in your group for contact tracing purposes

If you are comfortable travelling on public transport out of rush hour, and comply with social distancing rules and wear face covering etc, the suggested train to the walk-start is as follows:

London Waterloo:  10-23 hrs. Alton service. CJ 10-30 hrs
Arrive Farnham: 11-25 hrs

Return service: Godalming to Waterloo:  16-09, 16-25, 16-41, 16-51, 17-11, 17-25, 17-41, 17-51, 18-25 hrs and so on

Guildford to Waterloo: usually 4 fast trains an hour

Rail ticket: Buy an off-peak day return to Farnham plus a single from Godalming to Woking

Today's walk in the western extremities of leafy Surrey starts and ends along the River Wey. Fit walkers can have an extended walk beside the river by continuing at walk-end from Godalming to Guildford. At this time of year this extension should make for a very enjoyable early evening walk. But for us lesser mortals, 12.8 miles should be quite sufficient for today's walk, along mostly flat sandy bridleways and through commons.

The delightful early pub-lunch stop on this walk is the Barley Mow in Tilford. The pub has reopened and has a new menu for current conditions. But the traditional pub stop for this walk comes 50 minutes later on in the walk at the Donkey pub, Charleshill, which should be open and serving food and drinks. If stopping here say hello to the two donkeys, Pip and Dusty, resident in the back garden.

The afternoon leg of the walk takes you towards walk-end back along the river into Godalming. Tea options are listed in the walk directions, found here: L=1.12
T=1.12

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

hi Marcus please correct me if i'm wrong but just looked up the bus 46 route and there appears to be a stop at Charleshill where the lunchtime pub, the Donkey, is situated?
runs every 2 hours

thanks

Marcus said...

Hi Anonymous, Yes - the timetable shows there should be a Number 46 bus service to Goldalming stopping in Tilford, Charles Hill today at 12-52 hrs and 14-52 hrs. But I leave it to you to work out where the bus stop is !

Marcus said...

I met ten off the posted train outside Farnham station, and we sort-of splintered into a number of small groups before setting off, rather haphazardly, on today's walk. Three others had taken an earlier train, and one had driven to Godalming to do part of the walk backwards, so totting up, methinks that makes n=15.
We were blessed with another w=warm-summers-day, sunny most of the time, but not as hot as the previous week in Balcombe: near ideal walking conditions. Infact, given over 85 % of the walk is within shaded woodland, we could have tackled this walk on a hot day and not felt uncomfortable.
We opted to delay lunch until the second pub, The Donkey in Charleshill, where four of us dined - and met the early-train three who were finishing their meal. The pub's owner and staff managed the Covid-compliance very well and efficiently without being officious, and our food dishes, which arrived promptly, were delicious and enjoyed by all. So well done, and thank you to the Donkey.
Pip was in the paddock behind the pub, looking dozy, but no sign of Dusty today, having a snooze in her stable, perhaps.
After lunch, per usual, we separated into a number of sub-groups, making for all ports in west Surrey. I remained with my three diners for the afternoon leg, now in warm sunshine, through more woodland trails before reaching Peper Harrow - the only open bit of the walk. Onwards then to Godalming and the final leg beside the River Wey. Three of us stopped for a drink in the Star pub on the High Street (where our car driver was spotted loitering). Two or three from a different pod stopped for a pint in the sun at the Stag on the River in Eashing, and we met them at the railway station. The 18-25 was running a little late, but no matter: by then, we had enjoyed a long day in the sun and a snooze on the journey home was in order.