Length: 17.9km (11 miles) - with extensions possible
Toughness: 6 out of 10
*** TRAIN TIMES AMENDED ****
9.45 train from Waterloo (9.52 Clapham Junction) to Milford, arriving 10.38
Buy a day return to Milford.
For walk directions click here. For GPX click here. For a map of the route click here. T=1.20
Since it is forecast to be HOT today. I have picked a walk a) which avoids train lines that might be used by hordes heading to the coast and b) which has a reasonable amount of shady bits to keep us cool. Otherwise, this popular walk has varied scenery, some hilly bits and a pretty village or two. Towards its end, tea by a canal may be possible...
There are two potential lunch pubs - one early one - the Merry Harriers - and one mid walk - the White Horse in Hascombe. But one just never knows with pubs in these strange times. Sometimes it is quite easy to turn up and get served, and sometimes there is a list of rules as long as your arm and you have to book in advance.
In the afternoon the walk crosses the National Trust Winkworth Arboretum on a public footpath. I have agonised a bit about this, since the NT website says it is only letting in a limited number of visitors on pre-booked tickets yadda yadda. But a public footpath is a public footpath, right? They can't control access to that. Can they? (Any advice on this welcome...) It might be an idea not to arrive at the entrance in a great big group, however. There is a cafe at the entrance to the Arboretum which will be open for takeaways, apparently.
Towards the end of the walk, there is Hectors on the Wey, a delightful little cafe with outside tables at Farncombe Lock. I have no reason to think they won't be open, but if they are not, Godalming has lots of tea options.
If you want to extend the walk, the Walk Options for this walk give some suggestions for climbing hills to views (or in one case, quixotically, no views: a hill climb just for the sake of it?). I add a suggestion of my own: going north along the Wey from Farncombe Boat House (rather than south to Godalming) brings you to Guildford in about three miles. This section of the Wey is festooned with interesting wildflowers at this time of year and there is a riverside pub garden at Farncombe fairly early on, which may be open.
Trains back from Godalming are at 24/25 and 41 past to 19.24, then 20.29 and 21.29. All
These trains also call at Guildford.
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3 comments:
I think the train times are wrong there is a9.45 from Waterloo but not a 10.15
Amended. SWT have a tiresome habit at present of changing their mind about weekend train times midweek.
W=Very-hot-and-sultry sums up the weather. Sunny? Not exactly. A white sky through which the sun shone with varying intensity in the afternoon. Generally it felt like walking through a sauna with an overcoat on. Probably n=26 of us, maybe more. I counted at the start and then forgot to write it down. The long narrow path by the railway line at the beginning of the walk ensured we soon spread out into smaller groups.
The landscape was very dry and end-of-summer-y. The regular wooded sections were as much a relief for their greenery as for their shade. Around twelve of us sojourned at two tables in the garden of the White Horse, where some ate and some had drinks, the table service proving very efficient (not to mention well-informed about the benefits of bi-mode trains).
Six or seven of us stopped at the National Trust refreshment kiosk at Winkworth Arboretum - ice cream mysteriously proving more popular than tea (I had both). There was no problem using the right of way through the Arboretum, the former ticket kiosk having disappeared (I think the NT assume everyone arrives by car these days.) My party did get lost in the grounds, but not intentionally, I assure you.
Arriving at Hectors on the Wey at 4.30pm, I was surprised to find the place deserted - apart from another pod of SWC walkers already in residence. So we enjoyed a second tea (for some of us) by the canal in tranquility (or rather we could make as much noise as we liked without disturbing anyone else.)
I think most then got a train about 5.30 from Godalming. I dawdled longer on the riverside seeing water chickweed and comma butterflies, and got the 6.25, on which I met one of our number who had spent the afternoon seeing friends. And so back to the hair dryer heat of London....
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