NDW Day 5: Oxted to Otford

With the gorgeous spring, the brilliant summer and the sun cream laden autumn, I thought winter hiking would be a breeze.  A little colder perhaps, with shorter days, but how could it be any different?  I looked forward to some brusque and chilly walks.

Not so?

I crossed the M25 and headed up the hills of Oxted Downs to find the trail a bog.

I hadn't thought of this.  I mean, it has rained quite a bit off and on but there have been lovely sunny afternoons, but with the dim presence of the sun so low on the horizon, there is no way for all the water to dry up.

It made for exhausting hiking.

When I wasn't hopping over puddles, my boots became so heavy with caked-on mud that I started to think of them as cement shoes.  Plus, every step you took you slipped back a bit, meaning there was a lot of extra effort involved.  Ten miles soon began to feel like 20 at the end of the day, and I really feel like I earned anything I chose to consume when I was safely back in the SW9.

No matter though- the grass is still blindingly green, the trail devoid of humanoids, and the motorway still humming a tune to keep you company.  Also, I feel perfectly safe walking it on my own.

What was special about this day was the crossover from the county of Surrey into Kent.  A milestone of sorts on an otherwise unremarkable day of hillwalking.

Oh, yes.  I've gotten very lazy about carrying my big DSLR on these jaunts, as nothing has been striking me as notable and picturesque.  Green fields, rolling hills and a motorway.  Sometimes I see green woodpeckers, and always kestrels and buzzards.  Pics taken on the celly just aren't as good.  I think maybe the iphone has better optics than the Galaxy 5, which does take remarkably good macro shots, but really rubbish in the great outdoors.

I will finish this trail eventually.  It's always surprisingly pleasant to be strolling on, but just not stunning the way the Highlands of Scotland might be.

oh yes, special effects makes shitty pictures so much better.

North Downs Night Walk

How did I celebrate the winter solstice this year?

With a night hike, of course!

After spending a weekend in Cornwall and Dartmoor (which I still can't be arsed to write about) I took advantage of clear skies and a full moon for to get my night-legs on- the mood reflecting off the water meant sleep was not an option, along with roommates that sounded like they were sawing a fence in two.  I do love the idea of night hiking- the quiet, the endless privacy, all the creatures that come out once the sun is down.  My love of walking doesn't really gel with the tiny amount of daylight this time of year.

A plan was made.  After being up way too late and eating way too much the night before (thanks, Christmas!) I got a relaxed late start to walking a lonely 16 mile stretch of the North Downs through Kent from Otford to Cuxton.  Normally, I would be horrified at the idea of finishing a hike in darkness, but with a new braveness, I packed a torch and powered up and down the steep, rolling downland and quiet forested paths.

For a trail so well-traveled for centuries and so very close to London, I rarely see anyone on it.  A dog walker here and there. Newland's Corner and Box Hill are both kind of packed, but once you get out of the car parks, you are by yourself on the outskirts of 8.3 million people.

I didn't even break for lunch- it wasn't terribly cold, but cold enough that the chill set in if I lingered.  As the woods darkened under clouds and the sun disappeared to usher in the longest night of the year, a beautiful stillness took over.

The sounds of owls calling greeted the dark, along with the loud squawks of pheasants roosting in the trees and their panicked flights to a safer patch of trees than one invaded by me.  But the owls!  I love them only because they are so elusive- I see them rarely, so hearing them is always thrilling for me, and hearing them in the quiet woods outside of London was even more fun.

Oh, and it never really got truly dark in the open...I could see the eerie pink glow of London illuminating the clouds in front of me, and the city of Rochester lit up the other direction.  The woods were proper dark though.  One foot in front of the other, I slowly made my way through mud and over tree roots.

I used my torch rarely- to check to make sure the way-marks were being read correctly, and to check my compass.  Going through fields proved challenging as it was easy to lose the trail, so I would find a spot on the horizon that lined up with the compass and follow it until a fence was hit.  It's hiking in England!  I was more concerned about having a torch so that cars could see me if I did a stretch along the roadside, which I did.  The one time I did lose the trail in woods, the crunch of deep leaves underfoot alerted me to the fact that I was on A trail, but not THE trail, and I was quickly able to correct (rather than take a more direct route to the train station, it turned out).

In the end:  success.  I found a pub (!) and while waiting for the train back to London, I had myself a glass of wine and some chicken liver pate to celebrate my newly found night vision.  I was exhausted.  16 miles with a couple steep climbs and I was knackered, and the last four miles were in the dark and by far the slowest I've walked in a while, but I found the concentration needed on a moonless night taxing as well as I had to really look for every step.  In total, it took me 6 hours and 20 minutes from station to station, which isn't bad time at all on a muddy winter trail, and a happy peaceful walk is the anecdote to a plethora of seasonal maladies.

Hope you had a fantastic solstice, and enjoy the return of the sun.  Oh, unless you are in the Southern Hemisphere, in which case: enjoy the waning daylight, suckers!

 

NDW Day 1: Farnham to Guildford

In the interest of keeping that dreaded post-summer Buddha belly at bay, I decided to undertake a bit of a project.  While the days were growing shorter, but there were still nice days in store, I started taking the train out of London, and bit by bit I was walking the entire 153 miles of the North Downs Way.  

 

Another National Trail!  This one the closest to London, and you can hike it in a series of easy day trips as the rail system radiates out like spokes on a wheel away from London.  You can hike the North Downs in 10 to 15 mile chunks, with a train ride back to the city at the end of the day.  It starts in Farnham, goes through Surrey and into Kent, and ends at Dover, with an option to visit Canterbury.  

Being this close to London has its disadvantages: it's much more urban than the South Downs, not quite so pretty with some dodgy industrial parts, and there is a good chunk that skirts the motorway for a joyless 25 miles.  

Still...another chance to get out and see the countryside, have some solitude and quiet (when the cars aren't whizzing past at 70 anyway) and get to know my adopted home a bit better is an opportunity I won't pass up.  Having countryside access is key to my well being, both mentally and physically, and I love going through such a historic area of pilgrimages and drover roads, watching for birds and badgers and other twee English countryside critters.

The trail starts in Farnham, a quick 35 minute train ride out of Victoria Station.  So the journey begins.   

I wandered around in circles for a bit looking for the trail head, which didn't seem to have a clear official start spot.  I think I found it though....

I really.  Just don't.  Even.

Judy Chicago would be very proud at this artistic rendition of pudendum on a bench.  This is borderline pornographic!  I giggled and spent far too much time admiring the artistic handiwork.  I was able to capture the most awkward trailhead selfie ever:

A trail that starts off with that- it's got to be quality.  

The trail follows an A road for a bit, winding its way through farm fields and along country roads.  It wasn't all that exciting, but it was a nice countryside walk.

It is well way-marked, but I had an OS map to guide me through, as sometimes the trail would spit you out on a road and there would be no sign of where the trail picks back up.

I did end up walking alongside two busy golf courses on this day.  Comforting, no?

Oh!  and while I packed a lunch, there were plenty of brambles to pick clean.

The joy of all of this was that I saw few people.  A handful of dog walkers here and there, but only two other people walking the North Downs Way, and only one was a through hiker.  I think this is probably the most used but least through-hiked national trail.  It's just not that exciting for people to commit a couple weeks of their lives to.

One of the things about the North Downs is that a great deal of the trail is woods.  Unlike the South Downs where you are exposed most of the time, you can walk through quiet forest and have a little shelter and shade.  It also dampers the noise of the A31 road quite nicely.

Finally, Downland!  You can see the Hog's Back, a big distinctive chalk hill that the A road goes right over and along the ridge.

This first day, there wasn't too much as far as hill climbs went.  Some gentle long inclines where you barely notice the elevation gain over an hour or so.

However, most of this part of the NDW is also labeled "The Pilgrims Way", which is the route taken from Winchester to Canterbury Cathedrals to visit the shrine to Thomas Becket.  The actual route the Pilgrims took is debatable, but they do occasionally find artifacts lost and forgotten by pilgrims of yore all along this area.    

The rest of the day- well, I don't want to call any time spent outdoors walking in nice weather boring, but it wasn't exactly Switzerland.  Even a roman site ended up being a let down- on my map it was identified as a "Roman Villa", but it ended up just being the "Site of" as they had build a road over it.

After 11 miles, I hit the River Wey, and turned North to walk along it into Guildford, my next ticket home.  I climbed St Catherine's Hill to get a view and explore the ruins of a chapel.  Medieval Guildford was so bustling, they needed two churches to accommodate parishioners.    

..Then back down to the River Wey, which had a series of lochs that people were chugging along in their flat-bottomed boats up.  I love the idea of this- I see these all over the upper Thames, and pretty much every waterway big enough to float down.  I would live in one of these if given the chance.

Altogether, a section of trail I wouldn't be itching to get back to, but as far as the ease to getting in and out of London, I have no complaints.

Tomorrow: More Downlands!  A more scenic happiness-inducing section of trail!  

Another jaunt up Box Hill, this time with a bag full of hooch

My walking obsession continues....

Recently, my friend Mary and I found ourselves both with a weekday in which neither one of us had work lined up.  After some consulting with my book of countryside walks, we decided to do a walk in the gentle downland near Box Hill.  A half hour train ride later to Westhumble Station in Surrey, we were rambling around the countryside just south of the city around the North Downs.

It was a lovely day for walking- completely overcast and cool.  It threatened to rain, but never did.  In fact (spoiler alert, I made it home at the end of the hike) arriving back in London that evening, I thought someone did me the kindness of watering my plants for me, as London got a proper soaking.  

With my OS map and compass and guidebook, we found the trail that led past a posh gated community to Norbury Park.

Deep, green quiet forest with lovely views when there was a break in the trees.  Through lovely forest of beech, cherry and ash trees in Durid's grove, past a working sawmill, and chalk grassland.  If we wouldn't have been chatting and laughing the whole time, I'm sure we would have seen wildlife.

bluebells....

I don't think the country house was open as we couldn't figure out how to get in, but Polesden Lacey estate had more lovely wooden trails all around it.  I want to live here.    

It's really lovely walking, and we only saw a handful of dog walkers the entire time.  Considering the park was sandwiched between two busy A-roads and we were barely outside the M25, it was surprisingly peaceful.

Eventually, we joined up the North Downs Way, past St Barnabus church.  I keep thinking that I'm going to walk the NDW in its entirety: it's broken up in easy day-trip stretches with easy trains to and from London every 10-12 miles or so.

We started walking down the North Downs.  I got distracted instantly by two walkers who looked a bit too jolly and done up to be really out waking, and stopped to chat.  "We've just been down to Denbie's", the man said, pointing down the hill.

Denbie's, eh?

Last time I was hiking Box Hill, I did see vines growing down in the valley.  I had no idea there was a big California-style chateau and tasting room attached to it.

We pretty much bolted down that hill.  Even after a 10 mile hike, I felt perfectly fresh despite the fact that I suddenly needed refreshment.  Oooh, my favorite kind of hike is the one down the hill to the vineyard.

  
Denby's ended up being huge, with a big car park and a cycle race finish line out front.  They give tours, there's an enormous cafe, an art gallery, a packed gift shop, and a place to taste.  And loos!  I guess if you've come that far, it's almost a public service to provide toilets.  They seem to have a lot of events and gatherings here, and even on a weekday, it was bustling.  

The wines weren't my favorite, but I bought a couple of bottles anyway, just for fun and good luck.  Although, I probably should have bought them after we hiked up and down Box Hill.  There was also a little marketplace selling beautiful tomatoes and local goodies, so we picked up some good cheese and fruit.

Then we packed up the whole mass and carried it up the overly steep Box Hill.  We had to walk a stretch along the A road for about a half mile, with the trucks roaring by, but there was a side walk and bike path and an underpass to eventually get across.

It's good to end the hike on a high note, and it was still an amazingly tough climb for such a small hill.  But the views, and the elation of doing it, was well worth it.  I could have walked another 10 miles in the woods, but as soon as we reached the top of the hill, I was knackered and ready to be done for the day.

For Sale, you say?   Hmmmm....

This kid had a bottle of coke that took off down the hill.  He started after it, panicked, and went running back to his parents with a loud wail while the bottle bounced further down the hill:

Ha ha, kids shouldn't be drinking that crap anyway.

We made our way down the hill and over the Stepping Stones.  Nope, didn't get wet this time.  They do have an alternate foot bridge nearby, but that's no fun at all.

Overall, it was a nice 12 miles of happy fine hiking, and I love setting off with these OS maps to connect a bunch of footpaths and creating a real hike from it.  I think we both had a fantastic walk, and no real horror stories or mishaps to go with the miles.  Although, the crowded rush hour train going back to the city was probably a bit unpleasant for the other passengers as I bet you could photograph the stink coming off me.