Today was a beautiful, sunny day, albeit a bit breezy and quite chilly. Nonetheless I was eager to get out for another long walk – my fourteenth consecutive weekend hike. I selected a route in the North Downs, outside the town of Guildford to the southwest of London. This week, the whole family came along. Despite extensive delays on the rail system, which has reduced service this week while crews leverage the holiday week for some maintenance work, we made a fine day of it.
The route begins by climbing through the streets of Guildford (the endpoint of my October hike through Chantry Woods), through an old cemetery where Lewis Carroll’s grave can be found, and onto the North Downs Way, one of the long-distance trails in this region. The route followed muddy tracks alongside farm fields and sheep pastures, and narrow paths between hedgerows decorated with the red berries and green leaves of holly bushes. We reached our far point at the homestead and gallery of George Frederic Watts (a famous 19th-century painter) and his wife Mary Watts (a skilled “craftswoman, designer and social reformer”), where the Tea Room was bustling with visitors to the gallery and, perhaps, walkers like us.
We made our way back along a parallel route, again following the edges of farm fields, and passing through a little town aptly named ‘Littleton’. It included several brilliantly preserved timber-frame homes.
Upon returning to Guildford, we stopped into Ye Olde Ship Inn, a cozy pub, for pizza and a pint. (Excellent pizza!) Thus fortified, we returned to the train station and squeezed into the busy London-bound trains.
Check out the gallery for more images, including some pretty countryside and beautiful horses.
Hike stats:
Distance: 8.11 miles (13.1 km); may include some GPS ‘noise’ around our stops
Time: 5h 11m, including stops
Gain: 535 feet (163m)
David Kotz 