On Thursday this week, my younger brother John and I, set out on a planned walk along the North Downs from his home in Merrow, to Dorking West railway station.
As mrs maytrees was to drive up to Guildford later that afternoon, to child mind our two grand children, who are the children of maytrees ma and husband, I had to travel by train to London Road Guildford and walk up to the home of maytrees ma. There my brother John, would meet me and thence take his car to the start point of our walk.
The train was empty comfortable and on time. There were so few passengers that perhaps unsurprisingly, a day later I received a questionnaire about the journey from South Western Railways; but I digress.
Maytrees ma provided coffee and croissants in her back garden with the two grandchildren eagerly seeking their shares of the croissants. Somewhat amusingly, I was able to put The Wandering Soul to good use as the oldest grand child asked me to tell some 'exciting' stories to her as we waited for my brother's arrival.
The two Emma (7) and Henry (c.4) were surprisingly nervous about meeting their great uncle who never met Henry. All was well however and John and I went on to commence the walk from Merrow where we accessed the North Downs, passing by a local golf club the nearest hole of which was banked into the Downs.
Starting our trek at noon on a weekday was ideal; cold but sunny and the walk was almost deserted of other people.
We had brought lunch and decided to have a picnic break after a couple of hours if we could find suitable seat, so we carried on walking and strode past the open air cafes at Newlands corner to the hill above the Silent Pool.
The path was excellent with many parts being through forests managed by the Forestry Commission. We were beginning to despair of finding decent spot for our picnic lunch when we came across a single bench near the summit of the Downs with a view through a break in the trees to the distant South Downs. A welcome break for the picnic lunch followed, then onward and largely downwards, towards Dorking.
A difficulty about walking off the beaten track is the risk of taking a wrong turn then having to retrace steps. This we did on a couple of occasions almost for example trekking downhill to the Silent Pool which was well off route so I would estimate that our trek was rather longer than could have been the case had we manged to stay on route - maybe about 12, rather than 9, miles - in all.
Arriving at about 4pm at the track leading to Dorking West Railway station it was interesting to see the large breakers' yard on what would years ago, have probably been the coal yard adjacent to the station. As we walked down the track, a lorry carrying what appeared to be a swish red sports car passed us by. On the platform of the small station, we were amazed to see the apparently expensive sports car being crushed. Perhaps for those who fail to pay Road Tax there is no alternative to scrapping their cars. In any event the small 3 carriage train soon arrived for the journey to Guildford. The off peak fare costs around £7 which gives an idea of the distance travelled.
The walk was really enjoyable and gave me the idea that in the years ahead, a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Northern Spain, would be a great trek to take.
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