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Day 7 – Cami Round The Mountain

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Cami-flage Day 7 – Thursday 17th September 2020

We’d been looking forward to this walk with a mixture of anticipation and dread, for a variety of reasons.  Firstly, it represents the halfway point of the Cami-Flage project and we had no idea whether we’d still be mobile, far less up for yet another 10-mile walk, at this stage; secondly, it is the most challenging of all of the UK walks we’d planned, and, as I said in yesterday’s post, we are both lighter and fitter than the last time we tried the walk, but there was still a frisson of uncertainty around the day’s exercise, which was to tackle Box Hill (the mountain in today’s title).

Box Hill is probably the best-known area of the Surrey Hills on account of its inclusion as part of the cycle racing at the London 2012 Olympics.  It’s a hugely popular area with cyclists and walkers alike, but the cyclists stay mainly on the road and the walkers mainly on tracks so there’s not a lot of conflict.

What there is a lot of, is up and down, as you can see from the profile on the bottom of the picture above and you will also understand from reading on.  Given my aversion to walking up steep hills in searing heat, then, I was glad to see that once again Surrey had better weather for the purpose of the day than Menorca.

The Saturday Walkers Club route that we followed officially starts from Westhumble Station.  However, bitter experience tells that there is scant parking there, as it’s a tiny station (see later).  So we started at the cyclists’  and bikers’ caff nearby, called Ryka’s.  It’s a perfectly good caff, and  place to park and visit the loo, but one has to be careful of its closing time (see later).  Walking from Ryka’s towards the station takes you through a very colourful underpass

past some nice houses to the station itself.

There was actually some parking available today, and we also noticed that the station’s name has changed. It’s now Box Hill and Westhumble.

Crossing the road above the station takes you to a path, through a field

and to the foot of the first (of many) uphill stretches.

The path goes through something engagingly called the Druid’s Grove, although the sign telling us this has now disappeared, possibly consigned to the darkness, I don’t know. Anyway, we pressed on uphill and the path took us past some remarkable yew trees – huge, old and still alive.

(I have some work to do to try to assemble multiple photos into a single gestalt, but I hope the above gives some idea.)  After the last of the yews, the path takes another uphill turn

which leads into sunlit uplands with a nice view, the sort of thing that is somewhat enhanced by having a gin bottle in it.

The trail then goes past a Big House called Norbury House; after a short while, you can dive off to another viewpoint, which, again, provided us with a chance to air our gin bottle.

The path then continues beside a sawmill.  We were quite surprised to see that an enterprising soul had set up a coffee stall there and seemed to be doing reasonable business.

We didn’t stop for coffee, because we knew that in the village of Mickleham, quite nearby, was a pub (we normally walk past it on this route, so I was overjoyed that today we would have a chance to stop and sample the beer).  It’s a walk down into Mickleham and then across to the pub, the King William IV.

Pandemic restrictions means that it currently operates only outside, but we were allocated a spot and decided that a sandwich would help the beer go down well, so declared a lunch break.

After a nice pint (well, a quart, actually), we moved on. The next bit is, would you believe it, uphill.

and leads to a level path with one of my favourite views that includes roofs and chimneys

before plunging uphill yet again.

This is the start of quite a long but not too demanding uphill path through woods, and it held something of a shock for us.

A huge and once beautiful beech tree had clearly suffered some significant damage, presumably in one of the various storms since we last passed this way (just over three years ago, for a variety of reasons).

The path leads on and up and then reaches a wide open area called the Gallops.

It’s called that because it’s been used to train racehorses, and one gets the firm impression that riders still use it today.

At the far end, we dived off left into the woods for a steepish downhill plunge to a path where we met yet another surprise – a lady out taking her parrot for a walk.

Our track then joined a National Trust track called the Box Hill Hike, and we stayed with it for quite a distance as it went up

then down

then up

(the steeper bit, natch)

heading, via some lovely views

to the highest point of the walk which is by a residential neighbourhood which is rather dull to walk through

albeit leavened by this outbreak of levity.

After the high point we went, rather unsurprisingly, down, and eventually quite steeply so

as the path joined up with the North Downs Way for a spell

before going, would you believe it, steeply uphill again.

The compensation for panting up the steps was a nice view over Brockham,

a perfect opportunity, as ever, for the participation of our gin bottle.

The path (this is beginning to sound like something by Gerard Hoffnung) goes down again before turning steeply uphill

and up the final, most testing part, which is basically up the steep side of the Box Hill escarpment.

It may not look very steep in the photo.  Do Not Be Deceived.  I think we were both quite pleased that we were able to get to the top of this without stopping (Jane) or blacking out (me). The reward is a spectacular view from Salomon’s Monument, enhanced, as all the others, by our gin bottle.

The next important landmark on the track is the Box Hill Café,

at which point something like tragedy struck.  It should be writ into law that one cannot pass a café on a hike without stopping for tea and cake.  But we suddenly realised that time had moved on, as it does, and if we weren’t reasonably swift about things, our car would get locked in to the Ryka caff car park.

So, cakeless and unfortified by Earl Grey’s best infusion, we sped past the fort

and headed down the hill, yomping past the view across to Denbies Wine Estate (that’s part of next Wednesday’s entertainment, stay tuned)

and of our starting point down by the roundabout

and hurried back to our start.  We discovered that our mileage (10.63) was a bit down on the Menorca equivalent (11.74), but our elevation gained, at around 600 metres, was roughly double its equivalent, so I hope we’ll be forgiven by posterity; in any case, we’re still some 2¼ miles up overall compared to the Cami route round Menorca at the same stage.

We have now effectively walked from one end of Menorca (Mahon) to the other (Ciutadella) and, I have to say, we’re still quite fresh.  All that time exercising during the pandemic lockdown period has paid off.

Tomorrow, we have a 9-mile stretch to cover, but we have the luxury of being able to start from our own front door.  There’s no pub, but there is a café (which serves beer as well as tea and cake) so we have a refreshment stop to look forward to as part of the day’s activities.  Please drop by to see how we get on – see you later!

 

Day 6 – Cami No Royal

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Cami-flage Day 6 – Wednesday 16th September 2020

Once again, the major difference in weather between Surrey and Menorca was simply a 6-degree difference in temperature, with both otherwise having the prospect of a sunny day. Frankly, walking in 24°C is a nicer prospect than 30°C, so I feel we’re on the plus side of the equation at the moment.

Here’s the outline of today’s walk, which was around the Royal Estate of Windsor Great Park. The Queen is not in at the Castle today, hence the title of this post.

As you can see, because you’ve been paying attention, haven’t you, this is in very much the same neck of the woods as yesterday’s walk, though we tried to minimise overlap.

We started from the Saville Gardens, which has a recently rebuilt and good-looking visitor centre (and shop, of course!)

and headed north into the Great Park, stopping at Cow Pond for a photo.

A pair of Egyptian Geese were fossicking around among the water lilies.

There’s a very photogenic bridge at the top end of the pond

which seemed a perfect opportunity for the first shot of gin for today.

Moving further north into the park (note to readers – don’t bother to try to find a short cut out through the rhododendrons at the top end of the pond, just be sensible and go back to where you came in. You’re welcome) brings you to Bishopsgate, one of the main entrances to the park, near the Royal Lodge, a set of official buildings in the park’s rather fetching Official Pink colour

and the path then heads out across the park in a westerly direction. We noted some more fine fungi, it being that time of year

and eventually arrived at the classic view of Windsor Castle, down the two miles of the Long Walk.

It seemed a good idea to exploit this for a second gin bottle shot.

(Interestingly, bicycles are not currently allowed into this part of the park, although they have been permitted at other times. It’s a deer sanctuary and I wonder if that’s got something to do with it).

As you look at the castle, behind you is the statue of George III,

and over to the side of it is a wooded area, where we found some of the deer; this is a group of the adolescent males, hangin’ out and chillin’ until one of them can take on Sir who’s busy looking after all the lady deer in another part of the park.

To enter or leave the deer park involves going through some fairly imposing gates. I rather like the consideration given to horse riding in the park – on the right hand side of the road is a release button on a post, at shoulder height for a rider, making it easy to press to open the gates for entry and exit.

Moving on westwards, as you head for the edge of the park, you come across The Village, which has sinister overtones for anyone who remembers The Prisoner but in every other way is a pleasant collection of buildings which house people and businesses to do with running the park and the Crown Estates – that’s all the bits of the country owned by the Queen.

It has an attractive pond

and, among other things, a Weeping Birch, which appears to be about to leap upon passing tourists.

The village green is also very picturesque

but, more to the point, also features a post office and village shop.

Which sells ice creams. Which it would be rude not to sample, wouldn’t it?

Also around there is another pond, with a wonderful weeping willow

and further reminders that Autumn is on its way.

Turning left brings you to Sandpit Gate, which has a gatehouse in the Official Pink colour.

It also has buildings in a part labelled as a Private Area. If there were any doubt what this actually meant, a chap in an official-looking Land Rover stopped by us as we looked in and made throat-slitting gestures, so we moved on after taking a couple of snaps.

The road then took us past Queen’s Ride, which offers a long look down towards the Castle

and is overseen by a statue of Her Maj which dates from her Golden Jubilee: 50 years on the throne in 2002, which gives a good idea of her famous dedication to duty.

I had planned a route going thence past Great Meadow Pond, as the map seemed to tell us that there were paths leading that way, and it’s a part of the Park that I’ve never visited. The reason for this became clear as we looked for the route: it would actually take us into another Private Area, so we thought we’d be good citizens and headed back to Duke’s Lane, which is a road leading South and back towards Virginia Water Lake. It’s pleasant enough, particularly on the sort of nice sunny day we had, but is long and somewhat short of variety. There was some excitement as we spotted a tree being held up by guy ropes, for example, which shows you how little there is to feast one’s eyes upon.

After a mile or so of Duke’s Lane, one can dive off left along a track, which is actually a good idea for people on foot; the alternative is to exit the park and then have a very unrewarding mile or so along a main road with no footpath. However, the track, which is intended mainly for horse riders to disport themselves along, is also long and somewhat short of variety.

although there was one fine fungus to be seen.

It transpired that having to go along the last half of this track was an error; officer i/c navigation (that would be me, then) wasn’t paying attention and we should have left the riding track and walked along the side of Virginia Water Lake at one point. However, we weren’t tempted to go back and find the right track because we were (a) headed in basically the right direction and (b) imminently due to arrive at the Blacknest Gate exit of the Park in order to have a Nice Lunch, which, having walked 7½ miles at this point, we felt we deserved. And we duly got it at this splendid restaurant.

Bluebells was once in Sunningdale and we thought it had shut down; it turns out that it had moved, and it is every bit as good in its new location as it had been. Thoroughly recommended.

After lunch, we tottered back into the Park, passing some lovely hydrangeas

on the way towards Smith’s Lawn, which is a vast area of beautifully-maintained turf whose main purpose is to support the playing of Polo; the Guards Club runs the matches there.

Our luck was in – there was some Polo being played! So we watched for a bit (without actually understanding what was going on, but being impressed by the horsemanship and the thundering of hooves)

and I used it as the excuse for another gin bottle shot.

The final leg of the journey was to circumambulate the Obelisk Pond, which is just south of the Saville Gardens. Using a route we have rarely walked before, we discovered a lovely scene of a bridge across the end of the pond

crossing which offered a good view of the eponymous obelisk,

and enabled a final gin bottle shot before getting back to the car. This bottle is a well-travelled entity.

So, we are nearly half way through the 13 days of walking. Today we covered 10.47 miles and so far we have walked over 50 miles, which is over three miles more than we would have covered by this stage had we been walking round Menorca. Tomorrow is going to be something of a test of our fitness and stamina as we take on an 11-mile walk that we have found quite challenging in the past. In theory, we are both lighter and fitter than we were when we last took it on; tune in tomorrow to see whether the practice matches up to the theory!

Day 5 – Cami To The Garden, Maud

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Cami-flage Day 5 – Tuesday 15th September 2020

I shan’t bore you with the weather comparison between Surrey and Menorca today – suffice it to say that the two were pretty much comparable, with the sun shining in both places and Mahon (30°C) simply being warmer by 4°.  So the conditions were set fine for a fine walk around Virginia Water Lake with a sideways shuffle into the Valley Gardens (the justification for today’s headline).

Here’s an outline of the walk, which lies just north of the A30 and the Wentworth estate (the golfers among you will know where that is, of course). Being largely beside a lake it’s rather unsurprisingly rather flat

but full of lovely greenery and scenery.  The basic walk around the perimeter of the lake is some 4½ miles, and we expanded it by around the mile necessary to match the Menorca equivalent by wandering into the neighbouring Valley Gardens.

Along the path one sees a variety of things from majestic trees right down to rather engaging  things you can make from them.

Shortly after the start of the walk, there’s a pond called Wick Pond, which is normally very pretty, but today it was lifeless and covered in algae.  However, there was one attractive thing about it.

We may be halfway through September, but Summer is not yet dead (though Autumn is on its way – see later).

The next landmark is the famous Totem Pole, not an item you normally expect to find in Surrey.  But there it is, and there was nothing for it but to show it to our gin bottle.

Incidentally, the chap at the top looks rather as if he is scared of heights.

Walking along towards and into the lovely Heather Garden, one could see the first stirrings of approaching Autumn.

and the colours can be wonderful.

The Heather Garden is always a pleasure to visit at any time of year.  You can always find pleasant scenes.

(We can’t decide whether to call the above Dougal or The Very Hungry Caterpillar.)

We mooched about afterwards in a wooded area on the way back to the waterside

and I tried my hand at a true photographic cliché.

after which we made our way around the far end of the lake where it would have been rude not to stop for tea and cake.

Just before the café the path crosses a five-arch bridge, which you can’t see at the time, since you’re actually on it.  But you can get a nice view of it from the later path and this seemed a good excuse to get the gin bottle out again.

On the home stretch, there’s another item which one wouldn’t normally expect to find by a Surrey lake – Roman ruins.

Leptis Magna was a 2nd century Byzantine city.  Bits of its ruins were transported to Surrey in the 1800s. Whatever, it made a good backdrop for yet another gin bottle photo.

The final landmark came as a bit of a shock.  Again, somewhat counterintuitively as you walk alongside a lake, there’s a fairly substantial waterfall called, somewhat less counterintuitively, the Cascade.  It’s normally very photogenic, as you can see from a photo I took there about a year ago.

But today…..

It looks as if something fairly horrible has happened – trees have been cut down, perhaps because of storm damage earlier in the year, and the water supply is either inadequate or has been cut off whilst work is carried out.  In any case, it’s a sad scene.

It was a shame we couldn’t end our walk with a great scene, but the rest of it was very pleasant – a nice walk in splendid scenery in agreeable weather, plus ice cream, tea and cake.  What, as they say, is not to like?

And so ended the walk on day 5 of our Menorca substitute holiday.  We will be back in the neighbourhood again tomorrow, walking around Windsor Great Park; a somewhat longer walk after which, as a reward, we will have a Nice Lunch.  We’re looking forward to it and hope that we can virtually enjoy your company, too.  See you tomorrow!