On two quite different winter days, our small band of walkers ventured into the Surrey Hills to continue our long distance challenge on the Greensand Way. Still reasonably well signposted, our third walk, 18th January, took us from Winterfold Heath 2kms north of Cranleigh to Friday Street in the Surrey Hills. This was a walk of 9 miles. Many great viewpoints such as Pitch Hill, Holmbury Hill and Leith Hill, the highest point in Southern England awaited us, but eluded us as we peered through the fog at nothing but fog!! We did manage to see Ewhurst windmill though! This section was memorable for its climbs adding up to almost 1500ft, but was nonetheless rewarding and a farm coffee shop at Holmbury St Mary provided the boost we needed for the final big climb up to Leith Hill. The Tower was closed this Sunday but another coffee shop there, run by the National Trust, greeted those needing more sustenance!

Day 2 of our Greensand Way adventure started with a slight complication. The road to our chosen car park at the walk end, Winterfold Heath, was closed. We needed 3 cars to meet there so we could all return to the start of the walk in one and have enough here for all 6 of us to get back later. Of course the absence of a phone signal made it a challenge to meet up and proved paper maps had their advantages over satnav by phone! One car had approached from a different direction and just had to wait for us to find them. Half an hour later we found each other!

With a group of friends we've started The Greensand Way. This 108 mile route is between the North Downs and The South Downs. The route follows a ridge of greensand rock through Surrey and Kent. Our aim is to walk it in about 11 stages, hence roughly 10 miles each daily walk. 57 miles are in Surrey, the remainder in Kent.

Friends know that I have been walking the Wales Coast Path virtually as an 800 mile challenge during the summer. All this means is that my daily walking is plotted on a map of the Wales Coast path and I set my number of days to complete it. I fell a little short (I have a few excuses!!) but averaged about 7.5 miles a day over the summer. The Conqueror challenge website lets you see the path on the route via Google maps etc. I particularly loved the Anglesey section so decided to walk it for real.

I did this walk, or all but one leg, with a friend in early June 2024. We walked an average of about 12 miles a day for 7 days from Morwenstow in the north to the Tamar bridge. We didn't have enough time to get right down to the ferry terminal at Cremyll. As is my inexplicable habit, I planned the walk backwards!

With old friends I often walk in the Chiltern Hills. One of us lives the other side of Oxford so we split the journey to be fair about time and cost. This week we walked on a day that until the last minute begged to be cancelled for the weather forecast!

I did 16 miles of this walk on Sunday with my friend Sharon and her friend Cathy. It's a bit outside my normal area but quite easily accessible from the M3 or by train if you feel up to doing it all in one go! There are a few buses to Kings Somborne (a possible centre point but they're not available on a Sunday).

A friend was keen to do this long distance walk of 150 miles. It’s well waymarked and starts at Erith in east London. The first leg was 8.7 miles from Erith to Bexley. We used Travelcards on the train and went via Waterloo. The first part of the walk is not visually enticing and it was very windy and occasionally wet. It feels like east London is the place for every kind of waste disposal you can think of! After intermittent sights of the Thames and some nice reedbeds we soon found ourselves walking along the banks of the River Darent and Cray and views improved immeasurably. In the distance was the Dartford river crossing on the Queen Elizabeth Bridge. There was some good birdwatching to be done but I forgot my binoculars! Easy to see were the shelducks, redshanks were calling loudly and Cetti's warblers were everywhere! I also heard some marsh frogs!

                Buck’s Mills from the descending path

A different winter break this year, a National Trust cottage on the South West Coast Path. In a tucked away Combe, just off the A39, we descended the rough track to our Coastguard cottage of excellent standard, including the wood burner with eco- logs! On my first days explore I walked down to Peppercombe beach, a rocky but picturesque place accessed by moss covered trees with some rare lichens on them. Birds were plentiful along the stony track and included marsh tit, treecreeper, nuthatch, coal tit and song thrush. The ultimate place to stay, I think, is the Landmark Trust painted cottage with stupendous views across to Hartland Point. Snowdrops are out by the stream and even some early primroses. The first exploration also found me the South West Coast Path for tomorrow’s adventure!

I love this walk very much. I spoke to a few walkers on the way and the area is much loved by many people.

Already planning trips in the New Year, this summer I'll be walking the Tamara Coast to Coast way on the borders of Devon and Cornwall with a friend. We'll be walking from Morwenstow on the north Devon coast to the Tamar Bridge on the outskirts of Plymouth. It should average out at about a nice, relaxed 11 miles a day. The walk was recently publicised on Countryfile and there's a website with more information. See https://www.tamarvalley.org.uk/tamara-coast-to-coast-way/ Unfortunately, the book of the Trail is already sold out but there's an OS map and a link to the OSMaps website which is all we will need, plus a bit of internet exploration!

On two quite different winter days, our small band of walkers ventured into the Surrey Hills to continue our long distance challenge on the Greensand Way. Still reasonably well signposted, our third walk, 18th January, took us from Winterfold Heath 2kms north of Cranleigh to Friday Street in the Surrey Hills. This was a walk of 9 miles. Many great viewpoints such as Pitch Hill, Holmbury Hill and Leith Hill, the highest point in Southern England awaited us, but eluded us as we peered through the fog at nothing but fog!! We did manage to see Ewhurst windmill though! This section was memorable for its climbs adding up to almost 1500ft, but was nonetheless rewarding and a farm coffee shop at Holmbury St Mary provided the boost we needed for the final big climb up to Leith Hill. The Tower was closed this Sunday but another coffee shop there, run by the National Trust, greeted those needing more sustenance!

Day 2 of our Greensand Way adventure started with a slight complication. The road to our chosen car park at the walk end, Winterfold Heath, was closed. We needed 3 cars to meet there so we could all return to the start of the walk in one and have enough here for all 6 of us to get back later. Of course the absence of a phone signal made it a challenge to meet up and proved paper maps had their advantages over satnav by phone! One car had approached from a different direction and just had to wait for us to find them. Half an hour later we found each other!

With a group of friends we've started The Greensand Way. This 108 mile route is between the North Downs and The South Downs. The route follows a ridge of greensand rock through Surrey and Kent. Our aim is to walk it in about 11 stages, hence roughly 10 miles each daily walk. 57 miles are in Surrey, the remainder in Kent.

Friends know that I have been walking the Wales Coast Path virtually as an 800 mile challenge during the summer. All this means is that my daily walking is plotted on a map of the Wales Coast path and I set my number of days to complete it. I fell a little short (I have a few excuses!!) but averaged about 7.5 miles a day over the summer. The Conqueror challenge website lets you see the path on the route via Google maps etc. I particularly loved the Anglesey section so decided to walk it for real.

I did this walk, or all but one leg, with a friend in early June 2024. We walked an average of about 12 miles a day for 7 days from Morwenstow in the north to the Tamar bridge. We didn't have enough time to get right down to the ferry terminal at Cremyll. As is my inexplicable habit, I planned the walk backwards!

With old friends I often walk in the Chiltern Hills. One of us lives the other side of Oxford so we split the journey to be fair about time and cost. This week we walked on a day that until the last minute begged to be cancelled for the weather forecast!

I did 16 miles of this walk on Sunday with my friend Sharon and her friend Cathy. It's a bit outside my normal area but quite easily accessible from the M3 or by train if you feel up to doing it all in one go! There are a few buses to Kings Somborne (a possible centre point but they're not available on a Sunday).

A friend was keen to do this long distance walk of 150 miles. It’s well waymarked and starts at Erith in east London. The first leg was 8.7 miles from Erith to Bexley. We used Travelcards on the train and went via Waterloo. The first part of the walk is not visually enticing and it was very windy and occasionally wet. It feels like east London is the place for every kind of waste disposal you can think of! After intermittent sights of the Thames and some nice reedbeds we soon found ourselves walking along the banks of the River Darent and Cray and views improved immeasurably. In the distance was the Dartford river crossing on the Queen Elizabeth Bridge. There was some good birdwatching to be done but I forgot my binoculars! Easy to see were the shelducks, redshanks were calling loudly and Cetti's warblers were everywhere! I also heard some marsh frogs!

                Buck’s Mills from the descending path

A different winter break this year, a National Trust cottage on the South West Coast Path. In a tucked away Combe, just off the A39, we descended the rough track to our Coastguard cottage of excellent standard, including the wood burner with eco- logs! On my first days explore I walked down to Peppercombe beach, a rocky but picturesque place accessed by moss covered trees with some rare lichens on them. Birds were plentiful along the stony track and included marsh tit, treecreeper, nuthatch, coal tit and song thrush. The ultimate place to stay, I think, is the Landmark Trust painted cottage with stupendous views across to Hartland Point. Snowdrops are out by the stream and even some early primroses. The first exploration also found me the South West Coast Path for tomorrow’s adventure!

I love this walk very much. I spoke to a few walkers on the way and the area is much loved by many people.

Already planning trips in the New Year, this summer I'll be walking the Tamara Coast to Coast way on the borders of Devon and Cornwall with a friend. We'll be walking from Morwenstow on the north Devon coast to the Tamar Bridge on the outskirts of Plymouth. It should average out at about a nice, relaxed 11 miles a day. The walk was recently publicised on Countryfile and there's a website with more information. See https://www.tamarvalley.org.uk/tamara-coast-to-coast-way/ Unfortunately, the book of the Trail is already sold out but there's an OS map and a link to the OSMaps website which is all we will need, plus a bit of internet exploration!

On two quite different winter days, our small band of walkers ventured into the Surrey Hills to continue our long distance challenge on the Greensand Way. Still reasonably well signposted, our third walk, 18th January, took us from Winterfold Heath 2kms north of Cranleigh to Friday Street in the Surrey Hills. This was a walk of 9 miles. Many great viewpoints such as Pitch Hill, Holmbury Hill and Leith Hill, the highest point in Southern England awaited us, but eluded us as we peered through the fog at nothing but fog!! We did manage to see Ewhurst windmill though! This section was memorable for its climbs adding up to almost 1500ft, but was nonetheless rewarding and a farm coffee shop at Holmbury St Mary provided the boost we needed for the final big climb up to Leith Hill. The Tower was closed this Sunday but another coffee shop there, run by the National Trust, greeted those needing more sustenance!

Day 2 of our Greensand Way adventure started with a slight complication. The road to our chosen car park at the walk end, Winterfold Heath, was closed. We needed 3 cars to meet there so we could all return to the start of the walk in one and have enough here for all 6 of us to get back later. Of course the absence of a phone signal made it a challenge to meet up and proved paper maps had their advantages over satnav by phone! One car had approached from a different direction and just had to wait for us to find them. Half an hour later we found each other!

With a group of friends we've started The Greensand Way. This 108 mile route is between the North Downs and The South Downs. The route follows a ridge of greensand rock through Surrey and Kent. Our aim is to walk it in about 11 stages, hence roughly 10 miles each daily walk. 57 miles are in Surrey, the remainder in Kent.

Friends know that I have been walking the Wales Coast Path virtually as an 800 mile challenge during the summer. All this means is that my daily walking is plotted on a map of the Wales Coast path and I set my number of days to complete it. I fell a little short (I have a few excuses!!) but averaged about 7.5 miles a day over the summer. The Conqueror challenge website lets you see the path on the route via Google maps etc. I particularly loved the Anglesey section so decided to walk it for real.

I did this walk, or all but one leg, with a friend in early June 2024. We walked an average of about 12 miles a day for 7 days from Morwenstow in the north to the Tamar bridge. We didn't have enough time to get right down to the ferry terminal at Cremyll. As is my inexplicable habit, I planned the walk backwards!

With old friends I often walk in the Chiltern Hills. One of us lives the other side of Oxford so we split the journey to be fair about time and cost. This week we walked on a day that until the last minute begged to be cancelled for the weather forecast!

I did 16 miles of this walk on Sunday with my friend Sharon and her friend Cathy. It's a bit outside my normal area but quite easily accessible from the M3 or by train if you feel up to doing it all in one go! There are a few buses to Kings Somborne (a possible centre point but they're not available on a Sunday).

A friend was keen to do this long distance walk of 150 miles. It’s well waymarked and starts at Erith in east London. The first leg was 8.7 miles from Erith to Bexley. We used Travelcards on the train and went via Waterloo. The first part of the walk is not visually enticing and it was very windy and occasionally wet. It feels like east London is the place for every kind of waste disposal you can think of! After intermittent sights of the Thames and some nice reedbeds we soon found ourselves walking along the banks of the River Darent and Cray and views improved immeasurably. In the distance was the Dartford river crossing on the Queen Elizabeth Bridge. There was some good birdwatching to be done but I forgot my binoculars! Easy to see were the shelducks, redshanks were calling loudly and Cetti's warblers were everywhere! I also heard some marsh frogs!

                Buck’s Mills from the descending path

A different winter break this year, a National Trust cottage on the South West Coast Path. In a tucked away Combe, just off the A39, we descended the rough track to our Coastguard cottage of excellent standard, including the wood burner with eco- logs! On my first days explore I walked down to Peppercombe beach, a rocky but picturesque place accessed by moss covered trees with some rare lichens on them. Birds were plentiful along the stony track and included marsh tit, treecreeper, nuthatch, coal tit and song thrush. The ultimate place to stay, I think, is the Landmark Trust painted cottage with stupendous views across to Hartland Point. Snowdrops are out by the stream and even some early primroses. The first exploration also found me the South West Coast Path for tomorrow’s adventure!

I love this walk very much. I spoke to a few walkers on the way and the area is much loved by many people.

Already planning trips in the New Year, this summer I'll be walking the Tamara Coast to Coast way on the borders of Devon and Cornwall with a friend. We'll be walking from Morwenstow on the north Devon coast to the Tamar Bridge on the outskirts of Plymouth. It should average out at about a nice, relaxed 11 miles a day. The walk was recently publicised on Countryfile and there's a website with more information. See https://www.tamarvalley.org.uk/tamara-coast-to-coast-way/ Unfortunately, the book of the Trail is already sold out but there's an OS map and a link to the OSMaps website which is all we will need, plus a bit of internet exploration!

On two quite different winter days, our small band of walkers ventured into the Surrey Hills to continue our long distance challenge on the Greensand Way. Still reasonably well signposted, our third walk, 18th January, took us from Winterfold Heath 2kms north of Cranleigh to Friday Street in the Surrey Hills. This was a walk of 9 miles. Many great viewpoints such as Pitch Hill, Holmbury Hill and Leith Hill, the highest point in Southern England awaited us, but eluded us as we peered through the fog at nothing but fog!! We did manage to see Ewhurst windmill though! This section was memorable for its climbs adding up to almost 1500ft, but was nonetheless rewarding and a farm coffee shop at Holmbury St Mary provided the boost we needed for the final big climb up to Leith Hill. The Tower was closed this Sunday but another coffee shop there, run by the National Trust, greeted those needing more sustenance!

Day 2 of our Greensand Way adventure started with a slight complication. The road to our chosen car park at the walk end, Winterfold Heath, was closed. We needed 3 cars to meet there so we could all return to the start of the walk in one and have enough here for all 6 of us to get back later. Of course the absence of a phone signal made it a challenge to meet up and proved paper maps had their advantages over satnav by phone! One car had approached from a different direction and just had to wait for us to find them. Half an hour later we found each other!

With a group of friends we've started The Greensand Way. This 108 mile route is between the North Downs and The South Downs. The route follows a ridge of greensand rock through Surrey and Kent. Our aim is to walk it in about 11 stages, hence roughly 10 miles each daily walk. 57 miles are in Surrey, the remainder in Kent.

Friends know that I have been walking the Wales Coast Path virtually as an 800 mile challenge during the summer. All this means is that my daily walking is plotted on a map of the Wales Coast path and I set my number of days to complete it. I fell a little short (I have a few excuses!!) but averaged about 7.5 miles a day over the summer. The Conqueror challenge website lets you see the path on the route via Google maps etc. I particularly loved the Anglesey section so decided to walk it for real.

I did this walk, or all but one leg, with a friend in early June 2024. We walked an average of about 12 miles a day for 7 days from Morwenstow in the north to the Tamar bridge. We didn't have enough time to get right down to the ferry terminal at Cremyll. As is my inexplicable habit, I planned the walk backwards!

With old friends I often walk in the Chiltern Hills. One of us lives the other side of Oxford so we split the journey to be fair about time and cost. This week we walked on a day that until the last minute begged to be cancelled for the weather forecast!

I did 16 miles of this walk on Sunday with my friend Sharon and her friend Cathy. It's a bit outside my normal area but quite easily accessible from the M3 or by train if you feel up to doing it all in one go! There are a few buses to Kings Somborne (a possible centre point but they're not available on a Sunday).

A friend was keen to do this long distance walk of 150 miles. It’s well waymarked and starts at Erith in east London. The first leg was 8.7 miles from Erith to Bexley. We used Travelcards on the train and went via Waterloo. The first part of the walk is not visually enticing and it was very windy and occasionally wet. It feels like east London is the place for every kind of waste disposal you can think of! After intermittent sights of the Thames and some nice reedbeds we soon found ourselves walking along the banks of the River Darent and Cray and views improved immeasurably. In the distance was the Dartford river crossing on the Queen Elizabeth Bridge. There was some good birdwatching to be done but I forgot my binoculars! Easy to see were the shelducks, redshanks were calling loudly and Cetti's warblers were everywhere! I also heard some marsh frogs!

                Buck’s Mills from the descending path

A different winter break this year, a National Trust cottage on the South West Coast Path. In a tucked away Combe, just off the A39, we descended the rough track to our Coastguard cottage of excellent standard, including the wood burner with eco- logs! On my first days explore I walked down to Peppercombe beach, a rocky but picturesque place accessed by moss covered trees with some rare lichens on them. Birds were plentiful along the stony track and included marsh tit, treecreeper, nuthatch, coal tit and song thrush. The ultimate place to stay, I think, is the Landmark Trust painted cottage with stupendous views across to Hartland Point. Snowdrops are out by the stream and even some early primroses. The first exploration also found me the South West Coast Path for tomorrow’s adventure!

I love this walk very much. I spoke to a few walkers on the way and the area is much loved by many people.

Already planning trips in the New Year, this summer I'll be walking the Tamara Coast to Coast way on the borders of Devon and Cornwall with a friend. We'll be walking from Morwenstow on the north Devon coast to the Tamar Bridge on the outskirts of Plymouth. It should average out at about a nice, relaxed 11 miles a day. The walk was recently publicised on Countryfile and there's a website with more information. See https://www.tamarvalley.org.uk/tamara-coast-to-coast-way/ Unfortunately, the book of the Trail is already sold out but there's an OS map and a link to the OSMaps website which is all we will need, plus a bit of internet exploration!

On two quite different winter days, our small band of walkers ventured into the Surrey Hills to continue our long distance challenge on the Greensand Way. Still reasonably well signposted, our third walk, 18th January, took us from Winterfold Heath 2kms north of Cranleigh to Friday Street in the Surrey Hills. This was a walk of 9 miles. Many great viewpoints such as Pitch Hill, Holmbury Hill and Leith Hill, the highest point in Southern England awaited us, but eluded us as we peered through the fog at nothing but fog!! We did manage to see Ewhurst windmill though! This section was memorable for its climbs adding up to almost 1500ft, but was nonetheless rewarding and a farm coffee shop at Holmbury St Mary provided the boost we needed for the final big climb up to Leith Hill. The Tower was closed this Sunday but another coffee shop there, run by the National Trust, greeted those needing more sustenance!

Day 2 of our Greensand Way adventure started with a slight complication. The road to our chosen car park at the walk end, Winterfold Heath, was closed. We needed 3 cars to meet there so we could all return to the start of the walk in one and have enough here for all 6 of us to get back later. Of course the absence of a phone signal made it a challenge to meet up and proved paper maps had their advantages over satnav by phone! One car had approached from a different direction and just had to wait for us to find them. Half an hour later we found each other!

With a group of friends we've started The Greensand Way. This 108 mile route is between the North Downs and The South Downs. The route follows a ridge of greensand rock through Surrey and Kent. Our aim is to walk it in about 11 stages, hence roughly 10 miles each daily walk. 57 miles are in Surrey, the remainder in Kent.

Friends know that I have been walking the Wales Coast Path virtually as an 800 mile challenge during the summer. All this means is that my daily walking is plotted on a map of the Wales Coast path and I set my number of days to complete it. I fell a little short (I have a few excuses!!) but averaged about 7.5 miles a day over the summer. The Conqueror challenge website lets you see the path on the route via Google maps etc. I particularly loved the Anglesey section so decided to walk it for real.

I did this walk, or all but one leg, with a friend in early June 2024. We walked an average of about 12 miles a day for 7 days from Morwenstow in the north to the Tamar bridge. We didn't have enough time to get right down to the ferry terminal at Cremyll. As is my inexplicable habit, I planned the walk backwards!

With old friends I often walk in the Chiltern Hills. One of us lives the other side of Oxford so we split the journey to be fair about time and cost. This week we walked on a day that until the last minute begged to be cancelled for the weather forecast!

I did 16 miles of this walk on Sunday with my friend Sharon and her friend Cathy. It's a bit outside my normal area but quite easily accessible from the M3 or by train if you feel up to doing it all in one go! There are a few buses to Kings Somborne (a possible centre point but they're not available on a Sunday).

A friend was keen to do this long distance walk of 150 miles. It’s well waymarked and starts at Erith in east London. The first leg was 8.7 miles from Erith to Bexley. We used Travelcards on the train and went via Waterloo. The first part of the walk is not visually enticing and it was very windy and occasionally wet. It feels like east London is the place for every kind of waste disposal you can think of! After intermittent sights of the Thames and some nice reedbeds we soon found ourselves walking along the banks of the River Darent and Cray and views improved immeasurably. In the distance was the Dartford river crossing on the Queen Elizabeth Bridge. There was some good birdwatching to be done but I forgot my binoculars! Easy to see were the shelducks, redshanks were calling loudly and Cetti's warblers were everywhere! I also heard some marsh frogs!

                Buck’s Mills from the descending path

A different winter break this year, a National Trust cottage on the South West Coast Path. In a tucked away Combe, just off the A39, we descended the rough track to our Coastguard cottage of excellent standard, including the wood burner with eco- logs! On my first days explore I walked down to Peppercombe beach, a rocky but picturesque place accessed by moss covered trees with some rare lichens on them. Birds were plentiful along the stony track and included marsh tit, treecreeper, nuthatch, coal tit and song thrush. The ultimate place to stay, I think, is the Landmark Trust painted cottage with stupendous views across to Hartland Point. Snowdrops are out by the stream and even some early primroses. The first exploration also found me the South West Coast Path for tomorrow’s adventure!

I love this walk very much. I spoke to a few walkers on the way and the area is much loved by many people.

Already planning trips in the New Year, this summer I'll be walking the Tamara Coast to Coast way on the borders of Devon and Cornwall with a friend. We'll be walking from Morwenstow on the north Devon coast to the Tamar Bridge on the outskirts of Plymouth. It should average out at about a nice, relaxed 11 miles a day. The walk was recently publicised on Countryfile and there's a website with more information. See https://www.tamarvalley.org.uk/tamara-coast-to-coast-way/ Unfortunately, the book of the Trail is already sold out but there's an OS map and a link to the OSMaps website which is all we will need, plus a bit of internet exploration!

On two quite different winter days, our small band of walkers ventured into the Surrey Hills to continue our long distance challenge on the Greensand Way. Still reasonably well signposted, our third walk, 18th January, took us from Winterfold Heath 2kms north of Cranleigh to Friday Street in the Surrey Hills. This was a walk of 9 miles. Many great viewpoints such as Pitch Hill, Holmbury Hill and Leith Hill, the highest point in Southern England awaited us, but eluded us as we peered through the fog at nothing but fog!! We did manage to see Ewhurst windmill though! This section was memorable for its climbs adding up to almost 1500ft, but was nonetheless rewarding and a farm coffee shop at Holmbury St Mary provided the boost we needed for the final big climb up to Leith Hill. The Tower was closed this Sunday but another coffee shop there, run by the National Trust, greeted those needing more sustenance!

Day 2 of our Greensand Way adventure started with a slight complication. The road to our chosen car park at the walk end, Winterfold Heath, was closed. We needed 3 cars to meet there so we could all return to the start of the walk in one and have enough here for all 6 of us to get back later. Of course the absence of a phone signal made it a challenge to meet up and proved paper maps had their advantages over satnav by phone! One car had approached from a different direction and just had to wait for us to find them. Half an hour later we found each other!

With a group of friends we've started The Greensand Way. This 108 mile route is between the North Downs and The South Downs. The route follows a ridge of greensand rock through Surrey and Kent. Our aim is to walk it in about 11 stages, hence roughly 10 miles each daily walk. 57 miles are in Surrey, the remainder in Kent.

Friends know that I have been walking the Wales Coast Path virtually as an 800 mile challenge during the summer. All this means is that my daily walking is plotted on a map of the Wales Coast path and I set my number of days to complete it. I fell a little short (I have a few excuses!!) but averaged about 7.5 miles a day over the summer. The Conqueror challenge website lets you see the path on the route via Google maps etc. I particularly loved the Anglesey section so decided to walk it for real.

I did this walk, or all but one leg, with a friend in early June 2024. We walked an average of about 12 miles a day for 7 days from Morwenstow in the north to the Tamar bridge. We didn't have enough time to get right down to the ferry terminal at Cremyll. As is my inexplicable habit, I planned the walk backwards!

With old friends I often walk in the Chiltern Hills. One of us lives the other side of Oxford so we split the journey to be fair about time and cost. This week we walked on a day that until the last minute begged to be cancelled for the weather forecast!

I did 16 miles of this walk on Sunday with my friend Sharon and her friend Cathy. It's a bit outside my normal area but quite easily accessible from the M3 or by train if you feel up to doing it all in one go! There are a few buses to Kings Somborne (a possible centre point but they're not available on a Sunday).

A friend was keen to do this long distance walk of 150 miles. It’s well waymarked and starts at Erith in east London. The first leg was 8.7 miles from Erith to Bexley. We used Travelcards on the train and went via Waterloo. The first part of the walk is not visually enticing and it was very windy and occasionally wet. It feels like east London is the place for every kind of waste disposal you can think of! After intermittent sights of the Thames and some nice reedbeds we soon found ourselves walking along the banks of the River Darent and Cray and views improved immeasurably. In the distance was the Dartford river crossing on the Queen Elizabeth Bridge. There was some good birdwatching to be done but I forgot my binoculars! Easy to see were the shelducks, redshanks were calling loudly and Cetti's warblers were everywhere! I also heard some marsh frogs!

                Buck’s Mills from the descending path

A different winter break this year, a National Trust cottage on the South West Coast Path. In a tucked away Combe, just off the A39, we descended the rough track to our Coastguard cottage of excellent standard, including the wood burner with eco- logs! On my first days explore I walked down to Peppercombe beach, a rocky but picturesque place accessed by moss covered trees with some rare lichens on them. Birds were plentiful along the stony track and included marsh tit, treecreeper, nuthatch, coal tit and song thrush. The ultimate place to stay, I think, is the Landmark Trust painted cottage with stupendous views across to Hartland Point. Snowdrops are out by the stream and even some early primroses. The first exploration also found me the South West Coast Path for tomorrow’s adventure!

I love this walk very much. I spoke to a few walkers on the way and the area is much loved by many people.

Already planning trips in the New Year, this summer I'll be walking the Tamara Coast to Coast way on the borders of Devon and Cornwall with a friend. We'll be walking from Morwenstow on the north Devon coast to the Tamar Bridge on the outskirts of Plymouth. It should average out at about a nice, relaxed 11 miles a day. The walk was recently publicised on Countryfile and there's a website with more information. See https://www.tamarvalley.org.uk/tamara-coast-to-coast-way/ Unfortunately, the book of the Trail is already sold out but there's an OS map and a link to the OSMaps website which is all we will need, plus a bit of internet exploration!

On two quite different winter days, our small band of walkers ventured into the Surrey Hills to continue our long distance challenge on the Greensand Way. Still reasonably well signposted, our third walk, 18th January, took us from Winterfold Heath 2kms north of Cranleigh to Friday Street in the Surrey Hills. This was a walk of 9 miles. Many great viewpoints such as Pitch Hill, Holmbury Hill and Leith Hill, the highest point in Southern England awaited us, but eluded us as we peered through the fog at nothing but fog!! We did manage to see Ewhurst windmill though! This section was memorable for its climbs adding up to almost 1500ft, but was nonetheless rewarding and a farm coffee shop at Holmbury St Mary provided the boost we needed for the final big climb up to Leith Hill. The Tower was closed this Sunday but another coffee shop there, run by the National Trust, greeted those needing more sustenance!

Day 2 of our Greensand Way adventure started with a slight complication. The road to our chosen car park at the walk end, Winterfold Heath, was closed. We needed 3 cars to meet there so we could all return to the start of the walk in one and have enough here for all 6 of us to get back later. Of course the absence of a phone signal made it a challenge to meet up and proved paper maps had their advantages over satnav by phone! One car had approached from a different direction and just had to wait for us to find them. Half an hour later we found each other!

With a group of friends we've started The Greensand Way. This 108 mile route is between the North Downs and The South Downs. The route follows a ridge of greensand rock through Surrey and Kent. Our aim is to walk it in about 11 stages, hence roughly 10 miles each daily walk. 57 miles are in Surrey, the remainder in Kent.

Friends know that I have been walking the Wales Coast Path virtually as an 800 mile challenge during the summer. All this means is that my daily walking is plotted on a map of the Wales Coast path and I set my number of days to complete it. I fell a little short (I have a few excuses!!) but averaged about 7.5 miles a day over the summer. The Conqueror challenge website lets you see the path on the route via Google maps etc. I particularly loved the Anglesey section so decided to walk it for real.

I did this walk, or all but one leg, with a friend in early June 2024. We walked an average of about 12 miles a day for 7 days from Morwenstow in the north to the Tamar bridge. We didn't have enough time to get right down to the ferry terminal at Cremyll. As is my inexplicable habit, I planned the walk backwards!

With old friends I often walk in the Chiltern Hills. One of us lives the other side of Oxford so we split the journey to be fair about time and cost. This week we walked on a day that until the last minute begged to be cancelled for the weather forecast!

I did 16 miles of this walk on Sunday with my friend Sharon and her friend Cathy. It's a bit outside my normal area but quite easily accessible from the M3 or by train if you feel up to doing it all in one go! There are a few buses to Kings Somborne (a possible centre point but they're not available on a Sunday).

A friend was keen to do this long distance walk of 150 miles. It’s well waymarked and starts at Erith in east London. The first leg was 8.7 miles from Erith to Bexley. We used Travelcards on the train and went via Waterloo. The first part of the walk is not visually enticing and it was very windy and occasionally wet. It feels like east London is the place for every kind of waste disposal you can think of! After intermittent sights of the Thames and some nice reedbeds we soon found ourselves walking along the banks of the River Darent and Cray and views improved immeasurably. In the distance was the Dartford river crossing on the Queen Elizabeth Bridge. There was some good birdwatching to be done but I forgot my binoculars! Easy to see were the shelducks, redshanks were calling loudly and Cetti's warblers were everywhere! I also heard some marsh frogs!

                Buck’s Mills from the descending path

A different winter break this year, a National Trust cottage on the South West Coast Path. In a tucked away Combe, just off the A39, we descended the rough track to our Coastguard cottage of excellent standard, including the wood burner with eco- logs! On my first days explore I walked down to Peppercombe beach, a rocky but picturesque place accessed by moss covered trees with some rare lichens on them. Birds were plentiful along the stony track and included marsh tit, treecreeper, nuthatch, coal tit and song thrush. The ultimate place to stay, I think, is the Landmark Trust painted cottage with stupendous views across to Hartland Point. Snowdrops are out by the stream and even some early primroses. The first exploration also found me the South West Coast Path for tomorrow’s adventure!

I love this walk very much. I spoke to a few walkers on the way and the area is much loved by many people.

Already planning trips in the New Year, this summer I'll be walking the Tamara Coast to Coast way on the borders of Devon and Cornwall with a friend. We'll be walking from Morwenstow on the north Devon coast to the Tamar Bridge on the outskirts of Plymouth. It should average out at about a nice, relaxed 11 miles a day. The walk was recently publicised on Countryfile and there's a website with more information. See https://www.tamarvalley.org.uk/tamara-coast-to-coast-way/ Unfortunately, the book of the Trail is already sold out but there's an OS map and a link to the OSMaps website which is all we will need, plus a bit of internet exploration!

On two quite different winter days, our small band of walkers ventured into the Surrey Hills to continue our long distance challenge on the Greensand Way. Still reasonably well signposted, our third walk, 18th January, took us from Winterfold Heath 2kms north of Cranleigh to Friday Street in the Surrey Hills. This was a walk of 9 miles. Many great viewpoints such as Pitch Hill, Holmbury Hill and Leith Hill, the highest point in Southern England awaited us, but eluded us as we peered through the fog at nothing but fog!! We did manage to see Ewhurst windmill though! This section was memorable for its climbs adding up to almost 1500ft, but was nonetheless rewarding and a farm coffee shop at Holmbury St Mary provided the boost we needed for the final big climb up to Leith Hill. The Tower was closed this Sunday but another coffee shop there, run by the National Trust, greeted those needing more sustenance!

Day 2 of our Greensand Way adventure started with a slight complication. The road to our chosen car park at the walk end, Winterfold Heath, was closed. We needed 3 cars to meet there so we could all return to the start of the walk in one and have enough here for all 6 of us to get back later. Of course the absence of a phone signal made it a challenge to meet up and proved paper maps had their advantages over satnav by phone! One car had approached from a different direction and just had to wait for us to find them. Half an hour later we found each other!

With a group of friends we've started The Greensand Way. This 108 mile route is between the North Downs and The South Downs. The route follows a ridge of greensand rock through Surrey and Kent. Our aim is to walk it in about 11 stages, hence roughly 10 miles each daily walk. 57 miles are in Surrey, the remainder in Kent.

Friends know that I have been walking the Wales Coast Path virtually as an 800 mile challenge during the summer. All this means is that my daily walking is plotted on a map of the Wales Coast path and I set my number of days to complete it. I fell a little short (I have a few excuses!!) but averaged about 7.5 miles a day over the summer. The Conqueror challenge website lets you see the path on the route via Google maps etc. I particularly loved the Anglesey section so decided to walk it for real.

I did this walk, or all but one leg, with a friend in early June 2024. We walked an average of about 12 miles a day for 7 days from Morwenstow in the north to the Tamar bridge. We didn't have enough time to get right down to the ferry terminal at Cremyll. As is my inexplicable habit, I planned the walk backwards!

With old friends I often walk in the Chiltern Hills. One of us lives the other side of Oxford so we split the journey to be fair about time and cost. This week we walked on a day that until the last minute begged to be cancelled for the weather forecast!

I did 16 miles of this walk on Sunday with my friend Sharon and her friend Cathy. It's a bit outside my normal area but quite easily accessible from the M3 or by train if you feel up to doing it all in one go! There are a few buses to Kings Somborne (a possible centre point but they're not available on a Sunday).

A friend was keen to do this long distance walk of 150 miles. It’s well waymarked and starts at Erith in east London. The first leg was 8.7 miles from Erith to Bexley. We used Travelcards on the train and went via Waterloo. The first part of the walk is not visually enticing and it was very windy and occasionally wet. It feels like east London is the place for every kind of waste disposal you can think of! After intermittent sights of the Thames and some nice reedbeds we soon found ourselves walking along the banks of the River Darent and Cray and views improved immeasurably. In the distance was the Dartford river crossing on the Queen Elizabeth Bridge. There was some good birdwatching to be done but I forgot my binoculars! Easy to see were the shelducks, redshanks were calling loudly and Cetti's warblers were everywhere! I also heard some marsh frogs!

                Buck’s Mills from the descending path

A different winter break this year, a National Trust cottage on the South West Coast Path. In a tucked away Combe, just off the A39, we descended the rough track to our Coastguard cottage of excellent standard, including the wood burner with eco- logs! On my first days explore I walked down to Peppercombe beach, a rocky but picturesque place accessed by moss covered trees with some rare lichens on them. Birds were plentiful along the stony track and included marsh tit, treecreeper, nuthatch, coal tit and song thrush. The ultimate place to stay, I think, is the Landmark Trust painted cottage with stupendous views across to Hartland Point. Snowdrops are out by the stream and even some early primroses. The first exploration also found me the South West Coast Path for tomorrow’s adventure!

I love this walk very much. I spoke to a few walkers on the way and the area is much loved by many people.

Already planning trips in the New Year, this summer I'll be walking the Tamara Coast to Coast way on the borders of Devon and Cornwall with a friend. We'll be walking from Morwenstow on the north Devon coast to the Tamar Bridge on the outskirts of Plymouth. It should average out at about a nice, relaxed 11 miles a day. The walk was recently publicised on Countryfile and there's a website with more information. See https://www.tamarvalley.org.uk/tamara-coast-to-coast-way/ Unfortunately, the book of the Trail is already sold out but there's an OS map and a link to the OSMaps website which is all we will need, plus a bit of internet exploration!

On two quite different winter days, our small band of walkers ventured into the Surrey Hills to continue our long distance challenge on the Greensand Way. Still reasonably well signposted, our third walk, 18th January, took us from Winterfold Heath 2kms north of Cranleigh to Friday Street in the Surrey Hills. This was a walk of 9 miles. Many great viewpoints such as Pitch Hill, Holmbury Hill and Leith Hill, the highest point in Southern England awaited us, but eluded us as we peered through the fog at nothing but fog!! We did manage to see Ewhurst windmill though! This section was memorable for its climbs adding up to almost 1500ft, but was nonetheless rewarding and a farm coffee shop at Holmbury St Mary provided the boost we needed for the final big climb up to Leith Hill. The Tower was closed this Sunday but another coffee shop there, run by the National Trust, greeted those needing more sustenance!

Day 2 of our Greensand Way adventure started with a slight complication. The road to our chosen car park at the walk end, Winterfold Heath, was closed. We needed 3 cars to meet there so we could all return to the start of the walk in one and have enough here for all 6 of us to get back later. Of course the absence of a phone signal made it a challenge to meet up and proved paper maps had their advantages over satnav by phone! One car had approached from a different direction and just had to wait for us to find them. Half an hour later we found each other!

With a group of friends we've started The Greensand Way. This 108 mile route is between the North Downs and The South Downs. The route follows a ridge of greensand rock through Surrey and Kent. Our aim is to walk it in about 11 stages, hence roughly 10 miles each daily walk. 57 miles are in Surrey, the remainder in Kent.

Friends know that I have been walking the Wales Coast Path virtually as an 800 mile challenge during the summer. All this means is that my daily walking is plotted on a map of the Wales Coast path and I set my number of days to complete it. I fell a little short (I have a few excuses!!) but averaged about 7.5 miles a day over the summer. The Conqueror challenge website lets you see the path on the route via Google maps etc. I particularly loved the Anglesey section so decided to walk it for real.

I did this walk, or all but one leg, with a friend in early June 2024. We walked an average of about 12 miles a day for 7 days from Morwenstow in the north to the Tamar bridge. We didn't have enough time to get right down to the ferry terminal at Cremyll. As is my inexplicable habit, I planned the walk backwards!

With old friends I often walk in the Chiltern Hills. One of us lives the other side of Oxford so we split the journey to be fair about time and cost. This week we walked on a day that until the last minute begged to be cancelled for the weather forecast!

I did 16 miles of this walk on Sunday with my friend Sharon and her friend Cathy. It's a bit outside my normal area but quite easily accessible from the M3 or by train if you feel up to doing it all in one go! There are a few buses to Kings Somborne (a possible centre point but they're not available on a Sunday).

A friend was keen to do this long distance walk of 150 miles. It’s well waymarked and starts at Erith in east London. The first leg was 8.7 miles from Erith to Bexley. We used Travelcards on the train and went via Waterloo. The first part of the walk is not visually enticing and it was very windy and occasionally wet. It feels like east London is the place for every kind of waste disposal you can think of! After intermittent sights of the Thames and some nice reedbeds we soon found ourselves walking along the banks of the River Darent and Cray and views improved immeasurably. In the distance was the Dartford river crossing on the Queen Elizabeth Bridge. There was some good birdwatching to be done but I forgot my binoculars! Easy to see were the shelducks, redshanks were calling loudly and Cetti's warblers were everywhere! I also heard some marsh frogs!

                Buck’s Mills from the descending path

A different winter break this year, a National Trust cottage on the South West Coast Path. In a tucked away Combe, just off the A39, we descended the rough track to our Coastguard cottage of excellent standard, including the wood burner with eco- logs! On my first days explore I walked down to Peppercombe beach, a rocky but picturesque place accessed by moss covered trees with some rare lichens on them. Birds were plentiful along the stony track and included marsh tit, treecreeper, nuthatch, coal tit and song thrush. The ultimate place to stay, I think, is the Landmark Trust painted cottage with stupendous views across to Hartland Point. Snowdrops are out by the stream and even some early primroses. The first exploration also found me the South West Coast Path for tomorrow’s adventure!

I love this walk very much. I spoke to a few walkers on the way and the area is much loved by many people.

Already planning trips in the New Year, this summer I'll be walking the Tamara Coast to Coast way on the borders of Devon and Cornwall with a friend. We'll be walking from Morwenstow on the north Devon coast to the Tamar Bridge on the outskirts of Plymouth. It should average out at about a nice, relaxed 11 miles a day. The walk was recently publicised on Countryfile and there's a website with more information. See https://www.tamarvalley.org.uk/tamara-coast-to-coast-way/ Unfortunately, the book of the Trail is already sold out but there's an OS map and a link to the OSMaps website which is all we will need, plus a bit of internet exploration!

On two quite different winter days, our small band of walkers ventured into the Surrey Hills to continue our long distance challenge on the Greensand Way. Still reasonably well signposted, our third walk, 18th January, took us from Winterfold Heath 2kms north of Cranleigh to Friday Street in the Surrey Hills. This was a walk of 9 miles. Many great viewpoints such as Pitch Hill, Holmbury Hill and Leith Hill, the highest point in Southern England awaited us, but eluded us as we peered through the fog at nothing but fog!! We did manage to see Ewhurst windmill though! This section was memorable for its climbs adding up to almost 1500ft, but was nonetheless rewarding and a farm coffee shop at Holmbury St Mary provided the boost we needed for the final big climb up to Leith Hill. The Tower was closed this Sunday but another coffee shop there, run by the National Trust, greeted those needing more sustenance!

Day 2 of our Greensand Way adventure started with a slight complication. The road to our chosen car park at the walk end, Winterfold Heath, was closed. We needed 3 cars to meet there so we could all return to the start of the walk in one and have enough here for all 6 of us to get back later. Of course the absence of a phone signal made it a challenge to meet up and proved paper maps had their advantages over satnav by phone! One car had approached from a different direction and just had to wait for us to find them. Half an hour later we found each other!

With a group of friends we've started The Greensand Way. This 108 mile route is between the North Downs and The South Downs. The route follows a ridge of greensand rock through Surrey and Kent. Our aim is to walk it in about 11 stages, hence roughly 10 miles each daily walk. 57 miles are in Surrey, the remainder in Kent.

Friends know that I have been walking the Wales Coast Path virtually as an 800 mile challenge during the summer. All this means is that my daily walking is plotted on a map of the Wales Coast path and I set my number of days to complete it. I fell a little short (I have a few excuses!!) but averaged about 7.5 miles a day over the summer. The Conqueror challenge website lets you see the path on the route via Google maps etc. I particularly loved the Anglesey section so decided to walk it for real.

I did this walk, or all but one leg, with a friend in early June 2024. We walked an average of about 12 miles a day for 7 days from Morwenstow in the north to the Tamar bridge. We didn't have enough time to get right down to the ferry terminal at Cremyll. As is my inexplicable habit, I planned the walk backwards!

With old friends I often walk in the Chiltern Hills. One of us lives the other side of Oxford so we split the journey to be fair about time and cost. This week we walked on a day that until the last minute begged to be cancelled for the weather forecast!

I did 16 miles of this walk on Sunday with my friend Sharon and her friend Cathy. It's a bit outside my normal area but quite easily accessible from the M3 or by train if you feel up to doing it all in one go! There are a few buses to Kings Somborne (a possible centre point but they're not available on a Sunday).

A friend was keen to do this long distance walk of 150 miles. It’s well waymarked and starts at Erith in east London. The first leg was 8.7 miles from Erith to Bexley. We used Travelcards on the train and went via Waterloo. The first part of the walk is not visually enticing and it was very windy and occasionally wet. It feels like east London is the place for every kind of waste disposal you can think of! After intermittent sights of the Thames and some nice reedbeds we soon found ourselves walking along the banks of the River Darent and Cray and views improved immeasurably. In the distance was the Dartford river crossing on the Queen Elizabeth Bridge. There was some good birdwatching to be done but I forgot my binoculars! Easy to see were the shelducks, redshanks were calling loudly and Cetti's warblers were everywhere! I also heard some marsh frogs!

                Buck’s Mills from the descending path

A different winter break this year, a National Trust cottage on the South West Coast Path. In a tucked away Combe, just off the A39, we descended the rough track to our Coastguard cottage of excellent standard, including the wood burner with eco- logs! On my first days explore I walked down to Peppercombe beach, a rocky but picturesque place accessed by moss covered trees with some rare lichens on them. Birds were plentiful along the stony track and included marsh tit, treecreeper, nuthatch, coal tit and song thrush. The ultimate place to stay, I think, is the Landmark Trust painted cottage with stupendous views across to Hartland Point. Snowdrops are out by the stream and even some early primroses. The first exploration also found me the South West Coast Path for tomorrow’s adventure!

I love this walk very much. I spoke to a few walkers on the way and the area is much loved by many people.

Already planning trips in the New Year, this summer I'll be walking the Tamara Coast to Coast way on the borders of Devon and Cornwall with a friend. We'll be walking from Morwenstow on the north Devon coast to the Tamar Bridge on the outskirts of Plymouth. It should average out at about a nice, relaxed 11 miles a day. The walk was recently publicised on Countryfile and there's a website with more information. See https://www.tamarvalley.org.uk/tamara-coast-to-coast-way/ Unfortunately, the book of the Trail is already sold out but there's an OS map and a link to the OSMaps website which is all we will need, plus a bit of internet exploration!

On two quite different winter days, our small band of walkers ventured into the Surrey Hills to continue our long distance challenge on the Greensand Way. Still reasonably well signposted, our third walk, 18th January, took us from Winterfold Heath 2kms north of Cranleigh to Friday Street in the Surrey Hills. This was a walk of 9 miles. Many great viewpoints such as Pitch Hill, Holmbury Hill and Leith Hill, the highest point in Southern England awaited us, but eluded us as we peered through the fog at nothing but fog!! We did manage to see Ewhurst windmill though! This section was memorable for its climbs adding up to almost 1500ft, but was nonetheless rewarding and a farm coffee shop at Holmbury St Mary provided the boost we needed for the final big climb up to Leith Hill. The Tower was closed this Sunday but another coffee shop there, run by the National Trust, greeted those needing more sustenance!

Day 2 of our Greensand Way adventure started with a slight complication. The road to our chosen car park at the walk end, Winterfold Heath, was closed. We needed 3 cars to meet there so we could all return to the start of the walk in one and have enough here for all 6 of us to get back later. Of course the absence of a phone signal made it a challenge to meet up and proved paper maps had their advantages over satnav by phone! One car had approached from a different direction and just had to wait for us to find them. Half an hour later we found each other!

With a group of friends we've started The Greensand Way. This 108 mile route is between the North Downs and The South Downs. The route follows a ridge of greensand rock through Surrey and Kent. Our aim is to walk it in about 11 stages, hence roughly 10 miles each daily walk. 57 miles are in Surrey, the remainder in Kent.

Friends know that I have been walking the Wales Coast Path virtually as an 800 mile challenge during the summer. All this means is that my daily walking is plotted on a map of the Wales Coast path and I set my number of days to complete it. I fell a little short (I have a few excuses!!) but averaged about 7.5 miles a day over the summer. The Conqueror challenge website lets you see the path on the route via Google maps etc. I particularly loved the Anglesey section so decided to walk it for real.

I did this walk, or all but one leg, with a friend in early June 2024. We walked an average of about 12 miles a day for 7 days from Morwenstow in the north to the Tamar bridge. We didn't have enough time to get right down to the ferry terminal at Cremyll. As is my inexplicable habit, I planned the walk backwards!

With old friends I often walk in the Chiltern Hills. One of us lives the other side of Oxford so we split the journey to be fair about time and cost. This week we walked on a day that until the last minute begged to be cancelled for the weather forecast!

I did 16 miles of this walk on Sunday with my friend Sharon and her friend Cathy. It's a bit outside my normal area but quite easily accessible from the M3 or by train if you feel up to doing it all in one go! There are a few buses to Kings Somborne (a possible centre point but they're not available on a Sunday).

A friend was keen to do this long distance walk of 150 miles. It’s well waymarked and starts at Erith in east London. The first leg was 8.7 miles from Erith to Bexley. We used Travelcards on the train and went via Waterloo. The first part of the walk is not visually enticing and it was very windy and occasionally wet. It feels like east London is the place for every kind of waste disposal you can think of! After intermittent sights of the Thames and some nice reedbeds we soon found ourselves walking along the banks of the River Darent and Cray and views improved immeasurably. In the distance was the Dartford river crossing on the Queen Elizabeth Bridge. There was some good birdwatching to be done but I forgot my binoculars! Easy to see were the shelducks, redshanks were calling loudly and Cetti's warblers were everywhere! I also heard some marsh frogs!

                Buck’s Mills from the descending path

A different winter break this year, a National Trust cottage on the South West Coast Path. In a tucked away Combe, just off the A39, we descended the rough track to our Coastguard cottage of excellent standard, including the wood burner with eco- logs! On my first days explore I walked down to Peppercombe beach, a rocky but picturesque place accessed by moss covered trees with some rare lichens on them. Birds were plentiful along the stony track and included marsh tit, treecreeper, nuthatch, coal tit and song thrush. The ultimate place to stay, I think, is the Landmark Trust painted cottage with stupendous views across to Hartland Point. Snowdrops are out by the stream and even some early primroses. The first exploration also found me the South West Coast Path for tomorrow’s adventure!

I love this walk very much. I spoke to a few walkers on the way and the area is much loved by many people.

Already planning trips in the New Year, this summer I'll be walking the Tamara Coast to Coast way on the borders of Devon and Cornwall with a friend. We'll be walking from Morwenstow on the north Devon coast to the Tamar Bridge on the outskirts of Plymouth. It should average out at about a nice, relaxed 11 miles a day. The walk was recently publicised on Countryfile and there's a website with more information. See https://www.tamarvalley.org.uk/tamara-coast-to-coast-way/ Unfortunately, the book of the Trail is already sold out but there's an OS map and a link to the OSMaps website which is all we will need, plus a bit of internet exploration!

On two quite different winter days, our small band of walkers ventured into the Surrey Hills to continue our long distance challenge on the Greensand Way. Still reasonably well signposted, our third walk, 18th January, took us from Winterfold Heath 2kms north of Cranleigh to Friday Street in the Surrey Hills. This was a walk of 9 miles. Many great viewpoints such as Pitch Hill, Holmbury Hill and Leith Hill, the highest point in Southern England awaited us, but eluded us as we peered through the fog at nothing but fog!! We did manage to see Ewhurst windmill though! This section was memorable for its climbs adding up to almost 1500ft, but was nonetheless rewarding and a farm coffee shop at Holmbury St Mary provided the boost we needed for the final big climb up to Leith Hill. The Tower was closed this Sunday but another coffee shop there, run by the National Trust, greeted those needing more sustenance!

Day 2 of our Greensand Way adventure started with a slight complication. The road to our chosen car park at the walk end, Winterfold Heath, was closed. We needed 3 cars to meet there so we could all return to the start of the walk in one and have enough here for all 6 of us to get back later. Of course the absence of a phone signal made it a challenge to meet up and proved paper maps had their advantages over satnav by phone! One car had approached from a different direction and just had to wait for us to find them. Half an hour later we found each other!

With a group of friends we've started The Greensand Way. This 108 mile route is between the North Downs and The South Downs. The route follows a ridge of greensand rock through Surrey and Kent. Our aim is to walk it in about 11 stages, hence roughly 10 miles each daily walk. 57 miles are in Surrey, the remainder in Kent.

Friends know that I have been walking the Wales Coast Path virtually as an 800 mile challenge during the summer. All this means is that my daily walking is plotted on a map of the Wales Coast path and I set my number of days to complete it. I fell a little short (I have a few excuses!!) but averaged about 7.5 miles a day over the summer. The Conqueror challenge website lets you see the path on the route via Google maps etc. I particularly loved the Anglesey section so decided to walk it for real.

I did this walk, or all but one leg, with a friend in early June 2024. We walked an average of about 12 miles a day for 7 days from Morwenstow in the north to the Tamar bridge. We didn't have enough time to get right down to the ferry terminal at Cremyll. As is my inexplicable habit, I planned the walk backwards!

With old friends I often walk in the Chiltern Hills. One of us lives the other side of Oxford so we split the journey to be fair about time and cost. This week we walked on a day that until the last minute begged to be cancelled for the weather forecast!

I did 16 miles of this walk on Sunday with my friend Sharon and her friend Cathy. It's a bit outside my normal area but quite easily accessible from the M3 or by train if you feel up to doing it all in one go! There are a few buses to Kings Somborne (a possible centre point but they're not available on a Sunday).

A friend was keen to do this long distance walk of 150 miles. It’s well waymarked and starts at Erith in east London. The first leg was 8.7 miles from Erith to Bexley. We used Travelcards on the train and went via Waterloo. The first part of the walk is not visually enticing and it was very windy and occasionally wet. It feels like east London is the place for every kind of waste disposal you can think of! After intermittent sights of the Thames and some nice reedbeds we soon found ourselves walking along the banks of the River Darent and Cray and views improved immeasurably. In the distance was the Dartford river crossing on the Queen Elizabeth Bridge. There was some good birdwatching to be done but I forgot my binoculars! Easy to see were the shelducks, redshanks were calling loudly and Cetti's warblers were everywhere! I also heard some marsh frogs!

                Buck’s Mills from the descending path

A different winter break this year, a National Trust cottage on the South West Coast Path. In a tucked away Combe, just off the A39, we descended the rough track to our Coastguard cottage of excellent standard, including the wood burner with eco- logs! On my first days explore I walked down to Peppercombe beach, a rocky but picturesque place accessed by moss covered trees with some rare lichens on them. Birds were plentiful along the stony track and included marsh tit, treecreeper, nuthatch, coal tit and song thrush. The ultimate place to stay, I think, is the Landmark Trust painted cottage with stupendous views across to Hartland Point. Snowdrops are out by the stream and even some early primroses. The first exploration also found me the South West Coast Path for tomorrow’s adventure!

I love this walk very much. I spoke to a few walkers on the way and the area is much loved by many people.

Already planning trips in the New Year, this summer I'll be walking the Tamara Coast to Coast way on the borders of Devon and Cornwall with a friend. We'll be walking from Morwenstow on the north Devon coast to the Tamar Bridge on the outskirts of Plymouth. It should average out at about a nice, relaxed 11 miles a day. The walk was recently publicised on Countryfile and there's a website with more information. See https://www.tamarvalley.org.uk/tamara-coast-to-coast-way/ Unfortunately, the book of the Trail is already sold out but there's an OS map and a link to the OSMaps website which is all we will need, plus a bit of internet exploration!

On two quite different winter days, our small band of walkers ventured into the Surrey Hills to continue our long distance challenge on the Greensand Way. Still reasonably well signposted, our third walk, 18th January, took us from Winterfold Heath 2kms north of Cranleigh to Friday Street in the Surrey Hills. This was a walk of 9 miles. Many great viewpoints such as Pitch Hill, Holmbury Hill and Leith Hill, the highest point in Southern England awaited us, but eluded us as we peered through the fog at nothing but fog!! We did manage to see Ewhurst windmill though! This section was memorable for its climbs adding up to almost 1500ft, but was nonetheless rewarding and a farm coffee shop at Holmbury St Mary provided the boost we needed for the final big climb up to Leith Hill. The Tower was closed this Sunday but another coffee shop there, run by the National Trust, greeted those needing more sustenance!

Day 2 of our Greensand Way adventure started with a slight complication. The road to our chosen car park at the walk end, Winterfold Heath, was closed. We needed 3 cars to meet there so we could all return to the start of the walk in one and have enough here for all 6 of us to get back later. Of course the absence of a phone signal made it a challenge to meet up and proved paper maps had their advantages over satnav by phone! One car had approached from a different direction and just had to wait for us to find them. Half an hour later we found each other!

With a group of friends we've started The Greensand Way. This 108 mile route is between the North Downs and The South Downs. The route follows a ridge of greensand rock through Surrey and Kent. Our aim is to walk it in about 11 stages, hence roughly 10 miles each daily walk. 57 miles are in Surrey, the remainder in Kent.

Friends know that I have been walking the Wales Coast Path virtually as an 800 mile challenge during the summer. All this means is that my daily walking is plotted on a map of the Wales Coast path and I set my number of days to complete it. I fell a little short (I have a few excuses!!) but averaged about 7.5 miles a day over the summer. The Conqueror challenge website lets you see the path on the route via Google maps etc. I particularly loved the Anglesey section so decided to walk it for real.

I did this walk, or all but one leg, with a friend in early June 2024. We walked an average of about 12 miles a day for 7 days from Morwenstow in the north to the Tamar bridge. We didn't have enough time to get right down to the ferry terminal at Cremyll. As is my inexplicable habit, I planned the walk backwards!

With old friends I often walk in the Chiltern Hills. One of us lives the other side of Oxford so we split the journey to be fair about time and cost. This week we walked on a day that until the last minute begged to be cancelled for the weather forecast!

I did 16 miles of this walk on Sunday with my friend Sharon and her friend Cathy. It's a bit outside my normal area but quite easily accessible from the M3 or by train if you feel up to doing it all in one go! There are a few buses to Kings Somborne (a possible centre point but they're not available on a Sunday).

A friend was keen to do this long distance walk of 150 miles. It’s well waymarked and starts at Erith in east London. The first leg was 8.7 miles from Erith to Bexley. We used Travelcards on the train and went via Waterloo. The first part of the walk is not visually enticing and it was very windy and occasionally wet. It feels like east London is the place for every kind of waste disposal you can think of! After intermittent sights of the Thames and some nice reedbeds we soon found ourselves walking along the banks of the River Darent and Cray and views improved immeasurably. In the distance was the Dartford river crossing on the Queen Elizabeth Bridge. There was some good birdwatching to be done but I forgot my binoculars! Easy to see were the shelducks, redshanks were calling loudly and Cetti's warblers were everywhere! I also heard some marsh frogs!

                Buck’s Mills from the descending path

A different winter break this year, a National Trust cottage on the South West Coast Path. In a tucked away Combe, just off the A39, we descended the rough track to our Coastguard cottage of excellent standard, including the wood burner with eco- logs! On my first days explore I walked down to Peppercombe beach, a rocky but picturesque place accessed by moss covered trees with some rare lichens on them. Birds were plentiful along the stony track and included marsh tit, treecreeper, nuthatch, coal tit and song thrush. The ultimate place to stay, I think, is the Landmark Trust painted cottage with stupendous views across to Hartland Point. Snowdrops are out by the stream and even some early primroses. The first exploration also found me the South West Coast Path for tomorrow’s adventure!

I love this walk very much. I spoke to a few walkers on the way and the area is much loved by many people.

Already planning trips in the New Year, this summer I'll be walking the Tamara Coast to Coast way on the borders of Devon and Cornwall with a friend. We'll be walking from Morwenstow on the north Devon coast to the Tamar Bridge on the outskirts of Plymouth. It should average out at about a nice, relaxed 11 miles a day. The walk was recently publicised on Countryfile and there's a website with more information. See https://www.tamarvalley.org.uk/tamara-coast-to-coast-way/ Unfortunately, the book of the Trail is already sold out but there's an OS map and a link to the OSMaps website which is all we will need, plus a bit of internet exploration!

On two quite different winter days, our small band of walkers ventured into the Surrey Hills to continue our long distance challenge on the Greensand Way. Still reasonably well signposted, our third walk, 18th January, took us from Winterfold Heath 2kms north of Cranleigh to Friday Street in the Surrey Hills. This was a walk of 9 miles. Many great viewpoints such as Pitch Hill, Holmbury Hill and Leith Hill, the highest point in Southern England awaited us, but eluded us as we peered through the fog at nothing but fog!! We did manage to see Ewhurst windmill though! This section was memorable for its climbs adding up to almost 1500ft, but was nonetheless rewarding and a farm coffee shop at Holmbury St Mary provided the boost we needed for the final big climb up to Leith Hill. The Tower was closed this Sunday but another coffee shop there, run by the National Trust, greeted those needing more sustenance!

Day 2 of our Greensand Way adventure started with a slight complication. The road to our chosen car park at the walk end, Winterfold Heath, was closed. We needed 3 cars to meet there so we could all return to the start of the walk in one and have enough here for all 6 of us to get back later. Of course the absence of a phone signal made it a challenge to meet up and proved paper maps had their advantages over satnav by phone! One car had approached from a different direction and just had to wait for us to find them. Half an hour later we found each other!

With a group of friends we've started The Greensand Way. This 108 mile route is between the North Downs and The South Downs. The route follows a ridge of greensand rock through Surrey and Kent. Our aim is to walk it in about 11 stages, hence roughly 10 miles each daily walk. 57 miles are in Surrey, the remainder in Kent.

Friends know that I have been walking the Wales Coast Path virtually as an 800 mile challenge during the summer. All this means is that my daily walking is plotted on a map of the Wales Coast path and I set my number of days to complete it. I fell a little short (I have a few excuses!!) but averaged about 7.5 miles a day over the summer. The Conqueror challenge website lets you see the path on the route via Google maps etc. I particularly loved the Anglesey section so decided to walk it for real.

I did this walk, or all but one leg, with a friend in early June 2024. We walked an average of about 12 miles a day for 7 days from Morwenstow in the north to the Tamar bridge. We didn't have enough time to get right down to the ferry terminal at Cremyll. As is my inexplicable habit, I planned the walk backwards!

With old friends I often walk in the Chiltern Hills. One of us lives the other side of Oxford so we split the journey to be fair about time and cost. This week we walked on a day that until the last minute begged to be cancelled for the weather forecast!

I did 16 miles of this walk on Sunday with my friend Sharon and her friend Cathy. It's a bit outside my normal area but quite easily accessible from the M3 or by train if you feel up to doing it all in one go! There are a few buses to Kings Somborne (a possible centre point but they're not available on a Sunday).

A friend was keen to do this long distance walk of 150 miles. It’s well waymarked and starts at Erith in east London. The first leg was 8.7 miles from Erith to Bexley. We used Travelcards on the train and went via Waterloo. The first part of the walk is not visually enticing and it was very windy and occasionally wet. It feels like east London is the place for every kind of waste disposal you can think of! After intermittent sights of the Thames and some nice reedbeds we soon found ourselves walking along the banks of the River Darent and Cray and views improved immeasurably. In the distance was the Dartford river crossing on the Queen Elizabeth Bridge. There was some good birdwatching to be done but I forgot my binoculars! Easy to see were the shelducks, redshanks were calling loudly and Cetti's warblers were everywhere! I also heard some marsh frogs!

                Buck’s Mills from the descending path

A different winter break this year, a National Trust cottage on the South West Coast Path. In a tucked away Combe, just off the A39, we descended the rough track to our Coastguard cottage of excellent standard, including the wood burner with eco- logs! On my first days explore I walked down to Peppercombe beach, a rocky but picturesque place accessed by moss covered trees with some rare lichens on them. Birds were plentiful along the stony track and included marsh tit, treecreeper, nuthatch, coal tit and song thrush. The ultimate place to stay, I think, is the Landmark Trust painted cottage with stupendous views across to Hartland Point. Snowdrops are out by the stream and even some early primroses. The first exploration also found me the South West Coast Path for tomorrow’s adventure!

I love this walk very much. I spoke to a few walkers on the way and the area is much loved by many people.

Already planning trips in the New Year, this summer I'll be walking the Tamara Coast to Coast way on the borders of Devon and Cornwall with a friend. We'll be walking from Morwenstow on the north Devon coast to the Tamar Bridge on the outskirts of Plymouth. It should average out at about a nice, relaxed 11 miles a day. The walk was recently publicised on Countryfile and there's a website with more information. See https://www.tamarvalley.org.uk/tamara-coast-to-coast-way/ Unfortunately, the book of the Trail is already sold out but there's an OS map and a link to the OSMaps website which is all we will need, plus a bit of internet exploration!

On two quite different winter days, our small band of walkers ventured into the Surrey Hills to continue our long distance challenge on the Greensand Way. Still reasonably well signposted, our third walk, 18th January, took us from Winterfold Heath 2kms north of Cranleigh to Friday Street in the Surrey Hills. This was a walk of 9 miles. Many great viewpoints such as Pitch Hill, Holmbury Hill and Leith Hill, the highest point in Southern England awaited us, but eluded us as we peered through the fog at nothing but fog!! We did manage to see Ewhurst windmill though! This section was memorable for its climbs adding up to almost 1500ft, but was nonetheless rewarding and a farm coffee shop at Holmbury St Mary provided the boost we needed for the final big climb up to Leith Hill. The Tower was closed this Sunday but another coffee shop there, run by the National Trust, greeted those needing more sustenance!

Day 2 of our Greensand Way adventure started with a slight complication. The road to our chosen car park at the walk end, Winterfold Heath, was closed. We needed 3 cars to meet there so we could all return to the start of the walk in one and have enough here for all 6 of us to get back later. Of course the absence of a phone signal made it a challenge to meet up and proved paper maps had their advantages over satnav by phone! One car had approached from a different direction and just had to wait for us to find them. Half an hour later we found each other!

With a group of friends we've started The Greensand Way. This 108 mile route is between the North Downs and The South Downs. The route follows a ridge of greensand rock through Surrey and Kent. Our aim is to walk it in about 11 stages, hence roughly 10 miles each daily walk. 57 miles are in Surrey, the remainder in Kent.

Friends know that I have been walking the Wales Coast Path virtually as an 800 mile challenge during the summer. All this means is that my daily walking is plotted on a map of the Wales Coast path and I set my number of days to complete it. I fell a little short (I have a few excuses!!) but averaged about 7.5 miles a day over the summer. The Conqueror challenge website lets you see the path on the route via Google maps etc. I particularly loved the Anglesey section so decided to walk it for real.

I did this walk, or all but one leg, with a friend in early June 2024. We walked an average of about 12 miles a day for 7 days from Morwenstow in the north to the Tamar bridge. We didn't have enough time to get right down to the ferry terminal at Cremyll. As is my inexplicable habit, I planned the walk backwards!

With old friends I often walk in the Chiltern Hills. One of us lives the other side of Oxford so we split the journey to be fair about time and cost. This week we walked on a day that until the last minute begged to be cancelled for the weather forecast!

I did 16 miles of this walk on Sunday with my friend Sharon and her friend Cathy. It's a bit outside my normal area but quite easily accessible from the M3 or by train if you feel up to doing it all in one go! There are a few buses to Kings Somborne (a possible centre point but they're not available on a Sunday).

A friend was keen to do this long distance walk of 150 miles. It’s well waymarked and starts at Erith in east London. The first leg was 8.7 miles from Erith to Bexley. We used Travelcards on the train and went via Waterloo. The first part of the walk is not visually enticing and it was very windy and occasionally wet. It feels like east London is the place for every kind of waste disposal you can think of! After intermittent sights of the Thames and some nice reedbeds we soon found ourselves walking along the banks of the River Darent and Cray and views improved immeasurably. In the distance was the Dartford river crossing on the Queen Elizabeth Bridge. There was some good birdwatching to be done but I forgot my binoculars! Easy to see were the shelducks, redshanks were calling loudly and Cetti's warblers were everywhere! I also heard some marsh frogs!

                Buck’s Mills from the descending path

A different winter break this year, a National Trust cottage on the South West Coast Path. In a tucked away Combe, just off the A39, we descended the rough track to our Coastguard cottage of excellent standard, including the wood burner with eco- logs! On my first days explore I walked down to Peppercombe beach, a rocky but picturesque place accessed by moss covered trees with some rare lichens on them. Birds were plentiful along the stony track and included marsh tit, treecreeper, nuthatch, coal tit and song thrush. The ultimate place to stay, I think, is the Landmark Trust painted cottage with stupendous views across to Hartland Point. Snowdrops are out by the stream and even some early primroses. The first exploration also found me the South West Coast Path for tomorrow’s adventure!

I love this walk very much. I spoke to a few walkers on the way and the area is much loved by many people.

Already planning trips in the New Year, this summer I'll be walking the Tamara Coast to Coast way on the borders of Devon and Cornwall with a friend. We'll be walking from Morwenstow on the north Devon coast to the Tamar Bridge on the outskirts of Plymouth. It should average out at about a nice, relaxed 11 miles a day. The walk was recently publicised on Countryfile and there's a website with more information. See https://www.tamarvalley.org.uk/tamara-coast-to-coast-way/ Unfortunately, the book of the Trail is already sold out but there's an OS map and a link to the OSMaps website which is all we will need, plus a bit of internet exploration!

On two quite different winter days, our small band of walkers ventured into the Surrey Hills to continue our long distance challenge on the Greensand Way. Still reasonably well signposted, our third walk, 18th January, took us from Winterfold Heath 2kms north of Cranleigh to Friday Street in the Surrey Hills. This was a walk of 9 miles. Many great viewpoints such as Pitch Hill, Holmbury Hill and Leith Hill, the highest point in Southern England awaited us, but eluded us as we peered through the fog at nothing but fog!! We did manage to see Ewhurst windmill though! This section was memorable for its climbs adding up to almost 1500ft, but was nonetheless rewarding and a farm coffee shop at Holmbury St Mary provided the boost we needed for the final big climb up to Leith Hill. The Tower was closed this Sunday but another coffee shop there, run by the National Trust, greeted those needing more sustenance!

Day 2 of our Greensand Way adventure started with a slight complication. The road to our chosen car park at the walk end, Winterfold Heath, was closed. We needed 3 cars to meet there so we could all return to the start of the walk in one and have enough here for all 6 of us to get back later. Of course the absence of a phone signal made it a challenge to meet up and proved paper maps had their advantages over satnav by phone! One car had approached from a different direction and just had to wait for us to find them. Half an hour later we found each other!

With a group of friends we've started The Greensand Way. This 108 mile route is between the North Downs and The South Downs. The route follows a ridge of greensand rock through Surrey and Kent. Our aim is to walk it in about 11 stages, hence roughly 10 miles each daily walk. 57 miles are in Surrey, the remainder in Kent.

Friends know that I have been walking the Wales Coast Path virtually as an 800 mile challenge during the summer. All this means is that my daily walking is plotted on a map of the Wales Coast path and I set my number of days to complete it. I fell a little short (I have a few excuses!!) but averaged about 7.5 miles a day over the summer. The Conqueror challenge website lets you see the path on the route via Google maps etc. I particularly loved the Anglesey section so decided to walk it for real.

I did this walk, or all but one leg, with a friend in early June 2024. We walked an average of about 12 miles a day for 7 days from Morwenstow in the north to the Tamar bridge. We didn't have enough time to get right down to the ferry terminal at Cremyll. As is my inexplicable habit, I planned the walk backwards!

With old friends I often walk in the Chiltern Hills. One of us lives the other side of Oxford so we split the journey to be fair about time and cost. This week we walked on a day that until the last minute begged to be cancelled for the weather forecast!

I did 16 miles of this walk on Sunday with my friend Sharon and her friend Cathy. It's a bit outside my normal area but quite easily accessible from the M3 or by train if you feel up to doing it all in one go! There are a few buses to Kings Somborne (a possible centre point but they're not available on a Sunday).

A friend was keen to do this long distance walk of 150 miles. It’s well waymarked and starts at Erith in east London. The first leg was 8.7 miles from Erith to Bexley. We used Travelcards on the train and went via Waterloo. The first part of the walk is not visually enticing and it was very windy and occasionally wet. It feels like east London is the place for every kind of waste disposal you can think of! After intermittent sights of the Thames and some nice reedbeds we soon found ourselves walking along the banks of the River Darent and Cray and views improved immeasurably. In the distance was the Dartford river crossing on the Queen Elizabeth Bridge. There was some good birdwatching to be done but I forgot my binoculars! Easy to see were the shelducks, redshanks were calling loudly and Cetti's warblers were everywhere! I also heard some marsh frogs!

                Buck’s Mills from the descending path

A different winter break this year, a National Trust cottage on the South West Coast Path. In a tucked away Combe, just off the A39, we descended the rough track to our Coastguard cottage of excellent standard, including the wood burner with eco- logs! On my first days explore I walked down to Peppercombe beach, a rocky but picturesque place accessed by moss covered trees with some rare lichens on them. Birds were plentiful along the stony track and included marsh tit, treecreeper, nuthatch, coal tit and song thrush. The ultimate place to stay, I think, is the Landmark Trust painted cottage with stupendous views across to Hartland Point. Snowdrops are out by the stream and even some early primroses. The first exploration also found me the South West Coast Path for tomorrow’s adventure!

I love this walk very much. I spoke to a few walkers on the way and the area is much loved by many people.

Already planning trips in the New Year, this summer I'll be walking the Tamara Coast to Coast way on the borders of Devon and Cornwall with a friend. We'll be walking from Morwenstow on the north Devon coast to the Tamar Bridge on the outskirts of Plymouth. It should average out at about a nice, relaxed 11 miles a day. The walk was recently publicised on Countryfile and there's a website with more information. See https://www.tamarvalley.org.uk/tamara-coast-to-coast-way/ Unfortunately, the book of the Trail is already sold out but there's an OS map and a link to the OSMaps website which is all we will need, plus a bit of internet exploration!

On two quite different winter days, our small band of walkers ventured into the Surrey Hills to continue our long distance challenge on the Greensand Way. Still reasonably well signposted, our third walk, 18th January, took us from Winterfold Heath 2kms north of Cranleigh to Friday Street in the Surrey Hills. This was a walk of 9 miles. Many great viewpoints such as Pitch Hill, Holmbury Hill and Leith Hill, the highest point in Southern England awaited us, but eluded us as we peered through the fog at nothing but fog!! We did manage to see Ewhurst windmill though! This section was memorable for its climbs adding up to almost 1500ft, but was nonetheless rewarding and a farm coffee shop at Holmbury St Mary provided the boost we needed for the final big climb up to Leith Hill. The Tower was closed this Sunday but another coffee shop there, run by the National Trust, greeted those needing more sustenance!

Day 2 of our Greensand Way adventure started with a slight complication. The road to our chosen car park at the walk end, Winterfold Heath, was closed. We needed 3 cars to meet there so we could all return to the start of the walk in one and have enough here for all 6 of us to get back later. Of course the absence of a phone signal made it a challenge to meet up and proved paper maps had their advantages over satnav by phone! One car had approached from a different direction and just had to wait for us to find them. Half an hour later we found each other!

With a group of friends we've started The Greensand Way. This 108 mile route is between the North Downs and The South Downs. The route follows a ridge of greensand rock through Surrey and Kent. Our aim is to walk it in about 11 stages, hence roughly 10 miles each daily walk. 57 miles are in Surrey, the remainder in Kent.

Friends know that I have been walking the Wales Coast Path virtually as an 800 mile challenge during the summer. All this means is that my daily walking is plotted on a map of the Wales Coast path and I set my number of days to complete it. I fell a little short (I have a few excuses!!) but averaged about 7.5 miles a day over the summer. The Conqueror challenge website lets you see the path on the route via Google maps etc. I particularly loved the Anglesey section so decided to walk it for real.

I did this walk, or all but one leg, with a friend in early June 2024. We walked an average of about 12 miles a day for 7 days from Morwenstow in the north to the Tamar bridge. We didn't have enough time to get right down to the ferry terminal at Cremyll. As is my inexplicable habit, I planned the walk backwards!

With old friends I often walk in the Chiltern Hills. One of us lives the other side of Oxford so we split the journey to be fair about time and cost. This week we walked on a day that until the last minute begged to be cancelled for the weather forecast!

I did 16 miles of this walk on Sunday with my friend Sharon and her friend Cathy. It's a bit outside my normal area but quite easily accessible from the M3 or by train if you feel up to doing it all in one go! There are a few buses to Kings Somborne (a possible centre point but they're not available on a Sunday).

A friend was keen to do this long distance walk of 150 miles. It’s well waymarked and starts at Erith in east London. The first leg was 8.7 miles from Erith to Bexley. We used Travelcards on the train and went via Waterloo. The first part of the walk is not visually enticing and it was very windy and occasionally wet. It feels like east London is the place for every kind of waste disposal you can think of! After intermittent sights of the Thames and some nice reedbeds we soon found ourselves walking along the banks of the River Darent and Cray and views improved immeasurably. In the distance was the Dartford river crossing on the Queen Elizabeth Bridge. There was some good birdwatching to be done but I forgot my binoculars! Easy to see were the shelducks, redshanks were calling loudly and Cetti's warblers were everywhere! I also heard some marsh frogs!

                Buck’s Mills from the descending path

A different winter break this year, a National Trust cottage on the South West Coast Path. In a tucked away Combe, just off the A39, we descended the rough track to our Coastguard cottage of excellent standard, including the wood burner with eco- logs! On my first days explore I walked down to Peppercombe beach, a rocky but picturesque place accessed by moss covered trees with some rare lichens on them. Birds were plentiful along the stony track and included marsh tit, treecreeper, nuthatch, coal tit and song thrush. The ultimate place to stay, I think, is the Landmark Trust painted cottage with stupendous views across to Hartland Point. Snowdrops are out by the stream and even some early primroses. The first exploration also found me the South West Coast Path for tomorrow’s adventure!

I love this walk very much. I spoke to a few walkers on the way and the area is much loved by many people.

Already planning trips in the New Year, this summer I'll be walking the Tamara Coast to Coast way on the borders of Devon and Cornwall with a friend. We'll be walking from Morwenstow on the north Devon coast to the Tamar Bridge on the outskirts of Plymouth. It should average out at about a nice, relaxed 11 miles a day. The walk was recently publicised on Countryfile and there's a website with more information. See https://www.tamarvalley.org.uk/tamara-coast-to-coast-way/ Unfortunately, the book of the Trail is already sold out but there's an OS map and a link to the OSMaps website which is all we will need, plus a bit of internet exploration!

On two quite different winter days, our small band of walkers ventured into the Surrey Hills to continue our long distance challenge on the Greensand Way. Still reasonably well signposted, our third walk, 18th January, took us from Winterfold Heath 2kms north of Cranleigh to Friday Street in the Surrey Hills. This was a walk of 9 miles. Many great viewpoints such as Pitch Hill, Holmbury Hill and Leith Hill, the highest point in Southern England awaited us, but eluded us as we peered through the fog at nothing but fog!! We did manage to see Ewhurst windmill though! This section was memorable for its climbs adding up to almost 1500ft, but was nonetheless rewarding and a farm coffee shop at Holmbury St Mary provided the boost we needed for the final big climb up to Leith Hill. The Tower was closed this Sunday but another coffee shop there, run by the National Trust, greeted those needing more sustenance!

Day 2 of our Greensand Way adventure started with a slight complication. The road to our chosen car park at the walk end, Winterfold Heath, was closed. We needed 3 cars to meet there so we could all return to the start of the walk in one and have enough here for all 6 of us to get back later. Of course the absence of a phone signal made it a challenge to meet up and proved paper maps had their advantages over satnav by phone! One car had approached from a different direction and just had to wait for us to find them. Half an hour later we found each other!

With a group of friends we've started The Greensand Way. This 108 mile route is between the North Downs and The South Downs. The route follows a ridge of greensand rock through Surrey and Kent. Our aim is to walk it in about 11 stages, hence roughly 10 miles each daily walk. 57 miles are in Surrey, the remainder in Kent.

Friends know that I have been walking the Wales Coast Path virtually as an 800 mile challenge during the summer. All this means is that my daily walking is plotted on a map of the Wales Coast path and I set my number of days to complete it. I fell a little short (I have a few excuses!!) but averaged about 7.5 miles a day over the summer. The Conqueror challenge website lets you see the path on the route via Google maps etc. I particularly loved the Anglesey section so decided to walk it for real.

I did this walk, or all but one leg, with a friend in early June 2024. We walked an average of about 12 miles a day for 7 days from Morwenstow in the north to the Tamar bridge. We didn't have enough time to get right down to the ferry terminal at Cremyll. As is my inexplicable habit, I planned the walk backwards!

With old friends I often walk in the Chiltern Hills. One of us lives the other side of Oxford so we split the journey to be fair about time and cost. This week we walked on a day that until the last minute begged to be cancelled for the weather forecast!

I did 16 miles of this walk on Sunday with my friend Sharon and her friend Cathy. It's a bit outside my normal area but quite easily accessible from the M3 or by train if you feel up to doing it all in one go! There are a few buses to Kings Somborne (a possible centre point but they're not available on a Sunday).

A friend was keen to do this long distance walk of 150 miles. It’s well waymarked and starts at Erith in east London. The first leg was 8.7 miles from Erith to Bexley. We used Travelcards on the train and went via Waterloo. The first part of the walk is not visually enticing and it was very windy and occasionally wet. It feels like east London is the place for every kind of waste disposal you can think of! After intermittent sights of the Thames and some nice reedbeds we soon found ourselves walking along the banks of the River Darent and Cray and views improved immeasurably. In the distance was the Dartford river crossing on the Queen Elizabeth Bridge. There was some good birdwatching to be done but I forgot my binoculars! Easy to see were the shelducks, redshanks were calling loudly and Cetti's warblers were everywhere! I also heard some marsh frogs!

                Buck’s Mills from the descending path

A different winter break this year, a National Trust cottage on the South West Coast Path. In a tucked away Combe, just off the A39, we descended the rough track to our Coastguard cottage of excellent standard, including the wood burner with eco- logs! On my first days explore I walked down to Peppercombe beach, a rocky but picturesque place accessed by moss covered trees with some rare lichens on them. Birds were plentiful along the stony track and included marsh tit, treecreeper, nuthatch, coal tit and song thrush. The ultimate place to stay, I think, is the Landmark Trust painted cottage with stupendous views across to Hartland Point. Snowdrops are out by the stream and even some early primroses. The first exploration also found me the South West Coast Path for tomorrow’s adventure!

I love this walk very much. I spoke to a few walkers on the way and the area is much loved by many people.

Already planning trips in the New Year, this summer I'll be walking the Tamara Coast to Coast way on the borders of Devon and Cornwall with a friend. We'll be walking from Morwenstow on the north Devon coast to the Tamar Bridge on the outskirts of Plymouth. It should average out at about a nice, relaxed 11 miles a day. The walk was recently publicised on Countryfile and there's a website with more information. See https://www.tamarvalley.org.uk/tamara-coast-to-coast-way/ Unfortunately, the book of the Trail is already sold out but there's an OS map and a link to the OSMaps website which is all we will need, plus a bit of internet exploration!

On two quite different winter days, our small band of walkers ventured into the Surrey Hills to continue our long distance challenge on the Greensand Way. Still reasonably well signposted, our third walk, 18th January, took us from Winterfold Heath 2kms north of Cranleigh to Friday Street in the Surrey Hills. This was a walk of 9 miles. Many great viewpoints such as Pitch Hill, Holmbury Hill and Leith Hill, the highest point in Southern England awaited us, but eluded us as we peered through the fog at nothing but fog!! We did manage to see Ewhurst windmill though! This section was memorable for its climbs adding up to almost 1500ft, but was nonetheless rewarding and a farm coffee shop at Holmbury St Mary provided the boost we needed for the final big climb up to Leith Hill. The Tower was closed this Sunday but another coffee shop there, run by the National Trust, greeted those needing more sustenance!

Day 2 of our Greensand Way adventure started with a slight complication. The road to our chosen car park at the walk end, Winterfold Heath, was closed. We needed 3 cars to meet there so we could all return to the start of the walk in one and have enough here for all 6 of us to get back later. Of course the absence of a phone signal made it a challenge to meet up and proved paper maps had their advantages over satnav by phone! One car had approached from a different direction and just had to wait for us to find them. Half an hour later we found each other!

With a group of friends we've started The Greensand Way. This 108 mile route is between the North Downs and The South Downs. The route follows a ridge of greensand rock through Surrey and Kent. Our aim is to walk it in about 11 stages, hence roughly 10 miles each daily walk. 57 miles are in Surrey, the remainder in Kent.

Friends know that I have been walking the Wales Coast Path virtually as an 800 mile challenge during the summer. All this means is that my daily walking is plotted on a map of the Wales Coast path and I set my number of days to complete it. I fell a little short (I have a few excuses!!) but averaged about 7.5 miles a day over the summer. The Conqueror challenge website lets you see the path on the route via Google maps etc. I particularly loved the Anglesey section so decided to walk it for real.

I did this walk, or all but one leg, with a friend in early June 2024. We walked an average of about 12 miles a day for 7 days from Morwenstow in the north to the Tamar bridge. We didn't have enough time to get right down to the ferry terminal at Cremyll. As is my inexplicable habit, I planned the walk backwards!

With old friends I often walk in the Chiltern Hills. One of us lives the other side of Oxford so we split the journey to be fair about time and cost. This week we walked on a day that until the last minute begged to be cancelled for the weather forecast!

I did 16 miles of this walk on Sunday with my friend Sharon and her friend Cathy. It's a bit outside my normal area but quite easily accessible from the M3 or by train if you feel up to doing it all in one go! There are a few buses to Kings Somborne (a possible centre point but they're not available on a Sunday).

A friend was keen to do this long distance walk of 150 miles. It’s well waymarked and starts at Erith in east London. The first leg was 8.7 miles from Erith to Bexley. We used Travelcards on the train and went via Waterloo. The first part of the walk is not visually enticing and it was very windy and occasionally wet. It feels like east London is the place for every kind of waste disposal you can think of! After intermittent sights of the Thames and some nice reedbeds we soon found ourselves walking along the banks of the River Darent and Cray and views improved immeasurably. In the distance was the Dartford river crossing on the Queen Elizabeth Bridge. There was some good birdwatching to be done but I forgot my binoculars! Easy to see were the shelducks, redshanks were calling loudly and Cetti's warblers were everywhere! I also heard some marsh frogs!

                Buck’s Mills from the descending path

A different winter break this year, a National Trust cottage on the South West Coast Path. In a tucked away Combe, just off the A39, we descended the rough track to our Coastguard cottage of excellent standard, including the wood burner with eco- logs! On my first days explore I walked down to Peppercombe beach, a rocky but picturesque place accessed by moss covered trees with some rare lichens on them. Birds were plentiful along the stony track and included marsh tit, treecreeper, nuthatch, coal tit and song thrush. The ultimate place to stay, I think, is the Landmark Trust painted cottage with stupendous views across to Hartland Point. Snowdrops are out by the stream and even some early primroses. The first exploration also found me the South West Coast Path for tomorrow’s adventure!

I love this walk very much. I spoke to a few walkers on the way and the area is much loved by many people.

Already planning trips in the New Year, this summer I'll be walking the Tamara Coast to Coast way on the borders of Devon and Cornwall with a friend. We'll be walking from Morwenstow on the north Devon coast to the Tamar Bridge on the outskirts of Plymouth. It should average out at about a nice, relaxed 11 miles a day. The walk was recently publicised on Countryfile and there's a website with more information. See https://www.tamarvalley.org.uk/tamara-coast-to-coast-way/ Unfortunately, the book of the Trail is already sold out but there's an OS map and a link to the OSMaps website which is all we will need, plus a bit of internet exploration!

On two quite different winter days, our small band of walkers ventured into the Surrey Hills to continue our long distance challenge on the Greensand Way. Still reasonably well signposted, our third walk, 18th January, took us from Winterfold Heath 2kms north of Cranleigh to Friday Street in the Surrey Hills. This was a walk of 9 miles. Many great viewpoints such as Pitch Hill, Holmbury Hill and Leith Hill, the highest point in Southern England awaited us, but eluded us as we peered through the fog at nothing but fog!! We did manage to see Ewhurst windmill though! This section was memorable for its climbs adding up to almost 1500ft, but was nonetheless rewarding and a farm coffee shop at Holmbury St Mary provided the boost we needed for the final big climb up to Leith Hill. The Tower was closed this Sunday but another coffee shop there, run by the National Trust, greeted those needing more sustenance!

Day 2 of our Greensand Way adventure started with a slight complication. The road to our chosen car park at the walk end, Winterfold Heath, was closed. We needed 3 cars to meet there so we could all return to the start of the walk in one and have enough here for all 6 of us to get back later. Of course the absence of a phone signal made it a challenge to meet up and proved paper maps had their advantages over satnav by phone! One car had approached from a different direction and just had to wait for us to find them. Half an hour later we found each other!

With a group of friends we've started The Greensand Way. This 108 mile route is between the North Downs and The South Downs. The route follows a ridge of greensand rock through Surrey and Kent. Our aim is to walk it in about 11 stages, hence roughly 10 miles each daily walk. 57 miles are in Surrey, the remainder in Kent.

Friends know that I have been walking the Wales Coast Path virtually as an 800 mile challenge during the summer. All this means is that my daily walking is plotted on a map of the Wales Coast path and I set my number of days to complete it. I fell a little short (I have a few excuses!!) but averaged about 7.5 miles a day over the summer. The Conqueror challenge website lets you see the path on the route via Google maps etc. I particularly loved the Anglesey section so decided to walk it for real.

I did this walk, or all but one leg, with a friend in early June 2024. We walked an average of about 12 miles a day for 7 days from Morwenstow in the north to the Tamar bridge. We didn't have enough time to get right down to the ferry terminal at Cremyll. As is my inexplicable habit, I planned the walk backwards!

With old friends I often walk in the Chiltern Hills. One of us lives the other side of Oxford so we split the journey to be fair about time and cost. This week we walked on a day that until the last minute begged to be cancelled for the weather forecast!

I did 16 miles of this walk on Sunday with my friend Sharon and her friend Cathy. It's a bit outside my normal area but quite easily accessible from the M3 or by train if you feel up to doing it all in one go! There are a few buses to Kings Somborne (a possible centre point but they're not available on a Sunday).

A friend was keen to do this long distance walk of 150 miles. It’s well waymarked and starts at Erith in east London. The first leg was 8.7 miles from Erith to Bexley. We used Travelcards on the train and went via Waterloo. The first part of the walk is not visually enticing and it was very windy and occasionally wet. It feels like east London is the place for every kind of waste disposal you can think of! After intermittent sights of the Thames and some nice reedbeds we soon found ourselves walking along the banks of the River Darent and Cray and views improved immeasurably. In the distance was the Dartford river crossing on the Queen Elizabeth Bridge. There was some good birdwatching to be done but I forgot my binoculars! Easy to see were the shelducks, redshanks were calling loudly and Cetti's warblers were everywhere! I also heard some marsh frogs!

                Buck’s Mills from the descending path

A different winter break this year, a National Trust cottage on the South West Coast Path. In a tucked away Combe, just off the A39, we descended the rough track to our Coastguard cottage of excellent standard, including the wood burner with eco- logs! On my first days explore I walked down to Peppercombe beach, a rocky but picturesque place accessed by moss covered trees with some rare lichens on them. Birds were plentiful along the stony track and included marsh tit, treecreeper, nuthatch, coal tit and song thrush. The ultimate place to stay, I think, is the Landmark Trust painted cottage with stupendous views across to Hartland Point. Snowdrops are out by the stream and even some early primroses. The first exploration also found me the South West Coast Path for tomorrow’s adventure!

I love this walk very much. I spoke to a few walkers on the way and the area is much loved by many people.

Already planning trips in the New Year, this summer I'll be walking the Tamara Coast to Coast way on the borders of Devon and Cornwall with a friend. We'll be walking from Morwenstow on the north Devon coast to the Tamar Bridge on the outskirts of Plymouth. It should average out at about a nice, relaxed 11 miles a day. The walk was recently publicised on Countryfile and there's a website with more information. See https://www.tamarvalley.org.uk/tamara-coast-to-coast-way/ Unfortunately, the book of the Trail is already sold out but there's an OS map and a link to the OSMaps website which is all we will need, plus a bit of internet exploration!

On two quite different winter days, our small band of walkers ventured into the Surrey Hills to continue our long distance challenge on the Greensand Way. Still reasonably well signposted, our third walk, 18th January, took us from Winterfold Heath 2kms north of Cranleigh to Friday Street in the Surrey Hills. This was a walk of 9 miles. Many great viewpoints such as Pitch Hill, Holmbury Hill and Leith Hill, the highest point in Southern England awaited us, but eluded us as we peered through the fog at nothing but fog!! We did manage to see Ewhurst windmill though! This section was memorable for its climbs adding up to almost 1500ft, but was nonetheless rewarding and a farm coffee shop at Holmbury St Mary provided the boost we needed for the final big climb up to Leith Hill. The Tower was closed this Sunday but another coffee shop there, run by the National Trust, greeted those needing more sustenance!

Day 2 of our Greensand Way adventure started with a slight complication. The road to our chosen car park at the walk end, Winterfold Heath, was closed. We needed 3 cars to meet there so we could all return to the start of the walk in one and have enough here for all 6 of us to get back later. Of course the absence of a phone signal made it a challenge to meet up and proved paper maps had their advantages over satnav by phone! One car had approached from a different direction and just had to wait for us to find them. Half an hour later we found each other!

With a group of friends we've started The Greensand Way. This 108 mile route is between the North Downs and The South Downs. The route follows a ridge of greensand rock through Surrey and Kent. Our aim is to walk it in about 11 stages, hence roughly 10 miles each daily walk. 57 miles are in Surrey, the remainder in Kent.

Friends know that I have been walking the Wales Coast Path virtually as an 800 mile challenge during the summer. All this means is that my daily walking is plotted on a map of the Wales Coast path and I set my number of days to complete it. I fell a little short (I have a few excuses!!) but averaged about 7.5 miles a day over the summer. The Conqueror challenge website lets you see the path on the route via Google maps etc. I particularly loved the Anglesey section so decided to walk it for real.

I did this walk, or all but one leg, with a friend in early June 2024. We walked an average of about 12 miles a day for 7 days from Morwenstow in the north to the Tamar bridge. We didn't have enough time to get right down to the ferry terminal at Cremyll. As is my inexplicable habit, I planned the walk backwards!

With old friends I often walk in the Chiltern Hills. One of us lives the other side of Oxford so we split the journey to be fair about time and cost. This week we walked on a day that until the last minute begged to be cancelled for the weather forecast!

I did 16 miles of this walk on Sunday with my friend Sharon and her friend Cathy. It's a bit outside my normal area but quite easily accessible from the M3 or by train if you feel up to doing it all in one go! There are a few buses to Kings Somborne (a possible centre point but they're not available on a Sunday).

A friend was keen to do this long distance walk of 150 miles. It’s well waymarked and starts at Erith in east London. The first leg was 8.7 miles from Erith to Bexley. We used Travelcards on the train and went via Waterloo. The first part of the walk is not visually enticing and it was very windy and occasionally wet. It feels like east London is the place for every kind of waste disposal you can think of! After intermittent sights of the Thames and some nice reedbeds we soon found ourselves walking along the banks of the River Darent and Cray and views improved immeasurably. In the distance was the Dartford river crossing on the Queen Elizabeth Bridge. There was some good birdwatching to be done but I forgot my binoculars! Easy to see were the shelducks, redshanks were calling loudly and Cetti's warblers were everywhere! I also heard some marsh frogs!

                Buck’s Mills from the descending path

A different winter break this year, a National Trust cottage on the South West Coast Path. In a tucked away Combe, just off the A39, we descended the rough track to our Coastguard cottage of excellent standard, including the wood burner with eco- logs! On my first days explore I walked down to Peppercombe beach, a rocky but picturesque place accessed by moss covered trees with some rare lichens on them. Birds were plentiful along the stony track and included marsh tit, treecreeper, nuthatch, coal tit and song thrush. The ultimate place to stay, I think, is the Landmark Trust painted cottage with stupendous views across to Hartland Point. Snowdrops are out by the stream and even some early primroses. The first exploration also found me the South West Coast Path for tomorrow’s adventure!

I love this walk very much. I spoke to a few walkers on the way and the area is much loved by many people.

Already planning trips in the New Year, this summer I'll be walking the Tamara Coast to Coast way on the borders of Devon and Cornwall with a friend. We'll be walking from Morwenstow on the north Devon coast to the Tamar Bridge on the outskirts of Plymouth. It should average out at about a nice, relaxed 11 miles a day. The walk was recently publicised on Countryfile and there's a website with more information. See https://www.tamarvalley.org.uk/tamara-coast-to-coast-way/ Unfortunately, the book of the Trail is already sold out but there's an OS map and a link to the OSMaps website which is all we will need, plus a bit of internet exploration!

On two quite different winter days, our small band of walkers ventured into the Surrey Hills to continue our long distance challenge on the Greensand Way. Still reasonably well signposted, our third walk, 18th January, took us from Winterfold Heath 2kms north of Cranleigh to Friday Street in the Surrey Hills. This was a walk of 9 miles. Many great viewpoints such as Pitch Hill, Holmbury Hill and Leith Hill, the highest point in Southern England awaited us, but eluded us as we peered through the fog at nothing but fog!! We did manage to see Ewhurst windmill though! This section was memorable for its climbs adding up to almost 1500ft, but was nonetheless rewarding and a farm coffee shop at Holmbury St Mary provided the boost we needed for the final big climb up to Leith Hill. The Tower was closed this Sunday but another coffee shop there, run by the National Trust, greeted those needing more sustenance!

Day 2 of our Greensand Way adventure started with a slight complication. The road to our chosen car park at the walk end, Winterfold Heath, was closed. We needed 3 cars to meet there so we could all return to the start of the walk in one and have enough here for all 6 of us to get back later. Of course the absence of a phone signal made it a challenge to meet up and proved paper maps had their advantages over satnav by phone! One car had approached from a different direction and just had to wait for us to find them. Half an hour later we found each other!

With a group of friends we've started The Greensand Way. This 108 mile route is between the North Downs and The South Downs. The route follows a ridge of greensand rock through Surrey and Kent. Our aim is to walk it in about 11 stages, hence roughly 10 miles each daily walk. 57 miles are in Surrey, the remainder in Kent.

Friends know that I have been walking the Wales Coast Path virtually as an 800 mile challenge during the summer. All this means is that my daily walking is plotted on a map of the Wales Coast path and I set my number of days to complete it. I fell a little short (I have a few excuses!!) but averaged about 7.5 miles a day over the summer. The Conqueror challenge website lets you see the path on the route via Google maps etc. I particularly loved the Anglesey section so decided to walk it for real.

I did this walk, or all but one leg, with a friend in early June 2024. We walked an average of about 12 miles a day for 7 days from Morwenstow in the north to the Tamar bridge. We didn't have enough time to get right down to the ferry terminal at Cremyll. As is my inexplicable habit, I planned the walk backwards!

With old friends I often walk in the Chiltern Hills. One of us lives the other side of Oxford so we split the journey to be fair about time and cost. This week we walked on a day that until the last minute begged to be cancelled for the weather forecast!

I did 16 miles of this walk on Sunday with my friend Sharon and her friend Cathy. It's a bit outside my normal area but quite easily accessible from the M3 or by train if you feel up to doing it all in one go! There are a few buses to Kings Somborne (a possible centre point but they're not available on a Sunday).

A friend was keen to do this long distance walk of 150 miles. It’s well waymarked and starts at Erith in east London. The first leg was 8.7 miles from Erith to Bexley. We used Travelcards on the train and went via Waterloo. The first part of the walk is not visually enticing and it was very windy and occasionally wet. It feels like east London is the place for every kind of waste disposal you can think of! After intermittent sights of the Thames and some nice reedbeds we soon found ourselves walking along the banks of the River Darent and Cray and views improved immeasurably. In the distance was the Dartford river crossing on the Queen Elizabeth Bridge. There was some good birdwatching to be done but I forgot my binoculars! Easy to see were the shelducks, redshanks were calling loudly and Cetti's warblers were everywhere! I also heard some marsh frogs!

                Buck’s Mills from the descending path

A different winter break this year, a National Trust cottage on the South West Coast Path. In a tucked away Combe, just off the A39, we descended the rough track to our Coastguard cottage of excellent standard, including the wood burner with eco- logs! On my first days explore I walked down to Peppercombe beach, a rocky but picturesque place accessed by moss covered trees with some rare lichens on them. Birds were plentiful along the stony track and included marsh tit, treecreeper, nuthatch, coal tit and song thrush. The ultimate place to stay, I think, is the Landmark Trust painted cottage with stupendous views across to Hartland Point. Snowdrops are out by the stream and even some early primroses. The first exploration also found me the South West Coast Path for tomorrow’s adventure!

I love this walk very much. I spoke to a few walkers on the way and the area is much loved by many people.

Already planning trips in the New Year, this summer I'll be walking the Tamara Coast to Coast way on the borders of Devon and Cornwall with a friend. We'll be walking from Morwenstow on the north Devon coast to the Tamar Bridge on the outskirts of Plymouth. It should average out at about a nice, relaxed 11 miles a day. The walk was recently publicised on Countryfile and there's a website with more information. See https://www.tamarvalley.org.uk/tamara-coast-to-coast-way/ Unfortunately, the book of the Trail is already sold out but there's an OS map and a link to the OSMaps website which is all we will need, plus a bit of internet exploration!

On two quite different winter days, our small band of walkers ventured into the Surrey Hills to continue our long distance challenge on the Greensand Way. Still reasonably well signposted, our third walk, 18th January, took us from Winterfold Heath 2kms north of Cranleigh to Friday Street in the Surrey Hills. This was a walk of 9 miles. Many great viewpoints such as Pitch Hill, Holmbury Hill and Leith Hill, the highest point in Southern England awaited us, but eluded us as we peered through the fog at nothing but fog!! We did manage to see Ewhurst windmill though! This section was memorable for its climbs adding up to almost 1500ft, but was nonetheless rewarding and a farm coffee shop at Holmbury St Mary provided the boost we needed for the final big climb up to Leith Hill. The Tower was closed this Sunday but another coffee shop there, run by the National Trust, greeted those needing more sustenance!

Day 2 of our Greensand Way adventure started with a slight complication. The road to our chosen car park at the walk end, Winterfold Heath, was closed. We needed 3 cars to meet there so we could all return to the start of the walk in one and have enough here for all 6 of us to get back later. Of course the absence of a phone signal made it a challenge to meet up and proved paper maps had their advantages over satnav by phone! One car had approached from a different direction and just had to wait for us to find them. Half an hour later we found each other!

With a group of friends we've started The Greensand Way. This 108 mile route is between the North Downs and The South Downs. The route follows a ridge of greensand rock through Surrey and Kent. Our aim is to walk it in about 11 stages, hence roughly 10 miles each daily walk. 57 miles are in Surrey, the remainder in Kent.

Friends know that I have been walking the Wales Coast Path virtually as an 800 mile challenge during the summer. All this means is that my daily walking is plotted on a map of the Wales Coast path and I set my number of days to complete it. I fell a little short (I have a few excuses!!) but averaged about 7.5 miles a day over the summer. The Conqueror challenge website lets you see the path on the route via Google maps etc. I particularly loved the Anglesey section so decided to walk it for real.

I did this walk, or all but one leg, with a friend in early June 2024. We walked an average of about 12 miles a day for 7 days from Morwenstow in the north to the Tamar bridge. We didn't have enough time to get right down to the ferry terminal at Cremyll. As is my inexplicable habit, I planned the walk backwards!

With old friends I often walk in the Chiltern Hills. One of us lives the other side of Oxford so we split the journey to be fair about time and cost. This week we walked on a day that until the last minute begged to be cancelled for the weather forecast!

I did 16 miles of this walk on Sunday with my friend Sharon and her friend Cathy. It's a bit outside my normal area but quite easily accessible from the M3 or by train if you feel up to doing it all in one go! There are a few buses to Kings Somborne (a possible centre point but they're not available on a Sunday).

A friend was keen to do this long distance walk of 150 miles. It’s well waymarked and starts at Erith in east London. The first leg was 8.7 miles from Erith to Bexley. We used Travelcards on the train and went via Waterloo. The first part of the walk is not visually enticing and it was very windy and occasionally wet. It feels like east London is the place for every kind of waste disposal you can think of! After intermittent sights of the Thames and some nice reedbeds we soon found ourselves walking along the banks of the River Darent and Cray and views improved immeasurably. In the distance was the Dartford river crossing on the Queen Elizabeth Bridge. There was some good birdwatching to be done but I forgot my binoculars! Easy to see were the shelducks, redshanks were calling loudly and Cetti's warblers were everywhere! I also heard some marsh frogs!

                Buck’s Mills from the descending path

A different winter break this year, a National Trust cottage on the South West Coast Path. In a tucked away Combe, just off the A39, we descended the rough track to our Coastguard cottage of excellent standard, including the wood burner with eco- logs! On my first days explore I walked down to Peppercombe beach, a rocky but picturesque place accessed by moss covered trees with some rare lichens on them. Birds were plentiful along the stony track and included marsh tit, treecreeper, nuthatch, coal tit and song thrush. The ultimate place to stay, I think, is the Landmark Trust painted cottage with stupendous views across to Hartland Point. Snowdrops are out by the stream and even some early primroses. The first exploration also found me the South West Coast Path for tomorrow’s adventure!

I love this walk very much. I spoke to a few walkers on the way and the area is much loved by many people.

Already planning trips in the New Year, this summer I'll be walking the Tamara Coast to Coast way on the borders of Devon and Cornwall with a friend. We'll be walking from Morwenstow on the north Devon coast to the Tamar Bridge on the outskirts of Plymouth. It should average out at about a nice, relaxed 11 miles a day. The walk was recently publicised on Countryfile and there's a website with more information. See https://www.tamarvalley.org.uk/tamara-coast-to-coast-way/ Unfortunately, the book of the Trail is already sold out but there's an OS map and a link to the OSMaps website which is all we will need, plus a bit of internet exploration!