After a very long break – it felt good to get back outdoors last weekend! Two days walking in the surrey hills, the first from Ockley northwards. We were aiming for Friday Street, but only got as far as Leith Hill, where we rewarded ourselves with a mug of tea with a view (purchased from the tower) and headed back south.

The second day we did a bit more of the Greensands Way. We started at Hurtwood Car Park no 1 and headed east towards Leith Hill. We didn’t go up this time, but then headed north over Abinger Common and then back round via Holmbury St Mary and through the Hurtwood. Here’s our route. The views from Holmbury Hill at the start are spectacular. However, car park no 1 is slightly terrifiying – the steep sandy entrance is severely rutted and I’ve no idea how poor Nessie made it up to the top!

In between the two walks, I did my first night in the van. A BritStop at Village Greens Farm Shop, Ockley. A bit of a trial run getting ready for the season ahead. Before I set out I refilled Nessie’s water tank and got the pump working, and one of the gas rings was working – but I could not get the other gas ring to stay alight nor can I get the heating to work!! That said, if I can do without heating this weekend when the temperatures was 1C overnight, then probably doesn’t matter (and I’ve got good at ignoring the light that’s been flashing for months!!). I just wore a lot of layers – 3 thermals and a jumper for sleeping, and had my hot water bottles and I wasn’t cold in the night (well only my nose when it poked out of my sleeping bag cacoon!). When I woke up in the morning and tried to look out the window, there was ice on the inside and outside of the van!

Dinner was beef stroganoff (which it turns out is fairly straightforward to cook on one gas ring!) followed by shop-bought apple pie and some custard. Given that the days are still relatively short, I thought I’d have lots of time to kill and might do some sorting out of the various cupboards in the van, but I didn’t! What with cooking and an audiobook and a knitting project, the evening passed quickly and happily.

Looking forward to the next trip already!

L