Last month we had a mini-adventure in Northumberland – we walked Isaac’s tea trail. Finally we’ve got round to adding a page about it to this website – hope you enjoy reading about it.
R & L
walks
First trip of 2026
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
Goats don’t like wet hooves!
Last weekend’s adventure was planned to start in civilisation, so I thought I ought to clean my walking boots to look vaguely respectable! Although I’m always careful to dry my boots, I rarely do anything else & they usually bear the muddy souvenir of the last adventure. Consequently it had been a long time since the tread on the sole had been visible, so I got a nasty surprise to see that the outer sole had worn away on one heel. There was a hole where I could see through to the spongy inner layer of the sole.
I love my scarpa boots they are leather & goretex (taking no chances!) and extremely comfortable. My first thought was to get them re-heeled, but I’m not sure that’s possible due to the spongy layer. I also had to acknowledge that the leather on the top was showing signs of cracking.
They’ve done me well, I’ve walked hundreds of miles in them & only once had a blister. I guess I have to accept its time to start looking for a new pair. In the meantime I intend to wear them entirely into the ground.
Towards the end of last weekend’s walk I was faced with a long stretch of path that resembled a steam!
It was so deep I had to walk on tip toes to avoid the water over topping my boots…but do you know, even with the cracks & worn soles, my toes were toasty & dry. Grateful to my good old faithful walking boots!
L
A new walk for the new year
We’re conscious we haven’t blogged for a while. Sorry!
We have done a few more sections of the Greensands Way, we’ve just not been very good about telling you!
But for the new year we’ve another challenge we’re tackling simultaneously – walking the River Meon. You can read about more about this, and our first section where we went to find the river’s source, on our new River Meon walk page.
L & R
Back on track – but only for a short way!
Gven as we had to postpone our planned camping trip, we decided to tackle the next section of the Greensands Way instead. We walked over 8 miles, but we only made 2 miles of progress along the Greensands Way as that pesky little road called the A3 was in our way! Basically our route as all around crossing the A3!
R & L
Abbey ruins, a cave, a film set & an ancient oak
Who would have thought a short walk in the Surrey countryside could take in so much, but we came across all this and more on the last section of the Greensands Way we walked. Read about it here.
Confesssion… it was actually a little while ago we walked this section. We had hoped to camp at the coast this weekend, but the high winds meant this wasn’t sensible. Instead, we are walking the next part of the Greensands Way, which made us realise we are behind with the blogging!!
R & L
Washed away!
At long last we completed the last section of the Wayfarers Walk!! We set out shortly before lunchtime from the car park at Southmoor nature reserve, with our sights set on the Coal Exchange pub for lunch, just 3 miles away. It didn’t prove quite that simple… read more about our adventure.
Walking and talking
Walking and talking – two things which very good for your mental health as well as your physical health. I’m not the only one who believes this – and this weekend I joined up with a group of people who walk every week with the specific aim of connecting people, combating loneliness and helping people improve their mental health as well as their physical health.
The organisers of Walk and Talk saw how much communities suffered during the pandemic. They saw how isolated some people became and were inspired to do something about it. The idea is very simple, every Saturday at 10.30 you can turn up and there will be someone else to walk with. There is no need to book, there is no charge and both buggies and pets are welcome!
I chose to try out the group which meets at Morden Hall Park and found a very friendly group of people from all different backgrounds and life situations enjoying spending time together in the outdoors. Not only do they walk together but those who want to stayed on and had a coffee together in the National Trust cafe!
Unknown to me I was especially lucky to choose this particular Saturday because they had a local history expert leading the walk. As well as telling us stories about Morden Hall’s history, she pointed out some hidden features and had brought old photographs to help us picture what it would have been like.
At the moment they have five groups, but they are aspiring to set up more. Check out their website for more details.
L
An intentional detour!
As you will know, we are currently walking the Greensands Way. We’d only walked two sections and got as far as Thursley when we got confused – the Greensands Way appeared to go both west and east! As far as we can work out, there is an additional ‘spur’ of the path to Farnham, whilst the official route continues east.
Not wanting to miss out on anything, and curious to walk on Thursley Common which we had heard about but never visited, we thought we’d first walk this spur before continuing with the main path.
Turns out Thursley and Hankley Commons are both interesting environments to explore – read about our walk here.
R & L
A day out with the Devil?
The next section of the Greensands Way took us round the edge of the Devil’s Punchbowl – an area which, in addition to it’s folklore and name, does have a lot of grim history!
Nevertheless we had a nice day’s walking!
R & L
Embrace your inner goat 