NDW Day 2: Dorking - Godstone

Note: I am sorry but owing to problems with my new shiny new phone, I was not able to publish this blog whilst walking. Instead I made notes, and now that I am home I will issue the updates over the course of the next few days. I have also extended and updated day 1 and added photos.

Today was a long, hot day. I was up early and started walking soon after 6am. The countryside is lovely at that time of day, fresh and unspoilt.  Lots of birds, rabbits, squirrels etc. Twice I caught sight of deer. Look at this:

Early morning on the Downs above Dorking..

I crossed the pleasant open area of Ranmore Common and then the path went through Denbies Wine Estate, Britain's biggest vineyard I believe.

a corner of Denbies Wine Estate

Immediately after the route crosses the river Mole, via stepping stones, and then goes up Box Hill, which is quite steep..

stepping stones across the river Mole

Climbing up Box Hill. Lots of these...

.. but the view from the top is spectacular. Dorking right of centre

By noon, I had already done more than 13 miles. The afternoon was not so good as I started to wilt rather, in the heat. Also the landscape changed and the dreaded motorways - M23, M25 - began to intrude. I stopped for a mediocre lunch in a dusty little town called Merstham, right next to the motorway and then ploughed steadily on to Godstone where I was picked up by daughter Charlie and my two lovely grandchildren and whisked back to their house in Crawley Down for a night of pampered luxury (fish & chips from the van in the village and a glass of rose, excellent)..

strange gravestone in the woods for a horse called "quick," though presumably dead

A lime kiln, near Box Hill

NDW Day 1: Farnham to near Dorking

Sue dropped me off about 9.30am at Farnham station, after the usual struggle with the rush hour M25, and off I set. There is a peculiar sculpture thing, to mark the start of the North Downs Way:

As I said in a previous post I have a rather low opinion of the route the NDW takes, but I could find no fault with today. Walking along pleasant sandy tracks through the Surrey hills with sunshine and lovely views.. top class. I put up my little tent in a field a mile or two before Dorking, and after walking 21 miles in hot sun, sleep was not at all a problem..

 Lots of very pleasant sandy trails, through the Surrey hills .. 

.. and some lovely views too. 

 Church at the top of St Martha's Hill near Guildford, confusingly called St Barnabas' .. perhaps they were an item [edit: I was confused, this church is dedicated to St Martha, and St Barnabas has the next church along, a much grander affair on Ranmore Common. The two saints were more or less coexistent, so could still have been an item ..]

View from the churchyard

 

Three graves there of members of the remarkable Freyberg family, who between them share a VC, four DSOs, an MC, a GCMG, a GBE and more. Having googled Bernard Freyberg I bowed to him before leaving.

I ploughed on, and about the 18 mile mark started to look for somewhere to put up the tent. This proved more difficult than I had expected, not because Surrey is built up - it isn't, not around the North Downs, anyway .. the problem with the Downs is that they slope a lot. The ideal campsite is (a) secluded, and (b) flat, and (b) was an issue. Eventually I found somewhere suitable, at the foot of the White Downs, before Dorking, a few feet outside the National Trust boundary.

A squashed grass snake..

.. and below is Richard, who was walking from Winchester to Canterbury, along the Pilgrim's Way. The two often coincide - not here, but here the Pilgrim's Way is also the dual carriageway A31

North Downs Way preparation 2 - Ready to Start

So .. more or less ready to set off, early in the morning...

I'm happy with the route, which comes to only 119 miles not the forecast 125... this is because I flatly refuse to walk up to the M2 motorway bridge at Rochester, over the bridge and then straight back down the other side. How anyone ever thought that would be an enjoyable experience beats me. The official route should have gone via Aylesford. Instead, I will go over the new Peter's Bridge between Halling and Wouldham.

I will try to do the walk in six days, at roughly 20 miles per day. I will spend night 2 at my daughter Charlie's house at Crawley Down, and night 4 back here at home since the route passes not very far from both places.. so hopefully I should not have to spend even two consecutive nights in the tent. I don't mind camping. The absence of a shower, a decent mattress or a kitchen make it less than ideal, but it does have its compensations

Also, I had intended to go around the Canterbury loop this time, having gone via Folkestone when I did it before, but when I look at it, the Canterbury loop looks so urbanised and unappealing I decided not to do that either and will follow the same route along the Wye downs and the Folkestone cliffs as last time.

Equipment is not much of an issue, I put the tent up yesterday on the top lawn and it was all present and correct and looking good ..  altogether it looks as if I will be carrying about 6.5Kg, or 14lb, which I am happy with, especially as it includes a tent, sleeping bag and about 2.5Kg of food and water. I could make it less, since I will only be away from home for three days at a time, but it is similar to what I will need in Snowdonia in July, so will be good training. The forecast is so good I am not taking full waterproof gear, just a nifty Zpacks showerproof and windproof jacket. I will put the gear list at the end of this post if I can. My only real problem is that the nice new Brasher Supalight boots I was planning to use have rubbed a raw place on my heels while doing the Linton Boundary Walk last Sunday. Obviously they need more running in, so I will have to use my Salomon trail shoes instead. They should be OK and they weigh a fair bit less. Shame to start off a walk with a blister plaster though!

Now off to mow the grass, otherwise it will be knee high when I get back.. early start tomorrow for the drive to Farnham.

My gear list:

North Downs Way preparation 1: Background

Leith Hill, highest point on the Greensand Way (and higher than anywhere on the North Downs Way!)

Background 

When I first started longer distance walks in 2007, the first long walk I did was along the Greensand Way, which runs past about 100 yards from my house. It goes for 110 miles or so from Haslemere in Surrey to Hamstreet, south of Ashford in Kent and is altogether a very nice walk

The second walk I did was the North Downs Way, which runs from Farnham in Surrey to Dover, either via Canterbury or via Ashford and Folkestone. About 125 miles, or 130 via Canterbury. I didn't like the route as much for two reasons, first because it spends far too long near motorways - the M2, M23, M25, M26 and M20 all feature, not to mention the A2, A24, A28 and A31 - pretty much a clean sweep of trunk routes in Surrey and Kent. And second, because it was a recent route construction done by a government department, and as a result it follows no common-sense path, such as the Pilgrim's Way and the Greensand Way do. Instead it shoots up and down the North Downs on what seems to be a pretty random basis, sometimes several times a day. Its inefficiency in terms of getting from A to B rather offended my engineer's outlook.. and I haven't been back since, except for short sections here and there on other walks.

One thing it did have going for it, was that all this upping and downing was quite strenuous. Accordingly, after ten years I am finally going to have another go at it, as preparation for the Snowdonia Trail, that I shall be doing in July 2017, and Andorra, scheduled for August. It's time ..

I start on Wednesday, 24 May 2017 from Farnham. I shall walk the northern route via Canterbury, having gone the other way last time. It should take a week or so.

Preparations:

The idea is mainly to raise fitness levels, but also to try out and test the equipment. So I am taking a tent and cooking gear with me, all mod cons. However most of the kit is already tried and tested, so it is really more a question of getting the moths out, seeing that nothing is missing, and that it all still does its job efficiently.

Before I go I need to:

- plot the route. I have a handbook, but the North Downs Way handbook is unusually poor. It regularly gets distances and directions wrong. Nowadays I am pretty much paperless so I will simply plot the route onto my Anquet Maps OS mapping, and then follow it. It takes a while to get that completed.

- review the route, to see where I can eat and if I need to book any accommodation - but I might not book, might just play it by ear. Surrey, Sussex and Kent are not out in the wilds exactly, there is lots of choice available. As soon as you book somewhere in advance, your route and timing are fixed

- go through the equipment and do a trial pack and make sure I have all the food, bars etc. that I will need

and, er, that's about it! But before I set off next week, I will either do another post or update this one

Equipment Reviews

 I promised reviews of the equipment I took on my Pyrenean adventure, and they will appear here. What I will do is a set of reviews under the headings listed below. As each one is published I will update the list to include a link to the review in question. The kit reviews are actually on a separate blog and if you are really keen you can subscribe to that and get email advices as they are published.

I think my 55 day walk was a severe test for most of the equipment I took, and I am pleased that mainly it passed with flying colours. I am particularly happy with the "big three," ie rucksack, tent and sleeping bag, all of which were sourced from Zpacks, and all of which performed brilliantly, above and beyond the call of duty. Here is the list, then there are a few more general comments below:

Rucksack

Tent

Sleeping bag & sleeping mat

Footwear

Clothing

Water bottles and treatment

Walking poles

Phone, watch & digital

Maps & guides

Food & cooking

Remember that I am taller than average, 6ft 4 1/2" (1.94m) and that coloured some of my choices, eg I picked a 2 person tent and a longer, bespoke sleeping bag. 

I am also getting older, and for this trip, I decided I should do what I could to reduce my carry weight a little more. I replaced my faithful Terra Nova tent, Gossamer Gear rucksack and Marmot Helium sleeping bag with Zpacks products which saved me 2Kg right away. But would they cope with a rugged walk?

Otherwise the only major change from my previous visits to the Pyrenees was that I went 100% electronic: no paper maps, no books or guides, everything went onto the smartphone. This worked very well although in the end it didn't save a vast amount of weight.

Overall my rucksack weighed 12.2Kg when I set off, including food and 1.5l water. There is a full equipment list here. I was pleased with this, but I am pretty sure it weighed quite a bit more during some parts of the walk. Weight creeps on.. you take clothes off when it's warm, and stuff them into pockets; you go to a food shop and stock up.. you buy one or two other essentials you forgot.. it rains and the tent gets wet.. I reckon the total carry weight went up to about 15Kg at its maximum, but I cannot be certain as scales are rare in the mountains!

HRP Photo Slideshow

Below is an embedded slideshow of about 430 photos of my journey along the HRP from Hendaye to Banyuls. Just click on it. Whether the embedded link works in emails I don't know.. but you can also see the photos by clicking here Slideshow: This completes the blog posts for the HRP except for the Equipment Reviews, which will follow in a few days' time. Thank you, to all readers and commenters! I can be reached via email at: hrp at jerrywhitmarsh dot com (replace the "at" and the "dot"!) . Jerry

Thoughts on completing the HRP

It's nice when you finish!

During the walk, I lost just over 11kg in weight (80.4kg now, against 92kg before), and walked 568.4 miles according to my pedometer. I'm told there is about 30 miles of vertical ascent and descent, but haven't checked. 

I am confirmed in my view that the HRP is the hardest, but also the best and most rewarding of the three trans-Pyrenees routes. I think doing the walk in one go is also more rewarding, if you have the opportunity. I have never been away from home for so long, and probably never will be again. I'm very grateful to Sue for holding the fort, and to Charlie & Co for being there much of the time too. Also those who looked after the walks and the village hall in my absence, notably Peter McGillivray.

Some aspects of the walk, I was very pleased with:

- not one single blister or foot problem throughout.
- nothing lost or forgotten en route, (except one small item), most unusual for me!
- most of my equipment lasted the course very well, especially the Zpacks kit - rucksack, tent and sleeping bag. I will do a separate post about equipment, in due course.
- most of the hotels and gites d'etape that I stayed in were excellent, as were some of the refuges.
- the phone plan provided by 3, which treats calls, texts and data made in France and Spain the same as in the UK, is the bees knees,  and saved me a great deal of money. Pity about Andorra though. 

- I met lots of really nice people on the way. I daren't try to name them all, but you know who you are! Thanks for everything. Walkers are great. 

Above all, I think I picked the right mountain range! The Pyrenees are stunning throughout.

Some aspects of the walk I was less happy with:

- the refuges I stayed in were a very mixed bunch. Some were excellent,  some pretty dire. Their fixation with pasta was a constant irritation. I will do a separate post about accommodation, in due course. Of course running a refuge situated above 2000m is not an easy job, and we need to remember that refuges are not hotels. But some were so much better than others.

- physically, I think I did this walk in the nick of time. My knees only just lasted the course, and my sense of balance (or lack of it) was an impediment too. In future I should perhaps stick to easier, shorter walks, like the Pennine Way.

I have over 1100 photos to wade through and prune. When I've done that, I will provide a link to a slide show. 

what happens when you lose your balance!