Day 26 Binscombe to Ranmore Common: A Canadian Road, Dark Woods, and a Warm Fire

For an OS map of today's walk click here.

We began the day with clouds and misty rain off and on, although the forecast was a bit ominous, calling for steadier rain in the afternoon. This would be our first day that we would climb onto the North Downs proper, our destination a small youth hostel two miles short of Box Hill.

A Sandy Walk to St. Martha's Hill

Soon after we left our B & B in Binscombe we passed two women who were athletically walking quickly in the opposite direction to us. Several miles later, as we crossed the River Wey, we were astounded to see them cross our path again, walking in the opposite direction to us. They were probably astonished that we had been so slow as to meet them at the point that we did.

We passed Loseley Park House, which was a beautiful estate with a helicopter on the enormous park-like lawn (a bit more impressive than a garden gnome).

Our path took us past police headquarters, where there was a big meeting with cars attempting to park in the lot as we threaded our way through.

St. Martha's Church

The guidebook we were using mentioned that we would pass a cottage that looked dilapidated and the worse for wear, and we were happy to see that as we walked past there were builders working on restoring it.

The path around this area was incredibly sandy, a sort of orangey sand that did look, as the guidebook said, like a beach at one point. It was tempting to walk alongside the path on firmer ground, but that would have eventually eroded and enlarged the path, so we just slogged along.

Pilgrim's Cross at St. Martha's

We continued our sandy climb up a fairly steep hill named St. Martha's Hill, with St. Martha's Church on top. There was a large group of about 20 walkers ahead of us on the hill, so we sat outside the church and ate our snacks on a bench to let them tour the church. When we went inside the church, a caretaker was there. He was very knowledgeable, and told us stories and gave us information about the area. I had known from our guidebook that we would be later walking on a lane that was locally referred to as Canada Road, because Canadian soldiers had been stationed there in WWII. The caretaker told us a story that he had read in a biography of one of the Redgraves, that women used to go shopping in a nearby village and leave all of their prams with the babies in them outside the department store. Apparently one day, some of the Canadian soldiers came along and mixed up all of the prams while the women were shopping, so that utter chaos ensued when mothers made off with the wrong baby and discovered their mistake. And I thought Canadians were supposed to be so mild and polite!

"Pilgrims Old and New"

Another thing I found of interest at that church was that Ernest Shepard, the original illustrator of the Winnie-the-Pooh books, attended that church for awhile, and there was a drawing of his in the church of "Pilgrims Old and New," portraying medieval and modern pilgrims meeting each other, which seemed apropos for our walk.

After tearing ourselves away from the caretaker we walked down St. Martha's hill and then up onto the North Downs proper at Newlands Corner, a famous Surrey beauty spot with a great view—when the weather is good! Across the road was our lunchtime destination, The Barn, a restaurant that served hearty sandwiches and cake. We had half of our lunch sandwiches wrapped up for dinner, bought a slice of lemon drizzle cake and one of Victoria sponge cake for after dinner, and two scones for next morning's breakfast.

Snail Crossing!

As we left the rain set in, still light at first. We had very good forest paths at the beginning, and walked hard and fast for about 3 miles. We are definitely tougher and stronger after all this time, and can move more quickly when need be. We were on the Canadian Road for awhile—the pavement was crumbling away and the huge holes were filled with rubble. Some of it was bits of red brick, which seemed an appropriate colour for a Canadian road. The woods were so quiet and empty that I wouldn't have been surprised if a Canadian soldier had come strolling down the road. We were certainly marching quickly on our own account. We later passed several WWII pill boxes, small brick buildings designed as part of a defensive line against the invasion that never came. Most of them were crumbling away.

The forest opened up at times with what would have been amazing views across the downs and also the Weald to the south, but being in the open meant that we were also in the wind and the steadily increasing rain, which often blew in our faces in these open stretches. We enjoyed the shelter of the woods, but as the afternoon progressed the woods became darker, and darker, and mistier. At one point it got so dark, with mist twisting between the trees, that I said to Ken that if I heard horse's hooves I hoped it would be Mr. Rochester from Jane Eyre and not a ring-wraith! Later, as the path was broken by twisting tree roots, Ken said that he expected to see Yoda, since it looked like the planet Dagobah. We hastened through the woods, and out into the open, deciding to go beyond the turn-off for our hostel in order to visit a large church designed by George Gilbert Scott. We arrived to find a notice board saying that the church was no longer open during the daytime for visitors. Disappointed, we sat in the porch to rest awhile, then headed back through the now steady rain down a busy road to find our hostel (fortunately, we soon found a path in the grass so the traffic did not affect us much). On the way, we met two men who had walked the Coast to Coast and were going on a cycling tour in Scotland. One man from Trinidad talked about how England was set up for walking, and he understood why we would travel to England to walk, something that we often have a hard time explaining to people.

Tanner's Hatch Youth Hostel

In front of the fire...

We walked down a long forest drive to Tanner's Hatch Youth Hostel—my first time staying at a hostel, and Ken's first time in about 20 years. It was formerly a cottage that had been restored as a hostel. We met the only woman who was staying there, Ellen, who was from Germany. She taught garden design at a university in Berlin, and was touring English gardens. It was her first visit to England. We had a good time chatting with her. Sue the volunteer host kindly lit a fire in the fireplace, and later when the other male guests arrived—Arlen, Russell, and Michael—we all sat around the fire and chatted about walking, running, career changes, etc. There was one other man who kept to himself. The upstairs had been divided into two separate rooms, with the men in bunks in one room, and the women (which were Ellen and I) in another. I really enjoyed my first hostel experience, realizing that it was much like a university class—the mix of people (or students) really affects the experience, and we had a good mix of people. The only thing that was a bit inconvenient, but which I had somehow expected without knowing it, was that the bathrooms were in a separate building. This meant putting on wet muddy boots to tramp over to the next building. I told Ken that I had somehow expected the bathrooms and showers to be like those in the old film It Happened One Night, and sure enough, they were.

42,637 steps, 31.977 km, 1357.1 cal
OS getamap measured distance: 15.80 mi (25.43 km)