Day 3 – Guildford to Reigate Hill
So far I’d been leaving after breakfast, and arriving at my destination in the early evening.
I now decided that early starts were the rule, so from now on I’d get up at daylight, have a coffee whilst packing, then leave asap, skip any beer mid-walk and hopefully arrive wherever mid-afternoon.
To this end, I got an early morning snap of Guildford Cathedral, before retracing my steps the evening before to the outskirts of Guildford and get back on the route.
I had to cross the River Wey, which was canalised in 1798. Soon after was a playing field where a hot air balloon was being prepared – they were about to start inflating it so I waited for a few minutes, but as they were taking their time, I left them to it before Charcoal Charlie got incinerated.
It was then a walk to the top of St Martha’s Hill, where in the clearing at the top is a church – obviously called St Martha’s. It dates from around 1100 and is at times called St Martyr’s, in commemoration of Thomas Becket. It used to have a Becket chapel. There is no road leading to it, so it is a strenuous walk from the valley below.
In the churchyard is a commemoration to Yvonne Arnaud, a French actress and musician, after whom the main theatre in Guildford is named.
One of the side effects I now had from the earlier start was that many of the churches were locked when I went past, and as such my ability to look inside and obtain a pilgrim stamp, was much reduced.
Quite a few churches didn’t have a pilgrim stamp, and one, I forget which, had a notice saying you had to telephone the vicar if you wanted it. That seemed a bit much.
After Gomshall, I went astray after being misled by the guidebook, and it took around 20 mins to accept the error and return to the proper track.
At Box Hill I crossed the River Mole using the stepping stones, then up a few steps onto the track going up into Box Hill Country Park. The guidebook then said to turn right at the bottom of the third flight of steps.
It was unclear whether the steps I had just come up counted as the first flight or not.
I assumed they were, and indeed there was a path to the right at the bottom of the ‘third’ flight – so off I went to the right. Sometime later, I had descended back down the hill, which was clearly incorrect – so I retraced my steps, went up the what was now clearly the ‘second’ flight of steps, and turned turned right at the next flight.
On then to Reigate and the Manor Hotel where I arrived around 2pm. So, 22 miles in just over 9 hours.