DAY 8 Saturday 27th September 2014
ROUTE Reigate to Abinger Hammer
DISTANCE 12.7 miles
CUMULATIVE MILEAGE 106.2 miles
CUMULATIVE MILEAGE 106.2 miles
START POINT Colley Hill, Reigate - TQ 248 522
FINISH POINT White Down Lane, Abinger Hammer - TQ114 489
WEATHER Overcast but thankfully dry
WALKERS Cally
Charman, Rod Boreham and Graham Palmer
SUPPORT DRIVER Mike Gercke
SUFFER SCORE 5 (pleased to be on familiar territory)
(On a scale of 1-10 with 1 being easy and 10 being unbearable!)
(On a scale of 1-10 with 1 being easy and 10 being unbearable!)
CTOG AWARD Mike Gercke
Awarded for his unfailing support of the team in spite of not being
able to walk with the team as originally planned, his invaluable input in
the planning stages and his willingness to take over driving the crew
van on the final weekend and in so doing sacrifice watching the Ryder
Cup!
Day 8 dawns and….the end is nigh!
The day was a familiar one for at least two members of the team as many training sessions and walks had been made in
this part of the Surrey Hills. Firstly
we were pleased to have Mike Gercke back as an active member of the team, taking over from Jim Rice as the all-important driver of the support
vehicle. Mike had originally planned to be part of the
walking team but had to pull out at short notice but it is great that he has rejoined the team and even managed to walk short sections of the route with us today. We were also delighted to
welcome Annelise Wilkinson, one of our Street Angels, who joined the
walking team for the whole day.
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| The original team is happily reunited |
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| Annelise, pretty in pink, at the start of the day |
The start of the day was overcast and
cooler than of late. Having returned to
Colley Hill near Reigate we set off around 10am. Almost immediately we descended steeply to
manoeuvre around Juniper Hill and inevitably had to rise steeply again on the
other side which was a bit of a shock to cold muscles so early in the day.
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| Rising to the early challenges |
We abandoned our first meeting of the day
with Mike and the support vehicle due to the road being closed whilst a new gas
main was being laid and so it was agreed
that we would next meet up with Mike at our lunch-time stop at Box Hill.
Our route to Box Hill was through
woods and, in an attempt to not feel left out, Graham followed in Cally’s and Rod’s footsteps
and took a fall on this section. The
tally was now one-a-piece!
The North
Downs Way passed the lime kilns of Betchworth Quarry and the limeworks at Brockham. The limeworks were built in the 19th
century to mine the hills of the North Downs.
However, in spite of being closed down in 1936 they achieved a ‘Site of Scientific
Interest’ status in 1975 due to their importance to the landscape of England’s
industrial heritage. The works were
serviced by their own private narrow gauge railway to deliver chalk from the
quarries to the kilns and the unused Smidth kiln still forms a striking feature
on the North Downs. The works also featured in episodes of Doctor Who back in
the 70’s.
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| The imposing Smidth kiln |
We knew that the famous Box Hill was ahead as the route started to climb and there was an elevation change of 350 ft. before we reached the top of the hill.
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| Long sections of steep terrain making us very warm! |
On the steep upward climb we came across the
grave of ‘Quick’ which was the favourite greyhound of the wife of a Mr
Barnholdt who was the owner of the land at the time the dog met its demise.
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| Quick's grave |
The final walk up to the magnificent
viewing point at Box Hill signalled both a photo opportunity for the team and
also time to stop for coffee along with the hundreds of cyclists who regularly challenge
themselves with the climb up the ‘zig-zag’ which of course was used as part of
the road race course for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
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| Striding towards Mike as he meets us on the approach to the top of Box Hill |
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| Atop Box Hill with Dorking in the background |
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| We love our chaplain! |
Coffee over and we were on our way again
and after just 0.2 miles we notched up 100 miles since leaving Canterbury last
Saturday.
Almost as soon as we had left the heights
of Box Hill we started the steep descent down the steps that would lead us to
the iconic ‘Stepping Stones’ that feature as the cover photo on the CTOG14
Facebook site.
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| Stepping out on the stones |
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| The team pose for the obligatory photo |
Another photo opportunity
that could not be missed and we were on our way again, this time crossing the
busy A24 before entering the world-famous Denbies wine estate. The estate comprises some 627 acres in an
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Its
265 acres of vines are three times larger than any other vineyard in the UK and
produce some of the finest sparkling and table wines in Europe.
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| Denbies vines as viewed from Box Hill |
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| Denbies Wine Estate |
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| Crossing the main thoroughfare across Ranmore Common |
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| Familiar paths across Ranmore Common |
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| One of several pill boxes hidden amongst the trees on Ranmore Common |
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| A much needed drinks stop on the final leg |
It is hard to believe that we are just one
day away from completing our walk from Canterbury to Guildford Cathedral . It seemed such a long time ago that we set off
from Canterbury Cathedral last Saturday.
The team really hopes that people will turn out on Sunday (28th)
and join us on our walk as we head back to Guildford. We will be stopping for lunch at St Martha’s
where we invite you all to bring a picnic and share some time chatting with the team. We also hope that on our final day we can bring our fund-raising total up to our target amount of £7,500
to ensure that the important work of Guildford Street Angels
can continue in the future.
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