Brockham, The Royal Oak

Going for a brisk walk does your veins good – especially if you do it regularly. A study of 40,000 women recently found that those who did at least two hours of brisk walking per week had a significantly lower risk of suffering a stroke than those who tended to move at a more sedate pace.

Source: Stroke 2010, 41: 647-652

Tuesday 18th October A Bridge Too Far - Or Was It?
Walkers: Farty,T.B,12 Legs, Windy, Registrarah, Lil and Clat
No Mrs P due to activities in the North and West, and everyone else was obviously absent.
Distance: 61/2 miles
Find of the Walk: a blue chewed-up tennis ball

A beautiful day for our perambulations although parking was a tad tight due to the assemblage of about 30 'older' people out for their own group walk. We set off in an easterly direction along the Greensand Way and then headed north towards Betchworth and some views. The next section, across some allotments, is undergoing a re-direction as we noted some magnificent new kissing gates in place, in readiness for the re-routing, so we had to take the old path for now, which led us on to and over the A25 , and into grazing fields (no cows for the present), and up towards a bridge. Today, this bridge had two workers on it, one of whom looked remarkably like Heston Blumenthal. Fluorescent jackets and helmets abounded as this duo were busy replacing part of the bridge, but our progress was not impeded, and to complete the picture, the 'nee-na' of a train whistled by underneath us.

Towards base camp we headed. We were now at the foot of Boxhill and no sign of Sherpa Tensing, but we had to carry on and do our own tensing. Steeply climbing and gasping (some of us), we made our way up the side of this big thing, and towards the summit we stopped for refreshments and much admiration of the views and our surroundings - there's nothing else like it on a day like this, and all for free. We soldiered on and reached the summit which is also the site of the dead horse (see earlier blogs). This is also part of the Pilgrims Way.

Then of course, came the descent, which was slow and quite hard on the knees, and when you have four, like Minnie, you just sit down and refuse to move, so a bit of carriage was required. We ummmed and arrred about a turn ( which would have saved the ensuing route-changes later on), carried on to the bottom and headed south - wrong. We came out at the in-correct bridge, but could see the one we wanted further along. Backing up a bit, and a left turn had us out into open fields where the National Sheepdog Championships are held. Trouble is that today we found a clue - a poo, which meant cattle ahead. Some of us don't like mixing with this kind of livestock, especially when newspaper cuttings are being presented on a regular basis, giving details of the latest 'hit' these steak-balls can cause. We found another bridge - wrong again. This one, gated and locked - a big clue that this was private property, so we turned round again, and headed back to the original bridge - are you keeping up? or down??

We are once more on the A25, and here we said farewell to 10 of the legs, plus Reg, who was having trouble with her knee. We gave up trying to get to the right bridge, walked alongside this busy main road for a short while, where Clat obtained her L plate, and then on to a track adjacent to a golf course. Acorns abounded as we crunched along towards Brockham, ( noticing a magnificent tree trunk looking remarkably like a heart) and eventually to our cars. We felt as if we had walked a much longer distance due to the re-tracing of steps and headed for the pub.

On entering, we were met with the smell of drains - not good, but found a suitable table at the rear. Lunch was a dis-appointment - menu choice very limited, prices o.k., but nothing to write home about, as they say. The barmaid was friendly and helpful though, which is always good to see. So, sort of repleted, we departed and set off in our various sunsets towards home. Next week is half-term so we shall choose our walk carefully. Have a good week - carefully! x