The frost was back again, and we had a chilly start - Sunday walk as Steph was around so we could go together. Keeping relatively "local" we headed off to the North Downs for a walk West of Newlands Corner... using a carpark up a single track road between Chilworth and the A25 - Martha's Hill carpark - there is one at each end of this bit of the ridge and we chose the Eastern one.
We took this new park down hill, at first quite wide and eroded by mountain bike tracks, but soon narrowed up.
the track went past a field of vines, before reaching the manor house.
A very typical manor house, with an imposing drive and entrance.
The woods seemed to be a very popular walk with people all over it and it wasn't until we cut down to the Pilgrims way/ North Downs way that they thinned out a bit, although it did add some up and down o the the route.
We caught back up with the crowds at the Halfpenny lane entrance to the woods, where we had a quick coffee stop on a convenient log, before crossing over the road and onto St Martha's hill. There is a large carpark here and the crowds were back with a vengeance.
At the top of St Martha's Hill was the church of the same name - I was glad we had stopped for coffee earlier as here was a mass of people looking at the view south.
Down the road a bit again before we turned up behind an old mill and a mock Tudor house which looked much better from the front than the rear.
The next section towards Shalford, was through open fields or winter wheat or green manure plants, the most interesting part was when Bertie found a border collie to play with - she chased sticks, whilst he just followed.
As we got closer to the urbanised centres we met more and more people going the other way.
At the path from Shalford mill, where we had been for the Poddle many years ago, we turned up towards Chantry wood.
The original idea was to head for the North Downs way and along that, but seduced by the woods we cut East early and headed up into the trees
We continued East, down the hill towards the carpark we had left the van, before cutting north on the Downs link track again from the cross roads we had been at earlier.
We dropped down to Guildford lane - the single track road we had driven up earlier. Across was the rise to the ridge and Newlands corner.
We followed the road up hill slightly before the track cut off into the the scrub.
This opened out to the heathland below the woods that lined the ridge itself.
Once more this was crowded, however there were some scattered benches that looked south and the view. We took advantage of an empty one to stop for lunch, whilst the rest of the world passed by.
Now the run back to the van ... it could be seen across the valley hiding in the woods. First though was down the heathland and, more steeply, down the fields to meet the Pilgrim's way track.
Down in the bottom of the valley the track passed the farm house and then turned West following the Pilgrim's way along the side of a wood before ending at the carpark ... now overflowing with vehicles, compared to the few when we arrived 3 hours earlier.
Time to leave for home
