It’s been a bit tricky squeezing in days to go walking, so I earmarked today, and nothing was going to stop me. Except… I found out it was a train strike day, with no trains on the East Grinstead line. This wasn’t going to stop me, and I (google) soon found the 409 bus, which goes from slightly north of my planned finish point all the way to East Grinstead. The only problem was that what would have been a 15 minutes train ride is one and a half hours by bus. Also I would have to drive to the bus stop, which spoils my ethos of using public transport, but needs must. With the long bus journey and the fear the roads would be busy due to the strike, an early start was required and I was at the bus stop in Chelsham Common in plenty of time for the 7:50 bus.

It was a long, tortuous and bouncing ride to East Grinstead. I arrived at 9:20 and was ready to go – after a quick look around town and a quick stop at Greggs for breakfast. East Grinstead is a nice town with quite a few very old buildings and a magnificent church. Heading out of town I when over a bridge over Beeching Way, which is clearly an old railway line which is named after Lord Beeching who was responsible for the controversial Beeching Cuts, closing hundreds of miles of rail lines in the 1960s. Another thing of interest was a (presumably dead) tree that was being prepared for carving. I’ll go back and see what was done with it.

The houses petered out after a few kilometres and the first GMT waymarker appeared which was reassuring. The route seemed quite “suburban”, but I might be judging it a bit too harshly. It followed the railway line on paths that skirted some very exclusive looking, old housing areas with some big houses. If the strike wasn’t on I’m sure the paths would be full of city gents heading for the London train. My main observation was that it was so quiet, I didn’t see or hear anyone for miles, until Lingfield. With the silent railway line, very quiet nearby houses, big wide empty trails and a completely empty golf course, I was fully expecting Cillian Murphy to come around the corner in pyjamas like in the film – 28 Days Later. Needless to say he didn’t and normal life soon returned when I crossed a busy road into Lingfield.

I’ve never been to Lingfield before, I was aware of the Horse Racing Course (I’m going to the Epsom Derby in a few days so it didn’t warrant further investigation). However, I wasn’t expecting the very old buildings in the centre. The Guest House said it dated to 1474 – over 500 years old and still being used!

After leaving Lingfield, I think I was expecting the suburban “feel” to continue. After all I was heading north towards London, albeit still many miles away. However I was in for a nice surprise as I found some of the best farming countryside of the walk so far. Big fields of sheep and lambs, and the most boisterous cows I’d come across. In one field, I’d just taken a picture of a lamb climbing on a log when a bird of prey (smaller than an Eagle so must be a Hawk – I must really improve my bird knowledge!) flew right in front of me with a mouse in its talons! In another field, a huge gang of cows spotted me and charged around after me. It was a bit worrying, but I eventually climbed over a gate to escape. I was really close to the footpath but climbing out of the field was a wise choice.

After that ordeal it was a few kilometres on a quiet road which felt like a relief and led to the lunchtime pub. On the road I met a council worker clearing up “fly tipping” rubbish. It’s is quite a feature on the quiet lanes with big bulk builder bags filled with construction debris dumped in lay-bys and passing places. It’s a bit depressing, but I have spotted quite a lot of hidden cctv cameras, so hopefully something can be done about it.

It was less than 10km from the pub to my car so I was hoping for an easy finish, but I hadn’t factored in the North Downs. Before that, I has a quick walk through Oxted, which looks like a very nice place. It certainly has the quaintest looking Everyman cinema. I would have finished here if the rail strike hadn’t been on, instead I crossed under the railway and headed north.

I soon crossed over the M25 (the London Orbital Motorway) which runs at the foot of the North Downs. Crossing the M25 feels like a big step when I think that I have walked from the coast. I’ll cross it again as I escape London from the North – in a few legs time. Straight after the motorway the climbing started, initially traversing up the steep slopes, but eventually going straight up when I lost the vague path. Typically the sun came out at this point, and I really cooked. It was a good reminder that I am in training! The view from the top was excellent. I could see back as far as the South Downs, it had probably taken me just about two days to walk that distance and it felt really good.

I’d forgotten that the North Downs are really “lumpy”, whereas the South Downs is just one big heap, the northern one are very “up and down”. So after another big climb, through some lovely countryside, I got to the top. Well I think I did, as a water engineer, the sight of a big reservoir is usually a good sign. Also Sutton and East Surrey Water covers told me I’d left the Southern Water area behind. The top of the last hill was marked by a bench and i had a well deserved sit down. It was a very pleasant stroll down hill towards where I had parked the car. I went a bit off the GMT route but I think I can cover that ground on the next leg. One thing about trains compared to cars after a long walk is… its really hard to get out of a car after a 30km walk and a one hour drive!