What?
Box Hill walk
Blessed with beautiful weather and armed with homemade trail mix of left over Christmas nuts and chocolate, our year began with a New Year’s Day walk amongst the Surrey Hills, an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Starting at the lovely Victorian Box Hill and Westhumble station, we climbed to the peak of Box Hill to take in the views. After stumbling across Labelliere’s Grave, where the eccentric Peter Labelliere was buried head downwards, we descended to the stepping stones across the River Mole.
Our amalgamation of the riverside and stepping stones circular walks took us back to the start, where we rewarded ourselves with a pub lunch at The Running Horses.
On arriving at the gorgeous 16th century country inn, we were greeted with an open fire. Here we enjoyed a Brakspear beer and a glass of English white wine with sourdough bread, soup and sides to end our day’s walk.
How?
Trains to Box Hill and Westhumble station take only 50 minutes from London Waterloo, or 25 minutes from Sutton.
A number of different Box Hill walks, ranging in length and difficulty, can be found on The National Trust website: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/box-hill/lists/free-downloadable-walks-at-box-hill
How much?
Train to Sutton and back, £5.40
Return train tickets to Box Hill and Westhumble, £8.90
Food and drink, £25 each
Total, £39.30
How long?
A good days outing, 6 hours 45 minutes door-to-door.
We set off at 9:05 am to catch the train to Sutton and then on to Box Hill and Westhumble, where we arrived at 10:15 am. We enjoyed walking amongst the Surrey Hills till 1 pm, when we had pub lunch. Heading back we got the 2:43 pm train and finally collapsed on our sofa at 3:50 pm.
