One of my preferred places to walk is down by our local river – the Wey. The section nearest to us is navigable and provides a scenic route along its tow path. Access is easy, as there are plenty of places to leave a car – the only downside to this is you have to retrace your steps. (Much better, if possible, to be dropped off, hike along for a couple of miles and then meet up at a pub nearby).
However, with my new brisk walking regime in place, and mindful of the rainfall and potential flooding in our area, I set off during one of the intermittent bright days we are experiencing at present to check out one of our regular stretches, around three miles from home.
The River Wey is in there somewhere
The river had disappeared and in its place, a lake. The road to the bridges was closed and diversions in place. I abandoned my car in a high spot down one of the adjacent lanes and walked waded as far as I could before the water became too high for my wellies.
Nothing for it but to turn back and be thankful that our house is situated far enough away from the river for it not to be a problem. Over two thousand homes in Britain are flooded at the moment and that figure is set to rise over the next few days as the Thames reaches dangerous levels through Berkshire and Surrey.
To illustrate why the Wey is one of my favourite rambles, here are some snaps of past river walks, taken at various times during spring and summer – and you’ll see why this stretch is reckoned to be one of the most picturesque navigable rivers in England.
Stoke Lock – the earliest Lock in Surrey – built in 1653
Barge boats are a colourful addition – some are homes, some are for holiday lets
Part of the tow path near Guildford
Bower’s Lock
The path running by Bower’s Mill, now a private residence. See – we do have sunshine…
So, having picked the worst possible time to start my brisk walking regime given that we’ve just had the wettest January since records began, I must be content with the heath land that is just five minutes’ walk from my front door. I’ve been out almost every afternoon after work, only missing once or twice due to severe down pours and gales of up to seventy mph.
The nearest part of the heath is on top of a hill and consists mainly of sand, so once through the woodland where the water run-off is accumulating, it’s fairly dry.
Brisk walking in wellies is not easy or comfortable but I reckon they are causing me to have twice the exercise as I huff and puff up the hill in them. I’m looking forward to doing the same walk in a pair of comfortable shoes.
My trusty fleece lined wellingtons
Our water-logged woodland
It’s peaceful up here in the afternoon after a day of noisy classrooms. The only folk I see are those carrying an empty lead and a few plastic bags; occasionally their dogs bound up to say hello. Once at the top, there is a view point of sorts, where on a clear day you can see the Surrey Hills and Hog’s Back in the distance.
Views north, towards the Hog’s Back
The heathland is a bit sparse of vegetation at this time of the year, amplified by the National Trust’s on going woodland management programme which involves huge swathes of our common land having old trees chopped down to make way for new shoots.
Growing in abundance on the common – do you know what it is?
Prickly gorse seems to survive untouched – I’d never bothered to consider it closely before, but its little yellow blooms are actually quite intricate and cheerfully punctuate my daily circuit.
So that’s a glimpse of my immediate countryside. You can read more about the Wey Valley and its history here.
Next time I’ll take you on a tour of the local town …
A beautiful area to enjoy each day, Jenny. I used to like heathland and would go to Arne whenever I could. The flooding looks dreadful. We used to get floods in Hereford quite a lot. The Wye and the Lugg would burst their banks and cause chaos. But when the sun shines there is little to beat the English countryside.
There’s still more rain to come, apparently. It must be dreadful for the farmers – all that pasture land under water, not to mention the crops. The knock on effect of this will last for ages.
Yes, England in the sunshine – if we could guarantee it, there’d be no need to go anywhere else for a holiday 🙂
I saw the Thames broke its banks yesterday. No respite yet, it seems.
I have done quite a bit of walking in wellies, upon and around Salisbury Plain, and found that comfort was considerably increased when I used soles taken from a pair of old walking boots. For a long time, wet or dry, they were my preferred footwear on my daily walk in fields with the dog.
That is a beautiful picture of the narrow boats on the canal.
Thank you. That is really good advice – I shall find some soles and do just that!
Salisbury Plain must be good walking country. All those wide open spaces, rolling hills and big horizons – lovely – on our trips westward we always know when we hit Wiltshire – the space just opens up.
Thanks for taking us on that beautiful walk Jenny – if a little waterlogged at the moment. Both areas look like beautiful places to carry on your walking regime and reap the rewards of what you see on the way.
You’re very welcome! Yes, we’re lucky to have so many different places to walk. I’m taking this seriously – even went out in the rain today 🙂
Went up Pen y ghent one saturday from school, most of us had boots and one kid with wellies soared up there 😀
Lovely photos, it’s what we all think England should be like, apart from so much water!
Used to see gorse a lot when we lived in Scarborough and went walking/cycling up the old railway line.
I can assure you that there won’t be any soaring in this area of Surrey, welly boots or not…
I can remember a school field trip to the Lake District: two teachers playing Good Cop, Bad Cop. Bad Cop walked the fells in a flasher’s mac and a pair of old welly boots, shouting ‘dead sheep upstream!’ all week. Good Cop was far less fun.
Looks lovely when not flooded Jenny. I always meant to walk along the Wey navigation but never made it! Maybe I’ll suggest it to my daughter when I’m next down south. We have a lot of water around here too, several places cut off as flooding on the roads – thankfully I live up from the river and don’t need to go out. Though I do need some exercise! This wet is driving me crazy!
Oh you definitely must take a walk with your daughter then we can see all your photos!
I’m getting fed up with the wet now – but at least it’s not cold. Yet – forecast is for snow further north, so maybe…
Good for you Jenny, for getting on with your exercise regime. I didn’t choose the best time of year to get started either, but we can’t let the weather be an excuse, can we? In Chicago our average snowfall is 30 inches/season, and this year we are well over 50…and it’s only February. It seems winter’s brutal grasp is all-encompassing. At least you have a lovely view on your walks!
Having read your post this morning I’m more than impressed – you’ve inspired me to keep going, Gwen, so thanks for that! I’m already feeling better for the constant exercise.
I’m so glad to have inspired, Jenny. Just keep on keeping on, and the results will come. xo
Thank you for taking me along on your walk, Jenny. Your photos are beautiful. I love the bridge in the Stoke Lock photo. I’m sorry to hear about the flooding, but it looks as though you’re prepared with those fleece lined galoshes. Meeting up at a pub afterward is a great idea!
It is definitely a pretty section of the river, even where it flows through our main town, the banks are lined with willow trees.
The boots don’t look very glamorous, do they, but they do their job!
There’s no let up in the flooding just yet, but we are not having it nearly as bad as in Sherri’s part of the world – it looks horrendous down in Somerset.
Oh no, poor Sherri. I hope her son is okay 🙂 and of course Sherri too!
It’s beautiful! The pictures of the Wey look like they are from a storybook.
That’s exactly what I thought, Rachael, a storybook!
Most definitely!
Thank you Rachael – I’d never thought about it like that before – what sort of story, I wonder? I bet there is quite a lot of folklore attached to the Wey Valley.
I just think of storybooks I read when I was a little kid. There’s something about the British countryside that stands out, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.
Now you’ve done it, Susan has added another must see/do place on our next visit to England! Very enjoyable ramble – although your regime sounds more intense than a nice country ramble. Very fetching pair of wellies, makes the post. I wonder if you can fit orthotics into wellies?
Haha! glad I’ve whetted your appetite to visit Surrey 🙂
Word of caution: don’t be tempted to stay overnight on a barge/narrow boat. I have it on good authority that a stay on one of these iconic vessels is like spending a week in the garden shed with a petrol mower running constantly outside…
As far as the boots go – they keep me dry, I’ll try some other soles. As soon as the weather dries up they will be back in the garage. Not exactly designer, are they?
Jenny, I was really impressed with the amount of flooding! I could tell in the first photograph with the tree in the middle of the water! Yes, your Wellies will give you an extra calf and quad pull up the hills! I love the view! And what a nice place to walk! I also like how, after all that “good-for-you” stuff, you might top it off with a stop at the Pub! 🙂 The balance talk we exchanged a while back between what is good for our body needing what is good for the soul!
Ah, balance, equilibrium … I remember that. Our pubs these days are catering for all tastes, so it’s easy to get salad if you want it although my current pub of choice does the most amazing plate of carved ham and fat chips with a free range egg. Definitely off limits at the moment. Can’t wait to allow myself a treat…
That time is just around the bend!:)
Stunning Jenny. I come from Bath originally – now I live in Australia where we’re being ravished by bushfires. The world is wild at present. Your photos are a lovely reminder of home.
Hi Gemma – thank you! I heard on the BBC news this morning about the Australian bush fires – what is happening to our planet?!
I wonder if you ever get back to Bath? It’s a beautiful city.
My sister still lives in Bath so I go back every few years to get my fix!
It sure is a waterlogged old country at present Jenny – lots of theories and fingers being pointed by ‘experts’. Nice that you show the picture postcard views by way of contrast.
I wonder if you saw the same news interviews as I did this morning? The row between the Environment Agency and a government minister – it was laughable – all blaming each other and no-one accepting responsibility. Worse than children but it’s not helping those poor people down on the Somerset Levels.
We sure do live in a beautiful country don’t we Jenny? Great photos, I’m impressed, the River Wey looks gorgeous in the sunshine.
Did I tell you that I am from Surrey, born and bred, before moving to Suffolk? My grandparents lived in Telford, not far from Guildford and Farnham.
But I digress…a beautiful place to walk but oh dear, all that water. Can you believe that we are in for more storms here in Somerset and the west country tomorrow? Not to mention the Thames and the flooding in the Surrey area now.
I’m glad my boys aren’t needing to use the South West trains for the immediate future…
Aside from all this, I’m glad that you got your walk in, I hope your new regime is going well? A really lovely place to get some exercise and breathe in the air, I love walking in places like this, and I loved your photo of the flowering gorse, the yellow is stunning 🙂
It’s a small world, Sherri – I think you’re grandparents probably lived in Tilford (just a typo), which is about four miles away from us. When Son was small we used to pic-nic by the river at Tilford, near the Barley Mow pub.
http://www.thebarleymowtilford.com/
The children would paddle and fish with little nets there. Later, Son went to primary school just up the road at Waverley Abbey.
Exercise regime going well – feeling fitter already. Still abstaining from chocolate and smug with it 🙂
Yes Jenny, you are right, it was Tilford, not Telford!! A beautiful chalet bungalow. I remember the gravel driveway (to this day I love the sound of gravel crunching on car tyres) and there was a wood at the back of the garden. My dad used to chase my brother and I through it after tea. Lovely memories.
How lovely that you live there, and only 4 miles away! I will show my mum this link to the pub, she will know it I’m sure, I was too young to remember it in the days when we visited.
Sounds good, very well done, but don’t get too smug, lol, or I might have to try tempting you 😉
Thanks for taking me along on this walk, Jenny. I loved it, and I wished I had my own fleece-lined wellingtons…same color, please!
The first part of our journey reminded me so much of the Ozarks terrain in early spring (and over here it feels like a LONG wait for spring here in the Rockies AND in the Ozarks, so I was loving it). But when we arrived at the Lock at Stoke Lake and then took the path by Bower’s Mill, I knew I should have brought along a thermos of hot toddies and some chocolate-dipped Biscotti.
What a wonderful day we had!
A pleasure, Marylin – glad you enjoyed rambling along with me – it would be nice to have a companion – especially one who brought hot toddies with them! I think I’ll have to do a round up of decent old English pubs one of these days and between the hot toddies we could have an ice cold beer. (Yes, we do serve ice cold beer…)
What gorgeous photos! I hope the weight loss program is going well! 🙂
Thanks Lynette. Yes, program doing well, but the best thing is that the fitness is improving 🙂
Welly walks are hard work I know so I avoid them if at all possible. Much easier to run!
Particularly love that shot of the 17 century lock. Reminds me of John Constable paintings.
Yes, thanks – it is a bit Constable-ish.
Even wading in my wellies I can’t imagine actually running in decent shoes. At all. I take my hat off to you!
Oh maybe hang on to your hat-and your willies!-for another while. You`ll be needing them in this inclement weather!
Beautiful photos of the canal and barges – the house-boat lifestyle has always seemed so romantic, and my gran and I have had a sort of fairytale plan of living on one together one day (a strange plan I suppose, now I come to think about it!) Not sure we’d be too enamoured of living in a garden shed with a petrol mower running constantly outside of it though. I’ll have to mention that to her.
Walking in gumboots is one of the most difficult things to do, especially uphill – I’m very impressed by your stoicism! Jx
Ooh, I like that, Jade – stoic – hadn’t considered that, but welly walking isn’t designed to be easy, I feel.
Some neighbours of ours bought a barge when they retired and sailed all the navigable waters in England before finally selling her again and going off to Australia for a while. I thought that was a pretty stoic thing to do!