2. Puttenham to St. Martha’s Hill (Guildford Lane)

Sunday 31^st October 2010

It was a bit wet today but a lot of the walking was through the woods and the trees provided some shelter. In fact, the damp probably made the going easier on the sandy paths.

Our route took us under the A3, then over the River Wey, and finally up to the top of St. Martha’s Hill which, at 172m above sea level, is 3m higher than Box Hill. (For reference, this is about as high as the the Post Office Tower, or the BT Tower, or whatever it’s called now... but there's no lift.)

Sadly visibility from the top was restricted by cloud and mist, but looking out over Surrey and down to the woods and fields below, we could see we’d climbed a long way up since crossing the River Wey.

Careful to take the North Downs Way and not the footpath down to the church car park, we got our bearings for the next leg, then quit for the day on Guildford Lane.

6 ½ miles. 2 hrs, 39 minutes

A reminder that this is the Pilgrims' Way as we pass

under what I guess must be the old A3. The new one

is a thunderous dual carriageway, 15 yards behind us.

An altogether more peaceful crossing. The footbridge over the

River Wey, south of Guildford. Much wider than it was at Farnham.

Look, there's room for a rower.

Chantries Wood. It's autumn, of course, and the leaves are
changing colour and falling. Just after I took this picture I caught what I
think is a rowan leaf as it fell in front of me and tucked it in my
guidebook to carry home as a golden souvenir.

The church of St. Martha on the Hill. Some historians suggest that

"Martha" is a corruption of "martyr" and Christian missionaries were burned

here by pagans around 600AD. There's no record of what they tasted like but I

imagine the flames and smoke would have been seen for miles. What a

wonderfully ghoulish thought for today. It is Halloween, after all!

And the cloudy view from the top of St. Martha's Hill.

Canterbury's over that way. I think.