Surrey with the Hills on Top

It was quite a creative game of Scrabble: Lesley had two sets of Scrabble dice with her, so we played with both, which creates a possibility of 14-letter words – not that we achieved any of those!

I’d found Lesley sitting on one of the lower bunks

Gotta love that 1930s architecture! The Youth Hostel at Holmbury St Marys 
 in Surrey, opened in 1935, was the first purpose-built YHA hostel in the UK.

as I levered myself and my two large bags from the narrow passage into the small four-person bedroom that was to be my refuge for the night in the Youth Hostel at Holmbury St Mary.  She was 70-ish, from Gloucestershire, white-haired and cheerful and we both needed a way to pass the evening.

I’d holed up in the Hostel for two nights in order to enjoy some hill walking. I'd never before thought of Surrey, the genteel county adjoining London and the former haunt of Jane Austen, as a place for hill walking, so I was delighted and astounded to discover the footpaths and bridle ways of the Surrey Hills, especially the Hurtwood, which was the area I explored in this brief foray.

Staying at the Youth Hostel was a little cheaper than a regular B&B, and it was situated so that I could leave the car there, and walk straight out onto the footpaths.

Here I am admiring my second mist-shrouded view of the day,
from Pitch Hill, elevation 366 meters (789 feet).
 iFootpath.com says that the view is among the finest in the
Surrey Hills and that the area used to be called "Little Switzerland."
On a clear day you can see the English Channel, 25 miles away.
(Apparently).

I had one full day of walking, 9am to 5pm, during which I covered maybe ten miles, admired several spectacular views obscured  by mist,  traversed fields, negotiated woodlands, crossed heaths, followed country roads and  got thoroughly lost at least six times. My kind rescuers included the staff of a Boy Scout campground, the Italian landlord of a country pub, and a charming young man on a beautifully groomed bay horse. I expect he was some sort of dressage champion.

Footpaths often lead through remote
 areas of heath and woodland . . .

. . . or through agricultural land



But sometimes they lead through built-up areas
and people like to preserve their privacy
 with fences. This section of the path narrowed
to less than three feet wide! I was beginning to
 wonder if I'd have to walk sideways!



"Who's that walking past my field?"

I finally found my way back to the Youth Hostel just as it re-opened for the evening - oh, did I mention that you cannot remain there during the day, you have to leave by 10am and not return until 5pm. 

Youth Hostels abound in the UK – they’re part of the YHA, or Youth Hostel Association (yha.org.uk), founded in 1931 to accommodate people enjoying the countryside on foot. They provided dormitory accommodation and kitchen facilities for you to prepare your own meals. They still do, although they now also offer private or semi-private rooms (but don’t even  begin to think about en-suite bathrooms) and prepared meals, which were a bit pricey at Holmbury.

And they offer a community ethos – hence the lack of evening entertainment, you’re supposed to mix with other hostellers and make you own fun. I expect this happens in all sorts of ways: for me it was Scrabble with Lesley on my first evening, and, the second evening,  Lesley having hostelled on, “Pointless” trivia questions posed by 10-year-old Aidan and answered with varying and somewhat hilarious success by his parents, myself and an elderly mother-and-daughter who lived at either end of England and were meeting for a few days here in the middle of the country.

The best thing about the YHA is the location of its hostels: they tend to be either in gloriously remote places, giving access to amazing countryside for walking, horseback riding and cycling, or bang slap in the middle of the major cities of England and Wales,  giving cheap and cheerful access to metropolitan delights.  I, for one, am grateful for their existence.

It's hard to say what the best thing about the Surrey Hills is! Here are a few suggestions:



Primrose paths.



Amazing trees.



Human stories: this protected larch  tree on
Reynard's Hill is a memorial to David Charlick 
who died aged 19



History: Iron Age hill forts like this one on Holmbury Hill. Can't see it? That's because all that's left
are a few  gorse-covered banks and ditches. After all, it's been there for 3,000 years.



Quirky churches like St Mary's . . .



. . .  with an outdoor tomb in its back wall



Country pubs: there has to be at least one on every walk,
 not, I hope, disappointingly closed, like the Windmill!

The often frustrating attempt to follow a long-distance footpath
like the Greensand Way, which kept eluding me.
It's named for the bedrock of this ridge of hills,
which is not chalk like the South Downs, but greensand,
a type of sandstone containing the green mineral glauconite.

or the flowers: