0389 Milford to Effingham

19^th November plus a bit

Rain, snow, bike rides, and Percy the Cat !

Staying down at my sister’s house in Milford in Hampshire for the past 3 weeks has been a real pleasure.  Apart from just enjoying sitting still in one place for a while, we have had my nieces and nephew and their children nearby, either dropping in on us, or us dropping in on them, which has been an absolute delight – Living on the other side of the world we see little enough of them, so it has been good to catch up with them, even if only briefly.

My erstwhile school friend John and his wife Di live in Effingham in Surrey (not far from Guildford) and are off to Barbados for a couple of weeks at the end of November, and since they have a big furry cat named Percy, they need “Percy sitters” while they are away.  Normally other friends of ours perform this necessary task, but this time we were in need of a roof over our heads during the English winter, so for the next couple of weeks we will be on Percy duty !

The last week or so in Milford was most enjoyable, with several blustery walks on the sea front (too windy for bike rides !), and then, on the 19^th, Janet caught the train down to Bath to catch up with her old London flat mates from 1972-ish, and after I dropped her off at the station and made sure she caught the train going in the correct direction, I set off up to Effingham in Surrey in order to get all instructions on the house before John and Di took off to Barbados.   The drive up from Hampshire was horrible – heavy rain virtually the whole way, although fortunately it had almost stopped by the time I got there.

On the 21^st November winter suddenly arrived – The very mild temperatures we had been experiencing since we arrived back in England suddenly disappeared, and the temps dropped to -2 deg C overnight, and about 3-4 deg in the day !  Thermal underwear time !  Then it decided to snow, and for about an hour it was quite heavy with big flakes – Just perfect, as far as I was concerned, and part of the fun of being in England for Christmas ! As usual, a couple of hours after it stopped snowing, it was all melted, and the rest of the day was pretty

overcast and miserable.  But it was due to be clear blue skies and cold the next day, so I planned a bike ride.

I don’t like riding on the narrow roads in England – There just isn’t enough room for bikes AND cars on many of these lanes, which leads to frustration (and unfortunately sometimes anger) – With my low skill level I don’t feel comfortable out there.  So I searched for and found a delightful trail not far from the house – The Downs Link, which actually runs all the way from Guildford down to Brighton on the south coast.  For

most of its length it follows the route of an old railway line that was axed in about 1965 when the government under Beeching closed 6000 of the existing 18,000 miles of Britain's railways in the belief that the future was road transport. Hindsight is a fine thing, but many of these lines were turned into walks and cycle ways (once the lines and sleepers had been removed) so that today much of England has these great (vehicle-free) trails.  I understand it is almost possible to cycle all the way to Scotland on traffic-free trails, so the short sightedness of Beeching and the government in the ‘60’s did at least have one positive result in the end !

Some more info here :-  http://www.cyclingfromguildford.co.uk/route3.html

Anyway, I have cycled this Downs Way a few years ago, and as it is only a short drive to get to it, I set off – The temperature was 2 deg C when I left the house near midday, so I got WELL rugged up !  I drove to Shalford, parked there, got my sandwiches and map sorted, and set off down the trail – And what a delight it is.  Despite recent rains, it wasn’t too muddy – probably helped by the original base for the railway line being set slightly above the surrounding countryside.  I passed through the old station and platform at Bramley, and the old style level crossing gates across the road that used to be opened manually when a train came !

Then it was on down the trail through the countryside with the occasion fallen tree across the path requiring a bit of negotiation, and after a while came to a fenced area where people had been working, and old steel fixtures were visible.  It turns out that this was the remains of a railway bridge across the Wey & Arun Canal, a long steel-truss bridge built in 1865 that was in fact the first of its kind in the world, and was in use for almost 100 years until it was demolished in the Beeching cuts.  Fascinating.

By now the temps had warmed up to a lofty 4 deg C, but I was just the right temperature in my warm clothing, and carried on down past Cranleigh for about another mile before I decided it was time to have my sandwiches and turn around and head back.  It gets dark here by about 4 or 5 pm now, and I do have limits on how far I can ride – at least until my legs are a little bit more used to it !  Overall only about 13 kms each way, but 26 kms is plenty at the moment !  Thoroughly enjoyed the ride through the English countryside which brought back lots of memories, and I now plan to try to do a couple of the other sections of this trail by driving to Cranleigh and then riding south from there, or else driving down to Brighton and then riding north – Not sure yet.  All depends on the weather !

Made it back to Shalford and drove home.  John and Di were busy packing for their trip, and the next morning I drove them to Gatwick to catch their flight, returning home to find Percy sound asleep.  Later he moved down into the garden where he found a flower box in the sunshine, where he sat for the next hour or more, soaking up the warmth and surveying his kingdom. 

Janet returns from her trip to Bath tomorrow, and then next weekend we are heading down to Exeter to join some college friends of mine for a visit to the rugby and a dinner, so looking forward to that.  In the meantime, slowly finalizing plans for Spain and Morocco in January, and then Nova Scotia and Canada next spring, but more of that later. 

Some pics here :- https://picasaweb.google.com/110185357936043625130/0389MilfordToEffingham?authkey=Gv1sRgCMest_3Wtr3jVA