Excursion to Box Hill, Surry

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We both remembered visiting Box hill in the past and decided to visit there on 2 June.

We caught the train from Waterloo and reached Box Hill and Westhumble station round the lunch time. There were several young people who seemed to head for Box Hill from the station. We remembered houses and their gardens and pubs – nothing has been changed since the last time we were there.

As we reached the main road, we walked under subway and found the footpath near Burgh Hotel. We climbed up the steep hill and steps for a little while. The footpath became less strenuous as we approached the summit level – and we were able to overlook Burgh Hotel, Flint Cottage known as George Meredith’s chalet, winery, lovely houses and magnificent mansions below.

There were a lot of visitors, families and dogs on Box Hill – seemed to be appreciated with sunny, warm Jubilee Bank holiday.

We had a picnic lunch in the shady spot near the visitor centre. Mark had found several walking courses around Box hill and suggested that we do ‘Happy Valley Trail’. This course led us to the woodlands, Broadwood Tower, Flint Hill and contained a number of downhill and uphill steps – and offered us a series of dramatic scenery and spectacular countryside, I vaguely remembered this walking course.

We had ice cream after returning to the visitor centre. On the way back to the he station, we found the stepping stone course has been opened and continued to go down. We realized that there were a lot of people crossing over Stepping Stones in the sunny later afternoon – took the alternate course, crossing over the bridge.



We really enjoyed the day out to Box Hill and will come back there again in the future.

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Photos

Peter Labelliere's Gravestone
This is the first focal point if visitors climb up from Box Hill & Westhumble station. Peter labelliere was a well known Dorking resident for his eccentric personality. He was buried being upside down.

Box Hill Summit
There were indeed a lot of people having a picnic, resting and hiking in the sunny day on 2 June.

Mark as a navigator
As well as having a map he also brought a compass.

Fungi
We found a quite big fungi in one of the fallen trees.