Thursley

North east from the view point

We met up with friends for another of our series of walks in Surrey. This one starts in the pretty village of Thursley. We were struck by how peaceful it was, although located only a couple of minutes away from the busy A3. We parked at the pub and initially walked through the village heading west down a winding hill - with frequent evasive action action being necessary to avoid a series of vehicles hurrying up or down it. We then headed into an area of woodland and emerged at a view point (136m) overlooking a large bowl criss-crossed by tracks and used by the Army for tank manoeuvres and the like.

We followed a curving track on the west rim of the bowl.


And soon the countryside dropped away to the left with nice views over open heathland.



At the end of this rim we entered a wooded ride.



We followed this for a while, curving east, to reach a point marked on the map as Lion's Mouth, where several tracks met. The name is perhaps a touch over-dramatic. We continued the curving route, soon into woodland and then along a road. The final leg was through woodland called Houndown.

We finished with a very good lunch at the Three Horshoes pub, which we learned had been closed for some years before being bought by a syndicate of 20 villagers and reopened.

Maps: Explorer 133 (Haslemere and Petersfield) and 145 (Guildford and Farnham).

Conditions: cold, clear and mainly cloudy. Mainly sandy soil, so not too wet for once.

Distance: about 4 miles.

Rating: Three stars. Nice views initially and very pleasant countryside to walk through.


Reflections

We were having such a great time chatting with our friends about a vast variety of topics, some serious, some very light - and interspersed with banter about the risks of tanks and soldiers appearing at any moment - that we did not pay the usual amount of attention to the environment. We didn't hardly notice the countryside we were walking through and certainly didn't spot any birds, interesting trees, fungi or anything at all. Not a model for all walks, but really good fun, which is certainly one of the things walking should be.