Thank you, Walker.

https://youtu.be/cc-3wVQuD7k

Oh, so that is who Speedy Gonzalez is. I have used the name all my life without knowing.

Deprived childhood -)

Thank you to the schedulers for a wonderful choice of walks today. Brilliant.

Three absolute classics to choose from, yes. It is good to be back!!

For those wanting a longer walk in this area, this walk can be extended by walking into Oxted. You can follow the outbound route of the Oxted Circular (swc 63) from Oxted to W in reverse with the possibility of making a few short cuts here and there, for a total extension of between 4.5 and 5.5 milesish (depending on how you adjust the route)....

24 on this walk on a gloriously sunny day, which even felt WARM quite a lot of the time - what a novelty! Most came on the specified train, two found one that arrived three minutes later, and two came on a later train. Nearly everyone had used the LWUG site to pre-register - so thanks for that - and those that had not provided email addresses on paper slips, so that all worked very efficiently.

We split into small groups, so my account of the walk will inevitably be partial, but I know quite a few picnicked on the ridge, with fabulous views to the south. Five of us had tea at the community shop in Ide Hill, sitting on a grass bank to consume it. I think some got alcoholic drinks on the green in Westerham. Two walked on to Oxted.

The bluebells were only at the "blue haze" stage, but in places were getting a bit beyond that. The real star flowers, however, were lesser celandines and dandelions, both present in great quantities. The first swallows were seen, swooping low over the cow poo, and at last a handful of butterflies were also on the wing - brimstones, orange tips and peacocks.

Trains were a bit busy. Rail companies, I know you are not reading this, but having taken two to three months to cut services to correspond to January passenger numbers, I hope you are not going to now take the same time to ramp them back up again. Eg a four carriage train is not enough on the Uckfield Line.

Only one of this group did the shortcut totalling 7 odd miles but this was a truly delightful route after lunch with wonderful views and lovely going underfoot - so unlike the morning before Chartwell. It seemed that all except the one were planning on doing the full walk but rumour has it that at least 6 took the 9.2 mile option - I met a snitch on the way home so she gets a mention in dispatches.

The lack of sighting of rabbits came up in conversation and a walker mentioned a snip of doggerel, so I looked it up and here it is in its fullest form

The rabbit has a charming face:

BUT its private life is a disgrace.

I really dare not name to you

The awful things that rabbits do;

Things that most papers would never print

But only mention them in a hint

Rabbits have such lost, degraded souls

No wonder they inhabit holes;

When such depravity is found

It only can live underground

Things that most papers would never print

But only mention them in a hint

Is it really Rabbits or is it the journalists? OR is it MPs? and of course it is Royalty [everyone it seems except me then]

I will leave one of the others to post a fuller report

E E C Mings and E L Ear

N =12

W = cloudy_with_one_shower

A route that makes for a very good workout. Most seemed to do the 9-10 mile option. Muddy at times, but not oppressively so. At least 4 dined with Winston, an experience that proved that not all NT restaurants are equal:a few weeks ago, Ightham Mote offered good, fresh fare, but Chartwell was neither award-winning, nor war-winning. Rapid, but vapid. Three then diverted to Emmetts Garden (good cakes and scones). Shortly before the trio reached Winston and Wolfe in Westerham, we met up again with the one (?) 11miler of the day, and a genial duo who had formed a de facto Radio 4esque Philosophy Club all day. A short wait and then onwards to Hayes Station, where straight off the bus we seemed initially to be ambushed by excited locals for a surprise suburban celebration of the cult that is the SWC. Alas it turned out to be merely the last stages of the countdown to the switching on of the Christmas lights. Another fine SWC adventure in great company. Thank you to Walker for scheduling.

Two of us skipped the detour to Chartwell in favour of eating sandwiches on the way to Toy's Hill where we sat on a bench by an old well and looked at the grand view of grey clouds and smudgy countryside. We too came to Emmets for tea and saw the trio as aforementioned just leaving but so deep in their conversation that they didn't hear our shouts of hello there! A little way before Westerham , whilst still in deep countryside and in the dusk, we saw a number of bats flitting around just above our heads - what a treat. It was pretty dark on the final stretch, caught the bus to Hayes at 16.52. We did the full walk, 11 miles I guess less the Chartwell detour.

Hi Anyone attending this walk? Hope those who had lunches at the Chaser Inn at Shipbourne made it to the Sevenoaks station in the light before darkness set in. Hope to see some of you on the train or Edenbridge station.

Monica

Think I decide to do the Hayward Heath walk as trains are better and also no need to rely on buses from Westerham. Besides I have not done this walk before and thus its my chance to do it now. Hope to see some of you on the Hayward Heath walk.

Monica

7 - 5 old lags + a young couple doing their own thing, on a cloudy but mild day. The famous five rejected the pub stop and continued to Chartwell, arriving in dribs and drabs. Perhaps age is sapping our energy, but at least four then chose the short ending direct to Westerham, most arriving in time for the 2:30 bus. The usual fine views from the Greensand ridge were partially obscured by a thickish mist.

Bus 404 stops next to Cock Inn in Ide Hill to either Edenbridge (16:11 and 18:20) or to Sevenoaks (13:55 and 17:00). Good or those who wish to take a short cut but do not want to miss Ide Hill Bluebells

Bus 404 may not run on weekends. Please check

Bring carrots for the Llamas at Ide Hill. Not cubed, as they can choke on these.

Llamas? I think you'll find they're donkeys. But you're right, the three of them like carrots (sliced lengthways).

The bluebells at Ide Hill are fully out but I reckon the display is better on the extensive south-facing bank at Emmetts Garden. You can't see them from the public footpath but NT members can go through the South Garden to find them.

Bus 404 is Mon-Fri only.

11 gathered on the platform in the already hot sun , but by mid morning we were mysteriously 13 and at lunch I learned 5 had got off the front of the train and not bothered to join us mid platform for the meet and greet. So 16 (possibly even 18, but I am not going to be greedy).

A gorgeous day out at a gorgeous time of year. Lambs were in the field, there were intense carpets of dandelions, the foliage was bright green, and stitchwort lined the lanes. Lots of butterflies (including my first red admiral of the season) and varied birdsong.

It is now evident, however, that there is something amiss with the bluebells this year. One delight of this walk is a series of little woods that are normally thick blue-purple carpets in early May. But in some bluebells were barely visible and in others there was a thin covering - a blue mist but no blue sea. Reasonable displays could be found on Mariner’s Hill (a tad off piste, so only three of us saw these) and on the lower slopes of Ide Hill. But only in one coppiced (felled) area were they really good, plus in another off piste area where the trees were sweet chestnut and so the foliage was not yet out. These latter two areas are the key to the puzzle, I think. What I think happened was that the bluebells were caught on the hop by the rapid advance of foliage in the hot third week of April, when we went from bare trees to nearly all leafing in five days. The period when the leaves are part out is normally the bluebells time. This year they were shaded out.

Support for this came late in the walk when we went off the path a bit and ended up in a fenced wood that was in intense flower. Here were bluebells thick and lush, as they should have been all the walk, a poignant sight.

Lunch was had at Chartwell, which has upped its game and now has an efficient and quick ordering system and decent food portions. Some did the short ending from here. Some talked of going to Emmetts Garden by the short cut and on to Westerham but I don’t know how many did. Around half of us carried on to Ide Hill to the Community Shop and Cafe there for a fine tea with a glorious escarpment view. We then had a long but idyllic walk down through fields and woods and along lanes to the Little Brown Jug by Penshurst station. (Making a 12 mile walk: proponents of 19 milers take note that we were all exhausted by the end of this). The pub was busy and lost marks for slow bar service and music blaring in its garden, but four of us decided to eat there and the food came quickly. It was lovely (though surprisingly a tad chilly) sitting in the golden sunset as insects milled about in the air. We got the 7.31pm train to Tonbridge, exhausted but happy.

6 off the train at Edenbridge Town, 1 encountered at lunch who had taken a train to Edenbridge (he walked the short version of the walk after lunch), and 2 encountered near Toy's Hill, who were on their way back from Emmetts to their car at Chartwell, so 9. The weather was drizzle to lunch then thick fog with the sun trying to break through late on .

The weather made for a bit of a boring trudge to the lunch pub in Crockham Hill, as it's mainly field boundaries, where it's not traversing a golf course (a nice on actually, but you needed all eyes on the directions to find your way through it), so in the drizzle it wasn't great. Food and service at The Royal Oak were average to good.

Then the walk got going, as it was on to the hilly bits. With the fog we didn't get any views from the hills of course, but it was quite atmospheric in the many woods at least, which were full of interesting fungi (again: a close eye was needed on the directions here, as there's lots of paths in them woods). A well deserved tea stop at a deserted Emmetts was had, then up through more woods and past caves and a final grassy descent to Westerham, where the respective buses were due within 10 minutes.

A final drink for some in Oxted, before boarding the train home.

2 lady walkers enjoyed this walk. There were some beautiful bluebell woods along the way and the weather was better than expected mainly dry cloudy with sunny and warm intervals and a couple short showers in the afternoon .

Just 3 on this walk. We bypassed Chartwell to press on for a later lunch at Ide Hill which has a decent pub and picnic benches on the green. Got to Westerham just after 3.30pm which allowed us terrific tea and cakes at the independent cafe on the green before catching the 16.25 bus back to the two rail stations. Weather was cloudy mild and breezy .

Excellent day out with a number of other walkers doing the route independently. Book this walk for a bluebell outing in mid to late April as the shoots we saw promise a fine display. Also wild garlic in evidence.

14 on this walk on another fairly sunny day (not a phrase we have been able to use very much recently). That is to say, there was generous amounts of sun, though also some cloud: also the very occasional spot of rain, but only spots.

The sunshine was so nice that even the crossing of the (deserted) golf course at the start was a delight. The fields once we got onto the Edenbridge start proper were rather squelchy - mildly tedious rather than terminally boggy, but this was enough to persuade a French family (pere, mere et fils) to give up at Crookham Hill. Domage, because the next section offered a particularly pretty gout d'Angleterre, (OK, that's enough of the schoolboy French - Ed)with sunlit views of the Weald.

Six of us tried to lunch at the Royal Oak in Crookham Hill. But alas, while they had a free table, it seemed we would have had to wait our turn to order behind other parties who had yet to arrive, so we moved on to Chartwell. Its self-service restaurant was not exactly covering itself in glory, with a limited selection of sandwiches and only sausage and mash or cheeseburger as hot items. A last minute appearance on the blackboard of Moroccan vegetable stew (tasty, if low on calories) saved the day for this particular punter.

After lunch we did the the optional loop around the Chartwell Estate, which was enjoyed by all. But alas we came to a locked gate at the end of it, and enquiries of passing National Trust staff revealed this locking is permanent. So this permissive route is now non-permissive and will be dumped from the walk directions (you all complain about too many options anyway)..

In the afternoon (shorter ending, alternative route a) nice views from Mariner's Hill and sightings of very early bluebell shoots, were not enough to deter some of the group from taking a direct route to Hurst Green. Six of us continued on a rather squelchy walk into Westerham, which we reached at 4.10pm. The consensus was that getting the 4.33 bus was a must so we had a lightning fast tea at the Tudor Tea Rooms and then provided the bus with its only passengers. At Oxted five of us dashed onto platform 1 and only just got the 4.54pm train. Our apologies to the sixth member of the party who did not.

Slight correction: grand-pere, mere et fils

Just to add that those who went to Hurst Green arrived there at 17:00. It was a pleasant route. Although there isn't a tea stop at Hurst Green, I suppose an option would be to take the train 1 train stop to Oxted and have tea there.