8 and a small dog started out. One disappeared early on but, apparently, resurfaced later in a tearoom somewhere. The weather started cloudy finished sunny Dry underfoot.

We had arrived at the Cricketers by 12 but, having each just been given an apple by a kindly local apple-picker, this was deemed too early for lunch. (no, I don’t understand either) Luckily, I’ve been practising not sulking so I was able to maintain my cheerful countenance all the way to the next pub, the Plough. They were short staffed and weren’t doing walk-ins so 2 just had cider. 2 had. coffee (said to be good), others went to the churchyard. We all met up there later and went inside and looked at some old stuff. Here we diverged, 2 visiting Painshill Park, the rest diverting for a look at Cobham Mill. We were just too early to visit the mill (2-5 Sundays) so we pressed on.

On reaching the motorway, there was another parting of the ways, 3 going round Eaher Common and 2 not.

A very pleasant walk with lots of big trees but one drawback - no tea place near the end to await the hourly train. We sat in the sun on a bench in Oxshott Heath instead. Most of us got the 1613.

The two Painshill Parkers met up with the missing walker in its tearoom. All three did the full 5km circuit of the landscaped grounds, with their artfully crafted vistas. Over tea'n'cake some advanced mathematics suggested that we could bypass Esher Common on the main ending and make the 17:13 train, which we did comfortably.

There were plenty of dog walkers about on Oxshott Heath and it's a shame that no-one has seen fit to open a pop-up café near the station to serve them. I guess there are worse places to hang about for an hourly train but it's not ideal (especially if you've been persuaded to forgo that second pint of cider, as Mr M Tiger lamented).

The description of this walk undersold it. It is at least as good as several of the Book 1 walks, even without Painshill Park. I enjoyed it and would do it again.

After a continuously windy week, it was rather surprising that only 7 walkers turned up on what was a bright sunny and generally very pleasant day for walking. Perhaps this was because the walk is hardly challenging (I would give it 2 out of 10 on the toughness scale). And it only intermittently has a rural feel to it. In spite of that, the walk has the obvious attraction of Painshill and some truly impressive houses on the edge of Cobham, so if you want to see how far removed your lifestyle is from those who live in this wealthy part of Surrey, this is the walk to do. We stayed together as a group only as far as Littleheath Common, just after crossing the Guildford line for the second time. At this point, there were two different views about the direction to take so, instead of the directions instructing the walker to "turn half-right", it would have been better to say "take the middle path of three". Three of us did that; the other four took the righthand most of the three paths. We didn't see them again after that! At lunch, one of our number decided to make for The Plough, while we ate our sandwiches in St Andrew's churchyard and pressed on. We completed the full walk in time to catch the 3.14 train back to Surbiton and miss the mid-afternoon showers.

Just to add a brief note that I very much enjoyed the variety of the walk: the lakes and ponds, heathland, landscaped gardens and sumptuous properties (apologies if my report suggested otherwise). There was one slightly waterlogged field to contend with, but otherwise it was a nice easy stroll for those who like it that way.

14 partly sunny .