Let's make like a tree, and Leith
Head in the clouds
This post will be brief, because I couldn’t be bothered to write it after running up this (Surrey) hill. So I left it for 5 months, right up until our next planned run in a weeks time. I truly am a slave to my own laziness.
It all started the eve of Halloween (ooooh spooooky) 2020. We were heading down to visit my Mum, as the pandemic restrictions now allowed overnight stays, and it was her 60th birthday the previous day. We’re never ones to turn down an opportunity, and figured that if we took the day off of work we could slot a run in on the drive down to Hampshire. Having covered the hills near my Mum’s house, we turned to the home counties and found that the highest point in Surrey lay not too far from the M25, i.e. en route. Thus, a plan was born.
Our first realisation was that Box hill, the most famous hill in Surrey, was not in fact our destination as it is not the highest point in Surrey. That honour belongs to Leith hill in the same range of hills. This provided us with some relief, as there were bucket loads of cars and cyclists crowding around Box hill as we drove past. We wound our way up along leafy narrow country roads to find the car park where we would start this adventure, surrounded by the golden colours of autumn.
We started off in good style, by taking the wrong path out of the car park and headed steeply downhill. As with all of these runs, we ended up roughly were we intended, just not necessarily via the planned route. We followed a series of broad bridleways and footpaths through the orange trees, thankfully shaded from the worst of the October rain. Despite not following the exact series of paths that we had originally set out to, the sheer number of paths winding through the forest made it hard to get too lost.
We soon joined up with the path from the main car park for Leith hill, dodging past numerous families out for a (socially distanced) walk. The long slow hill ended abruptly as Leith tower suddenly appeared from the mist. We joined the wet and bedraggled crowds loitering at the top, some hoping to get a brief respite from the cold and damp by going up the tower. We decided against it, marveled at the views we should have been able to see (according to the information board, this includes the English Channel, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament), snapped a “summit” photo and carried on our merry way.
The steep rutted path took us down from the top quickly back into the trees, before rising again quickly up the neighbouring hill. The crowds quickly thinned out as we left Leith hill (and it’s attractions) behind us. After a short rise, we headed back down hill, past a troupe of Scouts on a Duke of Edinburgh expedition, and into the quaint village of Coldharbour. A metalled road took us north west, almost straight as an arrow, past isolated cottages, cricket pitches and trig points devoted to the locals.
We turned West off of the big path, briefly down hill down into the valley, where we followed the river up to a series of waterfalls and fairy pools.
Nearing the end of our journey, we still had one final hill to surmount, before we jogged along the leafy autumnal lanes back to the car, and lunch!
All in all, it was a very pleasant run (aside from the weather), and would have no doubt been glorious if we’d had the advertised view from the top of Leith hill. Maybe it’ll be worth coming back on a clear summers day to appreciate it properly (crowds pending of course).
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