trip to surrey, day one

the distance between devizes and dorking is roughly 90 miles, which divides itself nicely into three 30 mile sections, and whenever I make this trip I always enjoy the upward journey. the first 30 mile section is through wiltshire, my home territory and very attractive. setting out just after lunch, my first stop is at planks farm to buy goodies for the journey and for the people I see at the other end.

here are a few cakes for friends and family, and below is a chunk of lovely dark belgian chocolate, just for me.

halfway across wiltshire at upavon the road crosses the river avon, not far from where it starts at bishops cannings. this is the hampshire avon which runs down through salisbury to christchurch, and not the bristol avon, which very confusingly also runs through wiltshire to bath and the bristol channel.

into hampshire just before andover for the second 30 mile section of the journey, the boring bit, along the A303 to basingstoke and up the M3, boring but quite fast, so before we know it we are nearing farnham and crossing the surrey border. the third 30 mile section takes us along the hogs back to guildford and then through yet more lovely countryside, a bit more crowded than wiltshire and not quite so wild, but still quite awe-inspiring.
tom and catherine, my hosts for the two nights, live just to the north of dorking, in westhumble, near to box hill and the river mole. I went out with tom to take stan, his ancient dog, for a slow amble along the river bank while catherine fixed tea.


this is their home, but they only live in part of it. they have one of the first floor flats, the windows under the parapet to the left of the building are their bedroom and kitchen and the window to the left of the left hand chimney breast is their lounge. I sleep in the lounge with stan, although I have the fold down sofa and he has his basket.
please come back tomorrow for day two of my trip.