Trip to a small island

The path was quite pretty, overgrown but passable. We saw other walkers but I resisted the temptation to check our position on the map. After all, imagine showing some real walkers a bus map and asking them to point out where we were.

“Hi ya. Can you show me where we are?” says Farrell sheepishly holding out a bus map.

“That’s a bus map” says Wilbur and Wanda Walker.

“No shit, Sherlock” replies Farrell. “I know that it appears rather strange to be attempting a 5 mile walk across farmland and public footpaths using a bus map, but the walks are shown here and where they meet the buses.”

“Really?” says Wilbur pulling out his 1:5,000 Ordinance Survey. “They don’t mark the buses on here” he says with incredulity.

Anyway – no such conversation took place because I had my trusty compass. Our walk took us along the banks of a fantastic little creek, past a number of World war 2 bunkers that were obviously to protect the southern approaches to London. Eventually, we popped over a hill and spotted the white chalk cliffs that mark the range of hills that lead to Reigate.

By a twist of fate, we picked up the white markers of the South Downs ways and traveled on finally coming into a neat town off a steep incline. There was no indication of whether the trail should be followed to the left or the right. So, with unerring accuracy, we went to the right. After 500 meters, the road looped off to the right and my directional alarm started blaring “Wrong direction, wrong direction.”