Hill for Leather
REDHILL TO LEATHERHEAD VIA GATTON PARK, REIGATE, BANSTEAD HEATH AND MICKLEHAM DOWNS Using a day off, with the promise of better weather, I took a walk to the North Downs on a Tuesday and rather perversely started in a place that threatened to submerge me a few weeks back. The cycle route 21 has a flooding diversion which maybe I hadn't seen in the darkness. This week, I walked the first part in relative daylight, things were different and on the whole, drier. The Seasons are turning and the illusion of Winter stillness has given way to the vigour and emprettiment of daffodil hosts, budding trees and frenetic nest-building animal-life. Blossom and catkins, courtship ritual and even the first bluebells are livening up the hedgerows, lakes and woodland floors. For some undue significance, 1910, or thereabouts, appears to be a key date. I mention this as it seems, in retrospect, the date of many of the things I have come across on the walk. For those used to the South Downs, the North ...
