Training Day 5: Oxted to Knockholt Pound

Excellent breakfast, good chat with the proprietor, Helen, in which we swopped details about our offsprung (heavy competition there; an outsider would have called it a draw, but might perhaps have raised one or two sceptical eyebrows?), and then it was off up to the NDW. My guidebook had suggested that the way back up to the path was less onerous than the way down the night before. I was doubtful about this, but in fact it was right. Perhaps a good night’s sleep and fresh legs made a difference.

I crossed the M25 for the third time this trip, and was struck yet again by what an enormous, howling, vicious monster it is, when seen from a footbridge above. I had a sensation of masculine hormones run wild and sheer, undiluted aggression. How different from inside a car, where the overwhelming sensation is one of boredom punctuated by frustration.  A good friend of mine has even refused to walk the NDW with me on account of the noise it makes, and it is certainly true that it bisects one of the more beautiful valleys of Surrey in a never-ending snarl of traffic.

Today though, I had other distractions. The first would appeal only to a nerd like me, but I was positively looking forward to crossing the Greenwich Meridian; to have one foot in the Eastern Hemisphere and one foot in the West. My guidebook even remarked that there was a plaque, presented by the county council, marking the exact line. How very disappointing then, for me to discover that they had put the plaque in the wrong place!  My Garmin Etrex informed me, once I had converted the read-out from the British Ordnance Survey Grid to old-fashioned Longitude and Latitude, that the actual meridian was some 150m to the East! They must have been using some other cartographic system, or perhaps they were just less accurate in those pre-GPS days. Anyway, I edged my way to the East and took a picture at exactly 00 0’ 0.000”, with an accuracy of plus or minus 3 metres, which even if I really do the splits I can’t really manage! So, did I did get a foot in each hemisphere? Maybe! (It would of course be easier to go to Greenwich!)

Hardly had this feat been achieved than after a heavy climb, I decided to take a short rest a little off the beaten track where I hoped to get a good view of the valley below the Downs. Indeed I found an excellent viewpoint, giving wonderful views of Titsey Place below. This estate was originally owned by Sir John Gresham in the 1500s, and I understand that Sir John actually saved the country from bankruptcy in the ruinously expensive wars during the reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth 1. He was a member of one of the most important merchant dynasties of the 16th century, making pots of money from the Middle East and Russia (as one does!), and he used his new wealth to buy up estates that had become less expensive as a result of the market collapse following Henry’s confiscation of church lands. He bought the manors of Titsey, Tatsfield, Westerham, Lingfield and Sanderstead on the Kent-Surrey borders as well as other properties in Norfolk and Buckinghamshire. He clearly believed in the property market.  No wonder Titsey itself survived intact to the present day, feeding off the proceeds of the other estates to fund its way. I also discovered that the Titsey family motto is “Franges, non Flectes” (“Bend but do not break!”).  I have decided that this is precisely the right motto for my LEJOG!

Anyway, while I was gazing down at Titsey, I met Jerry who was aimlessly throwing a stick for his retriever, Bailey, whose job it was to rush down the steepest of slopes to do as his breed suggests. I found out that Jerry was a retired mechanical engineer who had worked at the nuclear power plant at Dounreay in Scotland, not so far from John O’Groats.

Jerry remarked that this was the bleakest place he had ever seen, which is not so encouraging, but more interestingly, under persistent questioning, he told me that the site had been originally selected for the PFR (Prototype Fast Reactor), and at the time (and this has apparently only recently been declassified), they were not completely sure that the reactor wouldn’t overheat under some circumstances, with cataclysmic results. Accordingly, the reactor was sited on a gently sloping geological formation which ran uninterrupted deep into the North Sea. It was designed as a perfect sphere, not just to contain pressure, but mainly because it was attached to its surroundings by fixings which in extreme circumstances, could explosively be detonated, with the result that the whole catastrophe would roll gently into the sea and just keep on rolling right to the bottom, where it would be some future generation’s problem!  Imagine if this had been public knowledge! After all, it was barely 10 years later that Shell was pulverised for their attempt to sink the totally inert Brent Spar in mid-Atlantic!!

Of course I have no idea whether Jerry tells every gullible would-be LEJOGer this story, and I certainly haven’t been able to check it out in detail, though there are many references to doubts amongst the design engineers as to whether runaway nuclear reaction might be possible at the Dounreay PWR. If Jerry’s account is true, it is some story! Puts the whole Japanese nuclear trouble in a different light!

Now, to practical things. Firstly I still have heaps of preparations to do, so all this walking and blogging will have to take a back seat while I finally get my walking house in order. Accordingly, this will be my last blog until I arrive at Land’s End for the start of LEJOG. I continue to welcome any and all suggestions during this time, and by all means, do feel free to use the comments facilities that follow each of these posts if you would like to share your views more widely. I do understand that some folk have had difficulty getting their comments accepted. The easiest way is to register with Blogger itself and then use your Blogger profile to log in to comment. This process is aimed at stopping spammers and other nasties from getting access. But feel free just to email me if you prefer.

If you have made it this far, I am really grateful for your interest.   I look forward with huge anticipation to what I now know is going to be the hardest thing I have ever tried to do, and to sharing it all with you.  I have no idea whether I will succeed, but the first hurdle comes tomorrow. I am off to see my consultant urologist to get his opinion on whether my health is sufficient to justify even starting out!

Please wish me good luck!!

The dreaded M25. With excellent timing, I caught it empty and the little local cross road stuffed!

Some address!

So, this is the plaque claiming it is at the meridian....

And here is the proof that it isn't!

And here is the real deal!

 

Interestingly, there was no bull, but I was fascinated to note that there was no such sign at the opposite entrance to the field. 50/50, then! You take your chances!

Titsey Place. If you look really carefully, you can just see the house on the left. Poor picture!

At this part of the NDW, there is some really high value property, south facing, looking down on the superb Surrey valley below. This is serious money...

which needs serious protection! But obviously they also have a higher class of burglar! The crackheads and yobs where I live wouldn't even know what this sign means!

And so to my final destination on the NDW. Also, Veronica's camera has expired, hence the strange colour cast. Yet another task to attend to before I set out on LEJOG! I will have to buy a new one (Yeah!!).