Group walk on Surrey trails

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On 7th January, 2012, I visited a few places in Surrey where a few scences of movies like Gladiator, The War horse (Directed by Steven Spielberg), The Golden Compass, Harry Potter, Captain America etc were shot. It was a group walk, suggested by my wife. She had been on such walks before but it was my first time. The 9 mile walk was not tiring for me as I like walking, however it was quite painful to my feet! I should blame it on the new boots that I wore on that day. To be honest it was my first time that I had worn boots and after the trip I could see wounds on both feet on exactly the same spot ! Having said that, the trip was really nice. It was a nice and sunny day, although it was raining heavily for about 4 to 5 days just before the day the walk was held. In description of the walk, they mentioned to get some food, waterproof clothes, some money to buy a drink or something at the local pub at the end of the walk.
We met the group at 09:30 AM at Waterloo station in London. The organizer was Tania who I think was Russian and co-organizer was Kieran who I think was British. Both were quite fun to be with. The group was quite friendly but we couldn't interact much as we were a couple and were mostly together. However, we had long conversations with a British-Australian couple and a French guy in a pub just after we finished our walk.
So, coming back to the start of our walk, one of the organisers held a big banner with "TRAILBLAZERS" written on it and walked towards our train to Farnham and we followed the organizers into the train. the train, not to mention, was nice and clean with all facilities. The group quickly got seated and all the chit-chatting began. Tania signed forms from each of us which mentioned that accidents could happen during the walk and could lead to death as well. That obviously was a formality and something like that to happen was very rare. In about 1 hours time we reached Farnham station. Tania gave some time for loo break at the station. Some new members joined us at Farnham. These members seemed to live near Farnham and my wife told me later that such members who do not board the train could join the group for free ! I thought it was a cool thing because they would get free company and a free guided walk ! By the way the cost for other members was £26 / person including the train tickets.
The organizers decided that Kieran would lead the group and Tania would walk behind the group. Farnham seemed to be a very nice village sort of place. One of the best things I like about the places on the outskirts of London or outside London are the people. Every time I've been out of London, I see smiley faces, greeting "Good Morning", "Hello" etc. I remember a girl walking behind me and my wife saying her co walker, "Yes, In England people do greet each other quite often. Its just London where
people are so busy" and the other girl giggled. After a few minutes we automatically formed a long trail and the trail was broken into small trails depending on the walking speeds of the members. The group co- organizer, Kieran, was quite funny and was taking short breaks at some spots and was telling about those spots and adding his funny comments in between. This made the walk interesting and gave the members small breaks to rest as well. At some spots the way was blocked and Kieran took us through
alternate routes which he already knew or by asking some of the local people. The blockage of ways reminds me an incident that Kieran told us. When we were somewhere in between the woods, he said, "During one of my previous walks, Steven Spielberg ruined my great walk and I had to chose an alternate way. This was that spot. they just didn't allow us past them and they didn't even tell us that Steven Spielberg was shooting." After a bit of walking Tania / Kieran asked us to take a food break. By this
time we had reached a plane grassland on the other side of which was slope and was surrounded by tall trees. We had some food there and enjoyed the view and started again. After we got down the slope we came across a long muddy road with fence on its left. And on the other side of the fence were some sort of hybrid of Horse and some other animal. After taking their pictures we moved ahead and saw some spotted pigs and then a horse on a grassland. I also saw lands where the trees were totally cut
down. After a while of walking I saw a lady in front of me say "I just saw some Lamas. Do you want me to show them to you". I said "sure". I hesitantly asked her "Are Lamas some sort of Cows ?". She said "No no". I dared and asked "Birds then ?". She said "Noo" (in a nice way :). She showed them to me and said that they are some sort of camels not from England but are found in South America. I was a bit embarrassed about my ignorance :(. Well never mind (to myself). While walking on a narrow lane I saw
2 dirt bikers coming towards from the opposite side. We all moved on the left to give them way and I squeezed myself to capture a pic of them before they passed me :)
The things that I have mentioned in this write up are not necessarily in sequence. With that note, I would like to mention that one of the peculiar things I saw there was a tree which was greater than 800 years old ! I noticed that a part of the bark on its stem was covered with tin sheets. I am guessing the reason must be to protect the bark in someway. Somewhere, before we saw the tree we took our 2nd long break on the bank of a beautiful lake. There were swans / ducks and some other birds in it. I saw a statue on the bank of the lake and was wondering what could it be about when I realised that it wasn't a statue but a girl doing some sort of slow martial arts or yoga or meditaton !On our way the organizers showed a cave called Mother Ludlam's Cave. Its had a metallic door which was locked. I wish it would have been open
and we could explore a bit inside it! I didn't read much of the information provided about the cave and all I remember is it mentioned about a woman who lived in it. I think it was also mentioned that Ludlam meant loud (or something like that). So may be the woman who lived in it was quite loud (disturbed) (just guessing). I think this cave was a part of the moor park. Kieran also showed us small constructions with a purposely created hole in their walls sinking inwards, where Britons hided with guns
sticking out of the hole and "waited for invasion :P" (Kieran) and a beautiful building towards the end of the walk which was called Moor something. While we were somewhere in between Mother Ludlam's cave and the moor park building, Kieran showed us the "Ruins of Waverley Abbey" which we couldn't see properly because of the trees and bushes between us and the ruins.So, after a long walk, we all were taken to a pub. It was such a relief as my feet were hurting because of the new boots. Me and
my wife sat with the previously mentioned British-Aussie couple and the French guy. All of them were nice people. The Aussie lady told that she worked in an international school and I was amazed to know that some famous footballer's son or grandson studied in her school and that their fees is 20000 per annum ! I was imagining the salary of the person who sent 7 of his kids to that school ! I was also amazed when she told that some of the parents skip their child's classes if it is related to some
specific topic such as sex education ! My wife, Shruti, was very impressed with her as she always wanted to be a teacher or in a profession which involves helping others. During the conversation she mentioned about how one of her Chinese ex employee (when she was a business woman), sent money back home and some of the problems her ex employee faced. I said that this is quite common in people from developing countries like my own (India). I also told her that India is very very diverse. There are places which
might be not so well kept and not very far from that place would be a very posh place. There is diversity in everything, be it religion, financial status of people, geography, languages and many more things. So one forms a perception about India depending on the place he or she visits. During this conversation her ex army husband said a peculiar incident when he was posted in one of the middle east countries. He told us that during that time, some of the Bangladeshis worked there as shepherds(for goats.
Don't know the exact term). And they used to save money to send back home and put that money in envelopes and secretly insist army people like her husband to post it back home in Bangladesh because if they gave the envelopes to their masters, they would never post the envelopes and keep the money to themselves ! Sad, isn't it? We conversed a lot. The French guy worked in IT in the configuration team for a medical institution. After the pub, we headed to the station. In the station the group was talking
about how the day went by. Kieran said, "it was pretty straightforward". He told us that sometimes it is not very straight forward. Tania was pulling his leg by reminding him about an incident when some bulls/cows approached him in an offensive manner. Some of the members who seemed to have gone for walks with Tania previously, talked about an incident where a dog followed them for a long long way until they called the number on his neck belt. They said that the lady who owned the dog answered the phone very rudely and said something like "Why the hell did you take my dog with you". After which they decided to leave the dog at a pub and gave its address to the lady who owned the dog. They were saying funnily that the poor dog must have prayed her owner not to take him back. One of the girls also mentioned about a guy who was running along with his dog and overtook her by saying something not very plesant. To which Kieran said "Yeah some people are not very considerate".
I remember that guy. We saw him just after or before we saw the dirt bikers. By this time the train came and all were seated. Me and my wife were seated on a 2 seater. She quickly fell asleep while I was doing nothing when I overheard the group talking with each other. One girl seemed American / Canadian who was into change management (IT) and her job was to make sure that every small change in the code / configuration happens via a change request. The girl next to her worked for some energy company. The guy sitting in front of her asked her "E-on ?"... lol. Well I don't want this to be a never ending write up. Hence will stop here. So in short, we all reached Waterloo, bid each other goodbyes and went home. I would like to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the walk and would definitely suggest you guys to go for walks organised by Tania and Kieran.