Dorking Days 2

I took a LONG walk (about 4 hours up and back, maybe 6 or 7 miles total) with John and Lizann to Leith Hill Tower overlooking the valley that Dorking nestles in.

As an aside, this is a SHORT walk for John and Lizann. They once did a 9 mile walk each way (18 miles in all) in Yosemite. And they stayed married!

The views were wonderful. There are Photos here. We had a great view of the North Downs, a line of chalk hills that runs from Surrey to the White Cliffs of Cover in Kent. If you climb them you are going up the Downs.

We helped some mountain bikers who were sawing a fallen tree to move it and get it off the path. It had fallen on an overhead wire, that they said was a comm wire, but...well, I didn't want to get near it actually.

We moved the tree with no ill effects.

The photo of the tower shows a lot of people standing at the base. That is because it was WINDY and COLD. They are taking cover behind the tower and drinking tea and eating pasties (can't call them Cornish pasties because we're not in Cornwall. It's a law) that were sold out of a window in the base of the tower. Sort of like a deleted scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Tea and pasties fortified us for the walk back though.

Another day John and I drove to the top of Box Hill, which is a recurring setting in Jane Austen novels, and is also the site of part of the biking course from the summer Olympics last summer (which a British man won!). I have a photo from the top and a photo of the hill. The photo of the hill also shows some of the vineyards of Denbies Wine Estate. Here is a wonderfully strange but true item. The sparkling wine (can't call it Champagne!) from Denbies was recently judged by world expert wine tasters to be finer than the Champagne from France.

Finally, but certainly not leastly, we drove around the Dorking Chicken...I mean hen. Not that it matters that much. Having a town with a giant sculpture of either is going to be odd. This is in the middle of a roundabout so all you can do is drive around it. See the photo.

And then a photo of the boss of the house, Bodhi the cat!

ALSO - John and I have just about finished a 2nd song, demo and all. This is a good result for this part of the trip. I'll keep you posted on how these songs progress through the music business world.

Off to Switzerland tomorrow!

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