Guildford to West Humble

Day 5 – Official distance 13.5 miles; We walked 16 miles.

Not long after we started today, we met some women who told us that our hotel The Angel in Guildford was haunted!

In 1973, Roger Moore who played James Bond in the movies spent a few nights at the hotel. He said he was awoken each night at 2 AM by a spectral Victorian chambermaid cleaning his room.

There have also been sightings of military men appearing in the mirror, shadows pacing along the walls, & hearing loud noises in rooms in which nobody was staying.

A soldierly figure appearing in a foreign uniform has been sighted in the bedrooms & in the cellar. During one appearance, this spirit lingered long enough for a guest to sketch it.

Alas, we seemed to have been ignored by all the ethereal spirits.

Today was much colder than yesterday. , I didn’t remove any layers & even added a rain jacket during the last few hours on the trail when it rained. Given the choice, I will take cooler temps over warmer ones for hiking.

Once we left Guilford, our walk took us through the lovely Chantry Woods. Its name originates from 1486 when the Guildford mayor bought the forest & gave it as an endowment for a “Chantry” which is gift or trust to the church.

After climbing Saint Martha’s Hill, we were rewarded by seeing another old Norman church which dates from 1190. We met a woman there preparing the church for Sunday services.

Even though the church suffered a tower & roof collapse, worship continued in the church’s usable part with weekly services never having stopped in almost 1,000 years,

The next highlight was the lovely town Shere which has been used as a location in many movies. The popular rom-com movies “The Holiday” & “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason” were filmed here. It is indeed very quaint & quintessentially British.

Reading books is very popular here.

We enjoyed several hours walking through the woods before reaching our hotel in West Humble.