West Humble to Reigate

Day 6 – 11.2 miles walking

Today’s highlights were stepping stones, a few up & downs on steep hills, & a church.

Not long after leaving our hotel, we crossed these strategically placed Stepping Stones on the River Mole.

After this river crossing, we had a long climb up to the view point on Box Hill. It is a nice place to rest & enjoy the view. The view from here was believed to have been enjoyed by Jane Austen.

From there we took a detour off the path to Betchworth to visit another old Norman church called Saint Michael’s. It has another claim to fame by being the church for Wedding #1 in the movie “Four Weddings & a Funeral.”

In case you don’t remember, this is the wedding at which Hugh Grant’s character is the best man & at the altar he realizes he forgot the wedding rings during his great haste to get to the wedding on time after having over slept.

His buddy at the church bails him out by handing him a gaudy colorful plastic ring for the bride & a heavy metal skeleton head ring for the groom that he scrounged from the wedding goers.

That movie came out in 1994 & the docent at the church said there was a big party at the church two years ago to celebrate its 30th anniversary.

Even though it is well off the pilgrim trail, a nice woman at the church found a stamp for us to use in our trail passport books.

Homes near the church can also be seen in the movie.

It started to rain a little, so our lunch stop was at a convenient little bus stop in Betchworth.

Over the next few hours we did our best to stay dry as we climbed once again into the chalk hills & made our way along the wooded trail.

Not a lot to share from this trail segment; but, it is hard to beat a nice walk in England.