sam and the city

Lovely day for a walk in the countryside

Good day faithful readers. The weather here in London has finally started to improve and actually start to resemble something close to the summer that we're supposed to be having. Although I'm not sure if the "24C Bake Britain" headline that appeared in the newspaper the other day was really called for. Twenty-four degrees! That's barely early spring weather in Australia!

Anyways, I'm getting off track. Since it was such lovely weather the other day I decided that I would definitely take the opportunity to go for a walk in the countryside and test out the new hiking boots that I bought the other day. In order to get something at least partially resembling the Pyrenees I decided to walk up Box Hill, which is quite famous in the area due to the fact that it's pretty much the only significant hill amongst relatively flat surroundings. This and the fact that the area is just nice and green probably explains why there are so many walking trails all over the place.

Previously when I'd gone up Box Hill I'd always taken the road to the top, mainly because I was running and wanted somewhere that wasn't too steep and didn't put me at risk of twisting an ankle at any given moment. Now that I had my chunky boots though I felt that it was definitely time to take on the muddier route. Although its quite steep, the path is generally designed so that the average family can make their way to the top. As such hiking boots probably were not really required. Nevertheless they performed admirably, allowing me to traverse slippery stepping stones, dusty steps and tree routes with ease.

At the top of Box Hill is a nicely grassed area where a large portion of the local population seem to go on nice days to have picnics, sunbake or just relax. I can't blame them really, it's a very nice view from the top over the rolling hills of the area. That's one thing that I'll say about the England that I've seen so far. There is some very nice countryside about the place. The only problem is that, at least in the SE of the country, everyone is so tightly packed in together that you can't really go anywhere and get that feeling of solitude. That being said it is still very nice to get away from the constant drone of cars going past and breath in some relatively fresh air. Now I just can't wait to get over to France and do the same thing on a much grander scale.

posted by sam @ 11:11 am