In a year of staycations I can't believe this was the first weekend I managed to get out for some wild camping. At one point I thought my own terrace might be as wild as it would get this year, but thanks to the recent easing of lockdown and my friend Alys's return to London along with her car, we headed out to the Surrey hills with the promise of clear overnight skies and armed with a bottle of birthday champagne and a disposable barbecue.
We started off, as all good microadventures should, with a spot of gin tasting at the Silent Pool gin distillery https://silentpooldistillers.com/ in Albury. Good thing Alys was driving and we kept it to a couple of thimble fulls, otherwise I think we could have stayed all afternoon (-:
We then headed off for our 10km hike in the Hurtwood and Holmbury Hill. The plan was to look for a suitable place to bivvy but being the maximisers we both are (read 'The Unexpected Joy of the Ordinary' by Catherine Gray) we kept walking 'just one more km' to find the perfect spot.... until the opportunities for perfect spots ran out and took us back to the car! Still, good exercise carrying all that kit, especially because Alys added a few rocks to raise the disposable bbq off the ground....
So with the hike done and the sun starting to go down, we drove back up to Newlands Corner near Shere and found a spot just off the North Downs Way just as the sky softened into a lovely pink sunset. Dreamy stuff, and the perfect first bivvy experience for Alys. Somehow the sky was clear enough for amazing stars but still mild enough that we didn't even need to sleep in hats.
I'm still recovering from the 4:45am sunrise but sooooo worth it, especially for the post bivvy brekkie over the road at the Plucky Pheasant. Need to do this more.....................
