The River Wey Navigations are a 20 mile waterway that runs through Surrey, made navigable through widening of the river channel and installation of locks along its length at various points. There are also a few big weirs along the river as well, used for measuring current and such. The river splits at a few points, creating a navigable channel and a smaller one- we had our lunch between the two at about 3pm, a good 7 miles down the river from Guildford.
The towpath was really flat and easy to walk along, which is how we managed to walk about 15 miles in total... quite a feat, after setting out at lunchtime with just a vague "let's go for a bit of a walk and see how far we can get"! One of the most interesting things we came across was Newark Priory at Pyrford, a fantastic old ruin that we certainly didn't expect. Despite trying to work out a way to get closer than a view from the riverside, unfortunately it's on private land, so this is the best view you can get of it. The crows made the picture even better, flying around in big clouds every time they got into arguments over whose bit of rock belonged to who.
We came across quite a lot of other interesting wildlife too on our walk- damselflies and dragonflies are prevalent at the moment, with the blues amongst these the most striking. There were kestrels hovering over the marshy fields near Pyrford; we were lucky enough to see one dive down to catch some prey, but unfortunately it came up empty handed, something it was quick to loudly bemoan from a nearby telegraph pole shortly after. The normal moorhens, mallards and mute swan were around too, although no coot today.
Eventually we did make it back to Guildford, although it took us a good 7 hours or so... a bit of a longer walk than we expected when we first set out! Really nice though, and an awesome end to a lovely summer.
Someone else didn't make it back home so safely...
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