Our latest walk was lead by Sam and was inspired by the worlds largest outdoor art collections; a number of fibre plastic cows were on display within the Surrey Hills a display referred to as Cow Parade, more of which later. We were back to a similar location where Sam had lead her first walk for the group earlier in the year, Guildford but the route this time was very much different.
The majority of people made use of public transport with many getting on at Reading (including myself who had initially boarded the wrong train, only realising when I saw a few of the others sat on the other train), others joining us at Wokingham and more unusually a few people boarded at North Camp. We gathered outside Guildford station to be met by the others, in all we had a mightily impressive twenty five including a few people who joined us for the first time and a couple of familiar faces from our sister group the Berkshire Weekend Walkers. With such a large group we required a back marker and I volunteered my services for this role.
What is Cow Parade all about? Well it is the world’s largest public art event that has already been staged in a number of cities around the world including Paris and New York. The idea in principle that individuals, schools or companies would sponsor a life sized cow and either decorate it themselves or arrange for an artist to do it on their behalf. The enterprise was brought to Surrey and the cows were subsequently located in the splendid countryside of the Surrey Hills. The thing is; we had been informed we would hope to see five or six according to our walk leader but by the end of the walk we reckoned we may have seen eight or nine. It was certainly a very random as to where we might find them and something we all enjoyed viewing.
Our first cow was actually spotted in Guildford itself before we had left the town. It would be a little while later before we spotted the rest. The route took in the River Wey which was familiar to those who attended the walk in May. This time we headed west along the North Downs Way rather than East through some lovely rolling farm land. We saw another group of ramblers behind us and while we stopped for one of a number of water stops on what was a very warm day we let them go on ahead of us.Due to numbers we decided to postpone our planned lunch stop for a while and had our break instead at a wood near a planned visit to a café where we could make use of a couple of picnic benches. A sensible option as it ensured we entered the café in smaller numbers and minimised the potential queues and waiting time in the kitchen. Most of us enjoyed a refreshing drink and in many instances a slice of cake before we were lead to a pair of cows just round the corner.
Moving on, we headed towards a village of Compton. I always thought Compton was in West Berkshire but there is another one (and probably many more elsewhere) in Surrey. We stopped to have a brief walk round St Nicholas Church, a Norman structure dating back to the 10th century.
Not long and we took to the rural footpaths and fields and were greeted with a number of painted cows spread throughout a lovely rolling field with the cows well spread out across our planned route. We stopped to marvel and take a few photos of the splendid fibre plastic creatures. We were quite glad that the live cows were keeping their distance some way off.
The walk continued on to a 16th century pub were we stopped to slack our thirst. It was a lovely public house with a large beer garden with many tables well laid out with tablecloths. We also noted the bar staff were well dressed, polite and more than willing to serve us. Happy days all round.
The conclusion of the walk took us back to Guilford over more peaceful fields passing Loseley House to our right. This magnificent building was constructed during the 16th century and along with the adjacent walled garden it is open to visitors. We returned alongside the River Wey and one or two of us took advantage of a convenient located ice cream vendor before we made our return journey.
It was a fantastic day out as always and with the painted cows it was certainly something unique for us to reflect and look back on