NCN223 Guildford, Woking, Chertsey

Last night's forecast for today was for wall to wall sunshine, so I planned a longish ride to explore Route 223 of the National Cycle Network (NCN223 for short). I am very familiar with this from Jacobs Well southwards (it incorporates the Downs Link to Shoreham, see this post), but I have never followed it North to its start at Chertsey, where it joins the NCN4 along the Thames Valley.

Given the good forecast, it was disappointing to find that the morning dawned grey and wet. I eventually left around midday when the rain had stopped, and was then rewarded with the promised sunshine. The map of my track is here, starting from the Aldi roundabout in Burpham. I joined the 223 where it emerges from Stoke Meadows at Bowers Lane. The route is fairly straightforward, although signing could be improved through Woking town centre, where the route passes two interesting modern 'statement' buildings: the Lightbox art gallery, and the UK HQ of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) (check web for opening times).

Beyond Woking, NCN223 is a cyclepath beside the busy main road all the way to Chertsey. Here, intending to come back via Weybridge, I tried to get across Chertsey Meads, but there is no easy way out, the Hamm Court estate being fenced off and private. So instead I crossed Chertsey bridge and made for the ferry at Shepperton, only to find this was not running because of the high state of the river. This meant going the long way round via the new (to me) Walton Bridge: it's an elegant single span.

It was now getting quite late, and I don't like cycling in the dark on Surrey's busy roads, so I cut the journey short by taking the train back from Weybridge station.