A Weekend at Tanners Hatch

On the weekend of 10th February 9 of us went hosteling in the snow.

Some of us went down during the day and did a 5 or 6 mile walk after walking from the road down a long steep snowy track through Ranmoor Wood (As seen below) to Tanners YHA in Surrey carrying everything we needed including food. It is eco friendly Green Beacon Hostel in National Trust woodland.

The hostel is situated on the outskirts of the wood with rural facilities, i.e there is a generator, cosy log fire, and outside toilet and shower facilities. Yes that did mean getting your shoes and coat on to go to the loo. If you look closely you can see the hostel amongst the trees in the photo below.

The others came down on Friday night. The sat nav takes you to the wrong side of the wood, and in the dark and icy conditions some of us had quite an adventure finding the car park, let alone walking through the wood the dark. Good job most of the roads had been cleared of ice and snow. However they were rewarded with a great hot meal when they eventually found their way to us. As a matter of interest there were young people in tents camping in the hostel grounds in what was about -8 degrees!

We did a decent sized walk on the Saturday, which involved several detours as footpaths are not too obvious when covered in snow, but it was an amazing experience walking through the snow, with beautiful views, sunsets and often brilliant sunshine. We did find a couple of pubs on our travels and arrived back when it was virtually dark for another home produced meal (Thank you very much Sandra). We did another short walk on Sunday before returning home.

As per usual with our trips, not everyone did all of the same walks and some of us either shortened a walk, or opted out and did their own thing (there's nothing to stop hostelers going shopping, spending the afternoon in the pub or visiting nearby attractions, there are no prizes for walking mileage do what suits you! For more photos click here to get to the Bogtrotter's Gallery.