Given that some of our proposed days en route from John O’Groats to Lands End are quite lengthy with significant ascent and descent profiles we decided that doing the Box Hill circular walk – https://www.walkingclub.org.uk/walk/box-hill-circular – twice would be good practice. So we set out from Box Hill & Westhumble station on Saturday to do just that. Paul Turrell, Mike Palfreman and myself were joined by Nick Smith, Helena Beddoe and Greg Steel for the first loop.

Having done this route many times before we knew what to expect – beautiful scenery and some sharp (but mercifully short) ascents and descents and this time we had plenty of rain showers to contend with as well.

At the bottom of Box Hill Paul, Mike & I said goodbye to Nick, Helena and Greg and then turned round and walked straight back up the hill again.

We finished off back at the train station some 6.5 hours after starting off – tired but pleased with our current fitness levels. 32km walked, 1075m of ascent (a full Snowdon worth from sea level!) and approx 37,000 steps. I also burned about 3000 calories (well according to my Apple Watch) and managed a peak heart rate of 169 in places!

5 weeks to go until we start our epic journey from John O’Groats