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This Week's Walks - Archive

Please see the Saturday Walker's Club This Week's Walks page.

This is an archive of walks done by the Saturday Walker's Club. You should only need to use this page if the SWC website is down.

Sunday 6 September 2015

Sunday First Walk - Sussex canal and coast

Extra Walk 167 – Chichester to West Wittering
Length: 20km (12.4 miles) Toughness: 2 out of 10

09:17 Portsmouth Harbour/Littlehampton train from Victoria (Clapham Junction 09:23, East Croydon 09:33) arriving Chichester at 10:59. Make sure you’re in the Portsmouth Harbour section of the train

Buses from West Wittering to Chichester Station are at xx:06 (journey time 31mins) and xx:46 (journey time 21 mins) until 18:46 (last bus). The xx:46 connects nicely with direct return trains to Victoria which leave at xx:15. There are also return trains at xx:23, involving a change in Brighton and taking just over 2 hours in total.

If you decide in advance to have dinner in Chichester before returning on the 20:15 train, you could purchase Advance rail tickets each way for a total of £19.00 (£11.00 out; £8.00 back), compared to £28.90 for the Off-Peak Day Return. A Railcard will give you a third off all these fares.

We have heard, from a helpful guard, that it’s possible to buy a Southern Daysave ticket for £15.00, allowing one day’s travel anywhere on the Southern region. These tickets can reputedly be bought only in person from tourist offices, and not from rail ticket offices or machines or online. Do tell us if you succeed in buying one of these.

This coastal walk in West Sussex has impressed those who have tried it: “A tremendous walk” … “absolutely lovely”. It follows the final section of the New Lipchis Way, starting out along a quiet canal and then via the shoreline of Chichester's tidal harbour to West Wittering's wide sandy beach and East Head - a very pretty sand spit at the harbour entrance.

The recommended lunchtime pub is the Ship Inn (01243 512284.) at West Ichenor. Do ring to reserve a table when setting out from Chichester.

Detailed walk directions are unnecessary, since you simply follow canal & shoreline, but a brief description of the route is given in the Walk Notes.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

this walk sounds lovely, can someone kindly tell me (if they know...walk designer?) whether this walk would be ok for a four legged creature as well ? aware that lunchtime pub might not allow dogs but it is the actual walk route that i'm asking about ?

Anonymous said...

I'm aware of this:
"From May to September, dogs are excluded from the main swimming beach between groynes numbered 14a to 18 - broadly corresponding to the area in front of the line of beach huts"

but it is the actual walk route I'm asking about ? if anyone's kindly got any info ? Thanks

Andrew said...

you should be OK for most of the walk along the canal / sea front path ...

at the very end where you go out to the spit, that might be a problem as its on the beach, but i'm not sure if its in the "groyned" area

Anonymous said...

thanks Andrew

Anonymous said...

There were eight of us on this walk, including two visitors who randomly joined us in the middle of a two-week holiday from Australia, and one four-legged friend. We got a bit lost in the morning and I was more than usually relieved to reach The Ship Inn, where we all found space outside, even the people who had their own sandwiches, and met up with two seasoned walkers who had cheated slightly by driving to the pub for lunch. The afternoon was a very scenic and slightly wooded coastal path. Most of us ended up at the tea shop and bus stop in west wittering at about the same time and waited about an hour for the bus, which was delayed by an accident, then another half hour for the train from Chichester which was crammed full of noisy Italian teenagers. A long but happy day in brilliant sunshine.

Anonymous said...

n=8

Anonymous said...

Australian couple were on a European tour for four months and if they're reading this it was v.pleasant hearing about their adventures & travels plans! wish more travelers would join SW walks.. Dog walkers take note you can't really allow off-leash walk because canal route is crossed by busy roads & later due to mudflats and wild birds nesting. Nevertheless dog loved his first SW walk and is booked for future ones!
Thanks