Length: 21.8 km (13.4 mi) or 20.9 km (13.0 mi)
Ascent/Descent: 469/587
Net Walking Time: 5 ¼ hours
Toughness: 6/10
Take the 09.30 Portsmouth Harbour train from Waterloo
(09.55 Woking), arrives Haslemere 10.20. From
Clapham J, take the 09.27 Exeter St. David’s train and
change at Woking (09.45/09.55).
Return
to Haslemere Station from Midhurst by Bus Line 70
(26 mins journey, relevant buses: 16.35 and 18.35 [this assumes that
this Bank Holiday is regarded as a ‘Public Holiday’ by Stagecoach, else there
will be more buses] or by taxi.
Return
trains from Haslemere are on xx.01, xx.10 and
xx.30.
The route leads from Haslemere station through the
town’s centre and along the waymarked Serpent Trail through a small Nature
Reserve to rise steeply out of town and back down through Camelsdale to then
rise with the Sussex Border Path through pastures and pine and heather covered
slopes up to the Black Down. Following the crest through open heathland, with
far views across West Sussex and out to Hampshire, you reach the Temple Of The
Winds viewpoint, with further panoramic views over the Rother Valley to the
South Downs escarpment and easterly across to the West Weald.
A long descent through the sloping open grounds of
Blackdown House and through bluebell-carpeted woods leads to either the classic
Sussex village of Lurgashall, with its pub and church at the corner of a
picturesque village green and cricket pitch, or to the hamlet of Lickfold with
its super-duper Inn.
The afternoon takes you through a mix of flat
farmland and wooded hills to the Cowdray Estate, with its golf
course-with-views as well as several polo fields, to the romantic ruins of Cowdray
House, as captured by JMW Turner. Climbing from the River Rother’s banks,
Midhurst's Norman castle ruins are passed en-route to the old market town's
attractive centre with its many tea options.
Lunch: The Noah's Ark in
Lurgashall (10.3 km/6.4 mi, food to 14.30, booking recommended). Or The Three
Horseshoes Inn in Lickfold (11.0 km/6.8 mi, food to 15.30, booking
recommended).
Tea: lots of choice en-route to and in Midhurst (see the pdf for details), recommended are The Halfway Hut (3 km from the end), Cowdray Farm Shop & Cafe (2 km from the end, open to 17.00), Garton’s Coffee House, The Wheatsheaf or Fitzcane’s [The Angel Inn and The Olive & Vine are still closed after a catastrophic fire earlier in the year].
For summary, map, height profile, some photos, walk directions and gpx/kml files click here. T=swc.48
2 comments:
Table for 4 booked for 13.30 at the 3 Horseshoes, but all seats now allocated.
Sunny with only a few fluffy clouds it was, warm but never hot, and with a refreshing breeze almost all the time, in short: perfect walking weather. There were also fine far views from the tops, for example as far as the easterly end of the South Downs and a distant hill chain beyond Leith Hill, no doubt the North Downs (this from The Temple of the Winds). The paths were dry, the company very nice, there were enormous numbers of buttercups, many fine rhododendron and thorn bushes in full bloom and some by now rather sad looking bluebells. The SWC butterfly spotter #2 reported seeing green hairstreak, lots of speckled wood and small copper varieties, plus a lesser stag beetle or two.
14 walkers assembled outside Haslemere Station, with 3 immediately going their own way: 2 finding some way (did it involve a taxi, perchance?) towards Black Down and the Temple of the Winds and then returned to H'mere via the Serpent Trail, not liking the sound of the 2 hourly bus service from Midhurst today. 1 other went her very own way, as she often does.
The rest raced ahead, mainly led by the walking runner and the fittest of the Old Guard walkers, so much so that the local-ish 15th walker that arrived 10 minutes late for the start, took until after Black Down to catch up with us. On the descent from Black Down, we passed our trusted man from Siebeneichen (aka butterfly spotter #2) who walked up the hill, to then go back down the hill (as you do). His car and partner were near Fernhurst, and they did some/most of the route and he then walked back to their car to pick her up (or some such), ie n=17.
Most of this lot (minus the 3 early individualists) ate at The Three Horseshoes in Lickfold, with the outdoor eaters muscling in their way at the bar immediately and ordering quickly, while the indoor eaters with a booking patiently waited for table service which took a while to arrive (and then non-delivered some of the order) and consequently got their food much later. The group therefore split, with the early leavers later catching the 16.35 bus and the 4 others the 18.35.
Group 1 inadvertendly picked up a dog en route which had decided to follow them, and - having eventually called the number on the dog tag - had the owner meet them near Cowdray's Polo Fields to pick up the dog. They (or some of them) had time for a tea at the Cowdray Cafe and/or a drink at The Wheatsheaf.
Group 2 got into a long chat en route with a dog walker who was into Real Tennis and travelled to the French Basque Country for it a lot, then reached the Cowdray Cafe just before last orders, had a drink at The Swan, then another one at The Wheatsheaf, admired (if that is the word) the destroyed buildings on the High Street after the massive fire a few months ago (no through-traffic through Midhurst at the mo as the road is closed due to the danger of The Angel Inn's facade collapsing onto the High Street).
Both groups made the xx.01 trains, 2 hours apart.
w=sunny-with-a-breeze
p.s.: I know and appreciate that this is not a site for political comments, BUT...both groups had sub-standard experiences at the lunch pub and the cafe later on, with disinterested looking and disorganised staff (of mainly secondary school age) being slow, mucking up orders, serving substandard tea or coffee, plus non-delivering some of the orders (and the food wasn't that great anyway). Where have all the well-trained and proud-to-serve-and-be-competent staff gone? Surely that is one price we are all paying for B****t?
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