Length: 23km (14m)
Toughness: 5 / 10
Transport: Take the 9:35 from London Victoria to Billingshurst, arriving at 10:45. Return trains from Amberley at xx:18 and xx:48.
This is a great walk towards the South Downs through a typical Sussex landscape of fields and woods, passing a vineyard, a wonderful lunch pub and finally climbing up to the South Downs ridge before finishing in Amberley with its pub right next to the railway station.
I recommend a small variation before reaching the lunch pub a Nutbourne which leads to a secluded lake and past an old mill.
Also, if you want to avoid a long stretch along a country lane after lunch there is a slightly longer, alternative approach to the South Downs, which I have not walk checked, so it would be somewhat exploratory.
2 comments:
I have led this walk for The Ramblers today, and here's some comments:
Beautiful walk, well worth the effort (see below list of efforts);
lots of overgrown paths (grass, bracken, brambles, nettles - you name it), not a walk for wearing shorts;
plenty of mud still in them woods, although a couple of dry days before Saturday may ease the problem: amongst the worst was the first path off the road in Billingshurst, but this can be skirted by walking down Daux Avenue and turning right along a footpath near its end into the wood;
the Dirk Variation 1 (just before Nutbourne) is recommended: you don't get views of the windmill but instead of two fine ponds while walking through some interesting woods;
the Dirk Variation 2 we did not walk today but it would be a good idea to do it on Saturday, as the bridleway south of the B2139 onto the South Downs is closed due to forestry works (1 July for at least 21 days) and that B road is NOT a good alternative to find a diversion to the west or east; they were hard at it today with some heavy and noisy machinery but we just about wiggled through unseen and unhurt.
Don't let this detract you: it's a great walk.
6 assembled at the station plus one more who got the train 30mins later and joined us at lunch for a total of #7 walkers. 5 had a lovely lunch in the garden of the Rising Sun, 2 had picnic and one of them walked on and was not seen again.
At the decision point for the 2nd variation of the walk one decided to follow the "official" instructions while the remaining 5 started exploring. Before reaching the top of the South Downs 2 walkers hung back and where not seen again. I assume they
went straight to the station at the end of the walk. 3 of us went to the Bridge Inn for some refreshing drinks in the garden.
Most of the group walked the two suggested variations which, in the opinion of this humble poster, enhance the walk: the first one is quite uncontroversial, it is a beautiful loop, the second one might deter those who think that the walk is already
long enough. But it is a much more beautiful route than walking along the airfield and the country lane. In total the variations added 1.6km to the length of the walk for a total of 24.6km.
There was not much mud to speak of, some largish puddles at the beginning of the walk, easily skirted around, but some sections were indeed quite overgrown.
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