9.50 train from Victoria (9.57 Clapham Junction, 10.10 East Croydon) to East Grinstead, arrive 10.50
Buy a day return to East Grinstead.
At East Grinstead, catch the 11.05 bus (number 270) to Forest Row from the front of the station (stop just to the left, by the car drop-off area). 15 minutes journey time: only costs £2, remember. T=swc.23
It has been tricky picking a walk this week due to various bits of engineering work. Also the (probably fruitless!) desire to avoid excess mud. I thought of this walk because it spends much of its time on the sandy soils of Ashdown Forest, so maybe a bit better drained than others. But don't wear your party shoes...
The terrain underfoot apart, this walk offers quite a variety of scenery - woods, valleys, views: ie it is not all heath. The lunch pub is the very nice Red Lion in Chelwood Gate. If you want to quit the walk after lunch, there are number 270 buses from the pub to East Grinstead at 55 past the hour.
At the end of the walk, Forest Row has a burgeoning range of tea and drinks places: I have a feeling one or two have been added to those listed on the home page of this walk.
To get back to East Grinstead station, get a 270 or 291 bus from outside the Brambletye Hotel at 15.31, 16.03, 16.31, 17.04, 17.30, 18.03, 18.38, 18.57, 19.46, 19.52, 20.54 (etc..).
Alternatively, if you want to work off your cream tea, it is a 5.5km (3.4 mile) walk up the old railway line from Forest Row to East Grinstead.
Trains back from East Grinstead are at 06 and 36 past.
2 comments:
Well, even walk posters are not infallible, and my hopes that this walk would be relatively dry underfoot proved wildly misplaced. It was a squelch-fest. To be fair, more due to standing water (after torrential rain) than actual mud, but the constant splish-splash-splosh did get more than a little wearing. In places impromptu rivers gurgled along pathways. Short bits of dry track would raise hopes, only for them to be dashed 50 metres further on.
From the knee up, however, it was a much better day than expected. It was still raining while we waited for the bus at East Grinstead, but had stopped once we started walking. W=From-late-morning-there-were-sunny-intervals. Not a bad day at all. And the scenery was nice.
There were 15 off the train, with three car drivers joining us in Forest Row, so n=18 in all. We split neatly into twelve pub diners and six sandwichers (who got to sit outside in the sun: I was more than a bit jealous). Eleven of the pub diners had good food, promptly served. I ordered the pie and mash, which repeatedly failed to appear, despite me being told more than once that it would appear in five minutes.
Finally, with the others nearly finished with their food, I informed our (young and probably inexperienced) server that I would be eating my emergency sandwich if the pie did not appear pronto. She walked off without a word, so I ate the sandwich. Other diners kindly offered chips (it is a pity Moontiger was not there…). Finally as we were about to leave another server appeared with my meal. I declined to take delivery or to pay for it.
(I feel a bit guilty about the wasted food, since you ask. But two tips for the pub: 1) If a dish takes three times as long to cook as the other dishes on the menu, tell the customer this at time of ordering. And 2) When a customer complains, talk to them rather than skulking off).
After more sploshing and wading in the afternoon, four of us stopped at the interesting Ashdown Forest Visitor Centre where I got a takeaway tea and some much-needed calories in the form of a Twix. We had a lovely walk along the escarpment in the sunshine with super views.
We got down to Forest Row just as the sun was setting, so a good use of the available daylight. There we found some other walkers in the Coco Cafe, which was still open, bless it, and had delicious tea and cakes (including a nice vegan one). We then got the 18.38 bus and had a nice chinwag on the train home.
Strange happenings at the Red Lion, after a good lunch I came out to find my boots missing, easy for someone to make a mistake, all the boots are covered in mud, but size 12? and I was one of the first out. Fortunately scattered not far away perhaps a dog or a child or even a fox who knows?
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