Main Walk: 12.1 miles / 19.5 km
Long Walk (main walk + afternoon extension): 15 miles / 24.25 km
A walk via Pooh Bridge to the attractive Wealden village of Hartfield, with a longer option over the elevated heathland of Ashdown Forest - this section really takes you into landscapes familiar from the Winnie-the-Pooh books.
Lunch: An early stop at the Dorset Arms, Withyham.
Afternoon refreshments are available at Hartfield - the Pooh Corner Tearooms are open til 5pm. The Anchor Inn may be closed, nearest alternative is the Gallipot Inn at Gallipot Street, head left once you meet the main road into Hartfield. From Hartfield it is another 4 miles to Ashurst station, and sadly no refreshments there.
T=swc.29
7 comments:
The Anchor Inn should be open all day. Pooh corner is likely to be busy.
Capital walkers are doing the long walk the same day. What are the chances!!
There are 10 Inner London Ramblers Groups and most post a Walk every Saturday, so maybe the odds aren't quite so high?
Anyhow, I thought I'd just mention that SWC posters can can get a heads up about these walks at https://www.lwug.org.uk/events (if they're keen to avoid duplication).
Just make sure you've clicked the Show Inner London Ramblers Walks button at the top of the page .
Click on the Title of any walk to see the walk synopsis and then follow the Red link to get the full details of that walk from the Ramblers
The Capital Walkers are taking the train an hour earlier and not stopping at the lunch pub in Withyham. They're continuing over Ashdown Forest to Buxted so won't be competing for tables in the tea room either. The only time you might bump into them is on the train home.
We did that walk a few years ago (I had a hand in it) and it was a long, hot, dusty day. There's not much shade on the top of Ashdown Forest.
N=8 at the station on a day that w=started-cloudy-turned-sunny
A couple were up for the long walk but most opted for the main walk.
Nearing Withyham, who should we encounter but the walk’s author, bringing our number to n=9
And so to the Dorset Arms, which turned out to not be doing food. At least, not yet. We sat on n their garden and drank.
Then, after a look in the church, off on the remainder, the author’s beady eyes watching out for anyone attempting the short cut . Nobody dared.
At Pooh Bridge, some amused themselves by chucking sticks in. Others just watched. The long walkers rejoined us there. By the time Hartfield was reached, hunger had set in and an unhealthy obsession with cream teas drove most to Pooh Corner. No cider there, I can tell you.
Here the walk’s author relented and offered to let some of us off the rest of the walk and drive us to Oxted. Two leapt at the chance, of which your correspondent was one ( this isn’t really cheating because if we’d wanted to cheat, we’d have done the short walk).
Opting for the lift may have been the wise choice because it looked like a tree on the Uckfield line was causing cancellations .
The 2 who did the extension met walker number #10 when they got back to Ashurst Station.
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