Length: 16.6 km (10.3 miles)
Toughness: 7 out of 10 (one steep ascent up onto the South Downs, remainder of walk 2 out of 10)
London Victoria: 09-35 hrs Southern service to Chichester CJ 09-42 EC 09-53 Horsham 10-35 hrs
Arrive Pulborough: 10-52 hrs
Return
Amberley to Victoria: 17 mins past the hour Southern service
Rail ticket: buy a day return to Amberley
Leaving Pulborough you make your way through varied countryside to the village of Nutbourne, for lunch at the usually excellent Rising Sun pub.
Post prandial, you head for Pulborough (Wild) Brooks, much of which can be under water after periods of heavy rain. You pass a secluded church in Wigginhold (well worth look inside if open) before you arrive at the RSPB Centre, also worth a look in its Visitor Centre. On then to leave the woods - for the long walk along Rackham Street to the foot of the South Downs. A short but steep climb takes you to the Downs ridge - and you walk along the South Downs Way, with nice views. You drop down above Amberley to walk down High Titten (road) to a main road which soon takes you to Amberley Railway station. The Bridge Inn, next to the station, is your best bet for walk-end refreshments as the nearby Tea Rooms beside the River have the annoying habit of closing at tea time.
T=swc.9
Walk Directions are here: L=swc.9
4 comments:
Does anyone know the state of the area which "can be under water after periods of heavy rain" and whether there is an alternative route if it is too wet?
It's not the same path, but a blog on the RSPB Pulborough Brooks site has several entries for April saying there were "plenty of visitors on the wetland trail". Part of this area is indeed intentionally flooded in winter but I think you'd be very unlucky to find it impassable now.
I was at RSPB Pulborough last week and also walkers right across the Wild Brooks. There is no sign of flooding whatsoever, and it has been dry since.
Incidentally, if anyone takes the trouble to walk 200 metres down the woodland path into the reserve (entrance through the end of the Visitor Centre shop), they may hear nightingales. Several were singing here last week. There was also a cuckoo singing and a white-tailed sea eagle flying overhead.
10 of us at the start of this walk. We had woken to a forecast of morning rain, but it did not materialise. Instead it was w=cloudy-with-a-few-sunny-periods, the latter especially mid morning and early evening. All walks look lovely at this flowery time of year, with cow parsley on every verge and buttercups in every field, but I thought this one was particularly well-suited to the season.
Group cohesion was excellent until we got to the Rising Sun in Nutbourne at 12.25pm, one of the nicer pubs on the SWC walks in my opinion. But the group dithered on the doorstep, pronouncing it too early to eat. There was talk of going instead to the next pub or the RSPB cafe. So just two of us ate in the Rising Sun’s leafy garden, enjoying nice vegetarian/vegan options while being serenaded by blackbirds.
We expected to catch up with the rest of the group in the Marehill pub, but no, the only person there (in its also not unpleasant garden) was walker number N=11 who had arrived on a later train, but failed to find the two of us in the Rising Sun. She was just starting her meal, so we carried on, promising to wait for her at the RSPB cafe.
Once on the Wild Brooks, a slight surprise was that the path was rather squelchy in places and a bit indistinct due to nettles (I don’t remember the latter ever being an issue before). But we got to Wiggonholt church in due course. I could hear a nightingale here, but forgetting that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush (not quite the right metaphor….) took my companion into the RSPB reserve via the public footpath, hoping for better. Alas, in several places where they were nine days ago, no nightingales were heard. The cuckoo seems to have moved on too. Other birdsong was rich and varied, however.
At the RSPB cafe we found the three “newbies” but no one else of our party. I later learned the rest of the group picnicked in Wiggonholt churchyard (worrying shades of midweekwalkism here…) and variously got the 4.17 and 4.50 trains. Our late starter caught us up at the cafe and three of us had a nice open air tea with vegan chocolate cake. The three newbies, who had had hot food there, decided to return to Pulborough across the Brooks.
So just three of us continued down the long forest road - three miles flew by in interesting chat - and made the steep but lovely climb (one of my favourites) up onto the downs. To my surprise both my companions were in favour of doing the longer river loop ending, so we did that.
We had an interesting walk through the flower-bedecked Amberley village and an idyllic walk in the evening sun out onto the Wild Brooks beyond. There was a gorgeous buttercup meadow here, though the path to the riverbank was surprisingly waterlogged for the time of year.
Along the riverbank next, with reed warblers scolding away, and one lone swallow seen, to the Bridge Inn. Two of us had chips and three drinks in its garden, and we got the 7.17 train, well satisfied with our adventures.
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