Re-posted from 30 July - a strike day
Length: 21 km (13 miles)
Toughness: 6 out of 10 Some ups and downs to keep you honest
Either
Thameslink service from Peterborough to Horsham, with stops at:
Finsbury Park: 09-08
London St Pancras: 09-15
London Blackfriars: 09-24
London Bridge: 09-30
East Croydon: 09-46
Three Bridges: 10-27
Arrive Horsham: 10-43 hrs
or
Thamselink service from Cambridge to Brighton, with stops at:
Finsbury Park: 09-22
London St Pancras: 09-30
London Blackfriars: 09-39
London Bridge: 09-45
East Croydon: 09-59
Arrive Three Bridges: 10-21 hrs Change trains
Leave Three Bridges: 10-27 hrs Thameslink service from Peterborough to Horsham (as above)
Arrive Horsham: 10-43 hrs
(Note: London Victoria's Southern platforms are closed today)
Return
Balcombe to London Bridge: Thameslink services from Brighton to Cambridge at 04 & 34 mins past the hour.
Rail ticket: Buy a day return to Horsham. This should work for your return journey, but if you are unlucky and encounter a "picky" ticket inspector, you might have to purchase an additional ticket - a single from Balcombe to Three Bridges.
Today's walk takes a while to get going as you have an initial leg of road walking out of Horsham. For those with hand-held gizmos, it should be fairly easy to follow the route (the shortcut in reverse). For those reversing the written directions, you need to go to the end of the directions and follow the Shortcut to Horsham section, paras 14 to 1 (ie: in reverse).
Once out of town, the walk proper starts. You proceed along tracks through St Leonards Forest on the High Weald Landscape Trail. This takes you to the village of Slaugham, where it is decision time. Those of you familiar with the Book 1 Balcombe Circular Walk will be familiar with your onward options. You either continue on the afternoon leg of this walk, having either stopped for lunch in Slaugham at the upmarket Heritage Inn (formerly known as the Chequers) or later in the village of Staplefield at the Victory Inn, or you reverse the morning leg of the circular walk, stopping for lunch at the Heritage Inn or in the village of Handcross at the the Red Lion. Both routes are pleasant, the opening leg of the circular walk (in reverse) perhaps more so, as this takes you past Nymans and then Lord Snowdon'a lake with Japanese pavilion.
Back in Balcombe, you will almost certainly find the Balcombe Tea Rooms closed ( pet hate of mine, so- called tea rooms closing at or before tea time). Your only alternative for walk-end refreshments is the Half Moon community run pub, which hopefully you will find open.
T=swc.312
Walk Directions are here: L=swc.312
I suggest you also bring along the Book 1 Walk Directions here
1 comment:
Posting on behalf of Rich B, one of those on this walk.
n=6 on this walk, on a w=sunny day, including one who missed the start due to train connection delays.
The other five took a shortcut at the start of the walk, so the six did not meet up until the railway station at walk-end. One had a good lunch at the Wheatsheaf pub on the Horsham Road. The others had sandwiches. After Slaugham the picnickers seem to have followed the afternoon leg of the Book 1 walk, via Staplefield, with one taking a different route from Staplefield to join the morning leg of the Book 1 walk in reverse.
Post a Comment