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This Week's Walks - Archive

Please see the Saturday Walker's Club This Week's Walks page.

This is an archive of walks done by the Saturday Walker's Club. You should only need to use this page if the SWC website is down.

Sunday, 26 November 2023

Sunday Walk - Short hilly walk with longer options: Hassocks to Upper Beeding or the coast

Stargazer is away
 
Length: 16.3 km (10.1 mi) [longer walk possible and recommended, see below]
Ascent/Descent: 465/514m
Net Walking Time: 4 ¼ hours
Toughness: 5/10
 
Take the 09.39 Brighton train from London Bridge (East Croydon 09.53), arrives Hassocks 10.35. 
From Victoria, take the 09.32 Brighton train (Clapham J 09.38, East Croydon 09.49), arrives Hassocks 10.28, and wait. 
Return buses from Upper Beeding (Line 2 to Shoreham-by-Sea Station with 15 mins journey time) are on xx.27 to 17.27, then 18.36. 
Return trains from Shoreham are on xx.44 (direct to Victoria, 77 mins journey time) and at xx.05 (via Brighton, 101 minutes journey time). 
Buy a Shoreham-by-Sea return. 
 
Longer Walk:
 ·        Valley Ending to Upper Beeding (adds 2.5 km, may be waterlogged);
 ·        Finish in Shoreham or at Fishersgate Station, closer to London (add up to 5 km).
The longer finishes in Shoreham or Fishersgate avoid the dependence on the hourly bus with a tight connection to the train. There will be light for walking until 16.30. 
 
Lunch: The Wildflour Cafe (7 km, open 10.00-16.00) or The Devil’s Dyke Pub (9 km, food all day), both in Poynings. 
Tea: Kings Head, Upper Beeding or two hotels/restaurants in Bramber nearby. Plenty of choice in Shoreham. Check the webpage or the pdf.
 
For summary, walk directions, map, height profile, photos and gpx/kml files click here. T=2.23

1 comment:

Thomas G said...

n=2 on this walk, with a w=dry-start-then-a-little-spittle-pm-then-rain.
We passed another walker outside the station but he was in fact looking for a Ramblers group (which apparently had assembled the other side of the station, according to someone else). Once up the first hill, there was the eerie sight of all northern valleys still being filled with morning mist, a bit like a cloud inversion really. Wonderful!
On via some somewhat slippery paths and through some amalgamated fields with a very large cattle herd (very docile though they were). The consensus was to aim for the Devil's Dyke pub, bypassing the couple of farm cafes en route, so on we went. Some spittle started on the last few hundred metres before reaching the pub, but once we had gotten organised and ordered our food and sat down, very dark clouds were indeed passing, so much so that the trig point across the road was invisible and any later arrival in the pub was dripping wet.
A main course and a coffee later, the situation had reverted to the earlier 'grey skies but dry' scenario and it largely stayed that way until close to Shoreham, as that is where we went, walking the extended version of the route. Latent spittle turned to drizzle which turned to rain for the last half hour or so, before we reached Shoreham High Street at 16.15.
That left just enough time for a drink at the first pub on the left before the on-time 16.44 train.