9.35 train from Victoria (9.42 Clapham Junction, 9.53 East Croydon) to Amberley, arriving 10.57.
Buy a day return to Amberley if intending to do the full walk: if not a day return to Arundel gives you the option of returning from there instead
For walk directions and the home page for this walk click here, for GPX click here, and for a map of the route click here.
I hope the walk author will not be offended if I say that this walk, only posted to the website a few months ago and now having its first airing, is a rehash of elements from some familiar Arundel walks, with a few new twists added. In its early stages, for example, it reverses the crossing of Arundel Park familiar from the Amberley to Arundel walk in book one, but instead of going directly into Arundel, takes a new route past a wetland reserve, and then round a loop in the river. In the afternoon you do a bit of Arundel Park the "right" way round, so to speak, and then there is a river finish into Amberley. There is the option of a shorter ending in Arundel instead.
Lunch is in Arundel after 5.9 miles, with plenty of pub, cafe and takeaway options. For tea there are a couple of possible mid afternoon refreshment stops, as well as the Houghton Riverside Tea Gardens (if it is open or has space) or the lovely Bridge Inn (ditto) at Amberley.
Trains back from Amberley are at 17 past the hour until 21.17 (the last train), with an additional train at 16.50. From Arundel trains are at 13 and 46 past
**** It would be very useful if you could pre-register for this walk for Covid contact tracing purposes at www.lwug.co.uk: if not, please bring a piece of paper with your email written on it, which will be kept in an envelope and only used if a case of Covid arises on the walk. To let us know if a contract tracing requirement arises as a result of this walk, use covid@lwug.co.uk ****
11 comments:
The River Levels link on this walk's home page shows the River Arun has just been reaching the 'flooding to low-lying land is possible' level at Arundel in the last few days. Parts of this walk are alongside the river so be prepared for a few waterlogged stretches...
Well, we will see, but I will be surprised if there are problems. The charts show the river just tipping over the normal level at Arundel in the last few days, but this is not entirely surprising as it was a full moon on Thursday. At Houghton Bridge (Amberley) the levels are well within range. And this river is tidal. High tide is at 1pm.
Candidly, given that it is June and it has barely rained since Monday, I am not anticipating issues. If there are, this is a lovely area: we will find an alternative route.
Presumably if it gets too wet around paras 15-16 of the notes we can take the road (para 57?) into Arundel. Not sure what to do if the first bit is too wet, but from what you're saying Walker, that's not as likely to be a problem.
It was supposed to rain all day today here in Kingston but it stopped before 10! Hopefully will be dry tomorrow
I can remember doing the river path from Amberley in November, in the midst of a very wet period, and at a time of year when the ground is saturated. I can't imagine it will be worse now. I am just going on a gut feeling here. But other gut feelings are available.
The River Arun mostly runs between embankments and I doubt if they'll be any problem walking along these raised paths. But there are places where it can overflow into the adjoining fields and in winter these are often flooded. I don't suppose that happens very often in summer, but there has been a *lot* of rain this month and I thought it was worth pointing out that the monitoring data was raising an amber flag, if not a red one.
N=14 on this walk, plus a guest appearance late morning from its author. The Saturday Walkers Club Data Ratification Committee could not decide if he walked enough of the walk to qualify as a participant, so I have left him out of the count.
It was a lovely day, W=quite-often-hot-and-sunny, but with high cloud at times. The countryside looked lush and reed warblers scolded and chattered in the reed beds. Only a few butterflies though.
This was a nice new variation on the existing walk route in this area. The combination of downland sections, riverside paths and watermeadows was perfect for a summer’s day. There was some head-scratching about the GPX in the valley in Arundel Park where the morning and afternoon routes crossed and diverged. Reading the walk directions would have solved the ambiguity, but no one was doing that.
In Arundel various lunches were had in various places. Four got a lovely riverside table at a cafe-bar type place and reported that the food was good. Five of us lunched on the patio of the Red Lion - less scenic, but with reasonably efficient service (even if I did have to ask for ketchup three times…).
In the afternoon I could not resist stopping for tea and cakes at the little cafe by the boating lake. Two joined me, one having ice cream. My cake was very nice: my companion found hers dry and barely edible. But the herring gulls had no hesitation about finishing what she could not (so many were hanging about that maybe this was not the first cake from the cafe that had suffered this fate..).
Some others wanted to stop for drinks in the Black Rabbit but did not for whatever reason. Instead we all plodded on to meet up in the shady garden of the ever-reliable Bridge Inn, one of my favourite end of walk pubs. I had got two sips into my pint of cider when there was a mass stampede for the 6.17 train. Myself and another decided to wait for the 7.17. We then decided to have a walk by the river while we waited and it was so nice in the evening sun that we decided on the 8.17. Then a big cloud came and hid the sun, which was a bit disappointing. The 8.17 was then delayed by 15 minutes, giving us some anxious moments. But at least there was some nice birdsong to listen to while we waited.
The river levels were fine, by the way. Not a hint of flooding.
Lovely romantic riverside ending to a great walk. Thank you to the author and inventor.
The Waterside cafe and boat hire riverside setting is perfect for outside Diane has mainly rave reviews. Sharyn runs it with military precision but it gets really busy so expect a wait for hot food. Large portions such as mussels and chips £15 could serve 2 people. Perfect location by the castle car park.
Thanks for the feedback. The Waterside Café now gets a mention as a possible Lunch stop, though it might not be the best choice in winter (see photo, which illustrates my earlier concern about river levels). [Sean]
To save yourself all those worries about flooding, you could do worse than try yet another diversion, involving the gentlest climb up to the South Downs Way I have ever experienced anywhere in the South Downs. This involves a different walk long the river towards a railway cottage, and up to the South Downs Way from a hamlet called Wepham, eventually dropping down to Amberley via the best-known route in the Book 1 walk. Will write it up and send to you. It also meant we burned a lot more calories following a delicious Tunisian orange cake consumed at the Motte and Bailey cafe in Arundel.
We weren't so enthralled by the Riverside Cafe food - but it was passable and yes the setting is excellent.
A further three did this walk together the following day, Sunday, since that suited them better than the prescribed time. The forecast was for rain, and sometimes the skies were threatening, but actual rainfall was confined to the first ten minutes and the last three minutes. These numbers and weather reported without using the smart tags so as not to muck up the reporting for the official fixture.
This is a good route which delivers on its promise after providing new perspectives of familiar territory, particularly the two sides of Swanbourne Lake. There were mushrooms, and a fungus of woody texture attached to a tree, oozing an amber liquid from many spots.
Lunch was in the Norfolk Arms Hotel at Arundel, which was so slow to take our orders that we contemplated bailing but, once that was done, produced food of good very promptly. Tea at the place by the bridge in Amberley, one of my favourite such spots in all of our walks on a summer evening, though it does have a regrettable zeal for closing earlier than it might.
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