Length: 22.5 km (14 miles) or a pleasant short walk ending in Falmer: 12 km ( 7.5 miles)
Toughness (both walks): 7 out of 10 One steady ascent onto the South Downs
Either
London Victoria: 09-45 hrs Southern service to Littlehampton CJ 09-52, EC 10-03 hrs
Arrive Hassocks: 10-38 hrs
Or
London Bridge: 09-34 hrs Thameslink service from London Bridge to Brighton EC 09-49
Arrive Hassocks: 10-31 hrs
Would London Bridgers please wait outside Hassocks railway station for the arrival of Victorians
Return: Brighton to Victoria: Southern services at 09 and 39 mins past the hour
Brighton to London Bridge: Thameslink services at 12, 25, 42 and 55 mins past the hour
Rail ticket: buy a day return to Brighton. Thameslink tickets are usually cheaper than Southern tickets
Methinks this lovely and varied walk does not get the number of postings it deserves, so let's try to correct that today.
Leaving Hassocks we soon walk over fields to the pretty village of Ditchling, before we head along flat tracks to the base of the South Downs, for a steep(ish) and steady climb up to the ridge. We then cross over the Downs and head back downhill, enjoying some lovely views along the way. We eventually come out into the village of Stanmer, with its Tea Rooms (an early lunch option). We continue on through the extensive grounds of Sussex University before climbing up to the village of Falmer (chopped in two by a bypass) where you find the Swan Inn, an unpretentious pub serving good beer and German eurofizz and basic - but honest - pub grub.
After lunch, if you have had enough walking by now, or if the excitement of the day has got to you, you can end your walk in Falmer by taking the train from the local railway station to Brighton - trains are four an hour. Otherwise, we continue the walk by heading towards the impressive Amex Stadium (home of Brighton and Hove Albion Football Club). Then on over fields to the village of Bevenden, where we climb up to Brighton Racecourse. We walk along the length of the course, passing the Grandstand on the way, and at its far end we drop down a series of paths - to come out into Brighton, by Brighton College. We now continue into the centre of town - most choose a route by the sea front. In town you are spoilt for choice for refreshment stops. Swimmers can take a dip if they wish if conditions look favourable.
Recommended - this is a nice walk !
T=swc.50
Walk Directions are here L=swc.50
2 comments:
As a result of a pedestrian being hit by a train near South Croydon in the early hours of Saturday morning, there was total disruption to travel from London towards the south coast. Nothing out of Victoria when I arrived there - I'm not sure if London Bridge fared any better - I suspect not. Some of us managed to get to Hassocks eventually, via various routes, and there I met two other SWC walkers on the platform. Another four - travelling from Haywards Heath - had waited for (non)arrivals at Hassocks for more than thirty minutes before starting their own walk: we met them at Ditchling Beacon car park. There might have been others, before or aft - if so, do please file your own walk report here. But for the moment let's say n=7.
The day started cloudy and overcast but the sun soon shone through and for most of the day it was w=sunny-and-comfortably-warm, in fact, perfect walking weather for the South Downs. The views on top were lovely and the countryside throughout was green and lush, although with the harvest safely in, fields were bare.
Two of the Ditchling four took a bus from there, so we walked as a small group of five to Stanmer Village, where we all stopped for a good value lunch at the Tearooms. Because of the delayed start and the now lateness of the hour we all opted to finish the walk in Falmer, where two of us took the train to Brighton and the other three a bus into Brighton, for a planned swim: I hope they enjoyed their dip in the sea.
A small number of us managed to salvage an enjoyable downs walk out of a disrupted day.
Four of us did this walk on the day after the scheduled Saturday. This thime the trains working entirely as scheduled, though very full on the return journey. Cloud cover, warm, slightly humid.
We paused at Stanmer House where there is a cafe offering an appealing menu at reasonable prices, and what looked like a nice garden area in which to consume the results, but headed on when told that there was a 40 minute wait, landing at the Swan Inn. The walk description has it right when it says that this place is "without a hint of pretension", and it served serviceable roast lunches in its roadside outdoor area.
At some points the GPS file is misleading, steering followers to one side of a fence or hedge when it should be the other, and at other points it follows a path which is just different from that specified in the walk directions.
We took a short cut through the northern edge of Brighton's Queens's Park and residential streets to go directly to the station rather than out to the sea front and back inland.
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