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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 28 June 2015

Sunday Walk – Over the South Downs to Rottingdean

Sunday Walk
Extra Walk 134 – Lewes via Rottingdean to Brighton (or Southease)
Length: 18.7 km (11.6 miles). Toughness: 4/10 (to Brighton)
Length: 20.0 km (12.4 miles). Toughness: 6/10 (to Southease)

09:47 Ore train from Victoria (Clapham Jct 09:53, East Croydon 10:02), arriving Lewes at 10:48. A day return to Southease is no more expensive than Lewes and is valid for return from any of the possible destinations.

If you finish at Brighton there are fast Southern trains to Victoria at 10 & 35 minutes past the hour (fewer after 9pm), and Thameslink ones via Blackfriars at 14 & 44 past. Southease only has an hourly train at 09 minutes past (changing at Lewes); the last one is just after 8pm.

The start of this walk is the as Book 2 Walk 24 (Lewes-Saltdean), but after a short stretch on the familiar South Downs Way it turns off into the remoter parts of the downs and makes its way to the attractive seaside town of Rottingdean. If you haven't stopped en route for a picnic you'll find a choice of pubs and cafés for a late lunch when you arrive there around 1.30-1.45pm.

After a good lunch the lazy option is simply to hop on one of the many buses plying the coastal route; the walk notes offer ideas about where to get on and off. A more respectable continuation is to walk at least part of the way along the seafront to Brighton. If you want a sterner test there are directions for an alternative route back over the downs to Southease station. This last option suffers from a lack of tea places and infrequent trains, but you could divert to the Abergavenny Arms in Rodmell and perhaps even continue all the way back to Lewes if you know the Walk 24 route via Northease Manor (or bring Book 2).

You'll need to print the directions from this pdf document.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

There is a very nice cafe near Southease Station. I've ahd tea there before and can recommend it. It's part of the Youth Hostel there and open to visitors http://www.yha.org.uk/hostel/south-downs

Anonymous said...

Appears very nice with the sea views, I'm going...jim