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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.

Saturday 22 August 2015

Saturday First Walk Walk requested

Book 1 Walk 25 : Winchelsea to Hastings
Length: 20.3km (12.6 miles)
Toughness: 9 out of 10
Explorer 124 or Landrangers 189 & 199
http://www.walkingclub.org.uk/book_1/walk_25/map.shtml

Train from Cannon Street 09:48 (London Bridge 09.53) (changing at St Leonards Warrior Sq arrive 11.14 depart at 11.31 ) arriving at 11:50 Winchelsea and please wait for the St Pancrass crowd who should arrive 9 minutes later
OR
London St Pancrass Int 10.37 (Stratford Int 10.44) – 11:59 Winchelsea
Buy a day return to Winchelsea
Frequent return trains

There was a large landslip at Ecclesbourne Glen (between Hastings and Fairlight Glen) on the Hastings to Winchelsea/Rye walks. The coast path may still be closed, there is a detour if need be.

An excellent walk - the hardest and possibly the best in book 1.
Lovely coastal views, but be sure to take sufficient water and a hat if it is sunny as there is little shade.
You may wish to take your swimming togs if the weather is good.

The recommended lunch place is the Queens Head (tel 01424 814 552 01424 814 552 http://www.queenshead.com/), Parsonage Lane, Icklesham, which serves good food from midday to 9.30pm, but tends to become rather crowded.
5km further on and a 350 metre detour from the route there is the Smuggler Inn at Pett Level (tel 01424 813 491 ) which serves food midday to 2pm daily but on your toes to get here in time.

As always if more than 6 wish to lunch at the pub then please phone ahead as a courtesy and possibly a necessity and even to check if they are still trading.

You go past numerous tea places on the route through Hastings

You will also find more details on the lunch and tea options and background to the walk here  http://www.walkingclub.org.uk/book_1/walk_25/index.shtml

7 comments:

Walker said...

High tide is at 4pm today, so both Pett Level and Fairlight Glen should be good for swimming (at least as far as water depth is concerned: use your own judgement re waves etc). If you arrive at Fairlight Glen after 6.30pm there could be problems with underwater rocks, however

Anonymous said...

thanks for posting this walk, can you kindly brief as to why this is such a hard walk ? plus are there any vertigo inducing clinging to cliff edge bits ?!

many thanks

Walker said...

It is for the most part an extremely gentle and easy walk, with gently undulating territory. But the last three or four miles are along a hilly bit of coast, with four great big descents and three great big climbs. Coming at the end of a longish walk, these are a test for the muscles, but the scenery is great, so what the hey.

There are no vertigo-inducing cliff edge bits.

Anonymous said...

thanks for info Walker

Andrew said...

n=12 w=hot-and-sunny About 10 on the slow train. London Bridge was very busy, long ticket queues, and the ticket machines didn't believe in Network Cards. Guard was cool about buying a ticket on the train. The 10, having arrived at midday, didn't wait for the High Speed peeps, just as well as their very overcrowded trains were delayed due to number getting on and off at each stop. Lunch pub was great. Food looked good. But it is early on in the walk. Some minor issues in Fairlight - more roads have fallen into the sea, All met up at Firehills, most went to the Coastguards, and took the easier inland route ("Barley Lane") to avoid the hills in the afternoon heat. 2 made it down to Fairlight Glen, and were privileged to meet the volunteer path maintenance crew (the route down is in excellent repair, and has changed slightly from last year due to a landslip). The beach was unusually busy. The Fairlight 2 caught trains around 8pm.

The 4 hills at the end are hard work on a hot summer's day, especially given the books late start. An earlier start would be better, even if it meant a picnic lunch, or a much later Coastguard's Cafe lunch. Maybe the book 2 walk (starting in Hastings) just works better. A shame, as the lunch pub is exceptional.

Ian T said...

A further n=5 on the delayed "fast" connection. Both the Hi speed and the Marsh Line were overcrowded, the latter outrageously so. There were were minor spats as people tried to force their way on at intermediate stations. This caused delay. 3 of our number headed direct to Pett Level when we finally squeezed our way off. The other 2 did the proper walk. I'd just like to point out,by the way, that I was first into Hastings. I had to wait for the others to catch up at the ice cream van.
Once in Hastings, I fell in with a bad crowd. They took me drinking then persuaded me to catch the slowest imaginable train back to London me with my superfast, only bought by toffs, Hi Speed return)- it stopped EVERYwhere - and a few other places as well. :(

Anonymous said...

Historical duplicate/misleading attendance numbers cleanup project: n=17