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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.

Wednesday 7 February 2018

Wednesday Walk: Arundel Circular - the Arun Valley and South Stoke

SWC 100 - Arundel and Amberley

Length: 16 km (10 miles)  Longer options between 12 and 14 miles available
Toughness: 4 out of 10;   7 out of 10 if climbing up onto the South Downs

London Victoria: 10-06 hrs  Portsmouth Harbour / Bognor train. C.J  10-12 hrs;  E.C 10-23 hrs
Arrive Arundel: 11-26 hrs

Return: Arundel:  12 and 46 mins past the hour
Return: Amberley to Victoria: 17 mins past the hour

Rail ticket: buy a day return to Arundel

We have the chance to mix and match a number of TO Book and SWC walks today, but I am going to suggest the following:

Starting with SWC 100 - Arundel and Amberley - we will head out along the River Arun's riverside path (could be muddy) for about 1 km before we divert away from the river to Warningcamp Hill, then the village of Wepham and on to Burpham for lunch at the popular George Inn. A number of places will be booked for us.
After lunch we will reverse the Book 1- Arundel to Amberley Walk 32, which takes us back along  the river Arun to the village of South Stoke, with its quaint little church, then a route above the river into Arundel Park, then down through the Park to the centre of Arundel, passing Arundel Castle and the Roman Catholic Cathedral on the way, for tea in Arundel, before the short walk to the railway station for your twice hourly journey back to London.
Today's proposed route does not take us up onto the South Downs, but if you would like a more strenuous walk over the Downs, after Burpham you could switch to Book 1 Walk 32's afternoon leg, or alternatively reverse the Book 2 Walk 22 opening leg up onto the Downs, before your descent to Amberley.  Or you could divert to North Stoke.......anything and everything goes today !  Just hope the weather is kinder to us today than when we did a version of this walk exactly one year ago - when it rained heavily for most of the day.
T=swc.100
Walk Directions here: L=swc.100

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Marcus I wonder if it would be possible for you to list a Jazz concert in which I am singing on the 23rd mardh. It will take place at St Peters Church covent Garden at 7 30 pm. Tickets will be £23 per head .

Thanks,

Jane

Marcus said...

Hello Jane

I will pass this on to Lucilla, our Social Secretary, to see if she would like to put your concert up on our website.

Kind regards
Marcus

Anonymous said...

Hi Jane, I googled St Peter's Covent Garden, It did not show up. (only St Paul's showed up). At St Paul's, there is a performance on Feb 23 by Angelic Voices - If I am not mistaken, it is by The Godolphin Vocal Ensemble (which is an all girls school Choir for three to upper six years). Is it the performance you meant? Are you a walker in SWC club?(sorry for my ignorance). Lucilla

Anonymous said...

Sorry Jane, I got the date wrong, it is Mar 23 Jazz Choir by Addison Singers at St Paul's Covent Garden, but my question remains

Anonymous said...

Jane, if you are going to this walk, please give your concert details to Marcus, he can then pass on to Lucilla.

Anonymous said...

Hello everyone . Yes the concert is Addisons Jazz Choir of which I am a member . It will take place on 23rd March near to Covent Garden.
Time is 7 30

i had hoped to walk today but changed my mind. Is difficult for me on a wednesday now because I have book club and then dancing

Best

Jane

Anonymous said...

Thank you Marcus,

Best,

jane

Anonymous said...

Hi, Jane, I am happy to post your Jazz concert. But before I do, we need to identify your full name as the host of the event so other walkers know who is organising it and who to look out for. We have several Jane in the walking group, which one are you if you do not mind me asking? In addition, are you planning to host a pre-concert or/and post concert meet-up with those who attend your concert? if so where and when? Thanks. Lucilla

Walker said...

n=9 on this walk on a day of w=lovely-crisp-sunshine. Blue sky! Colour! Beauty! Such a change for a walker whose last three outings have been on wet Saturdays.

Early on the ground was also fairly frozen, which made the start along the banks of the River Arun very much less muddy than it ought to have been. Later in the day the ground got a bit softer and we all had plenty of gunk to clean off our boots at the end, but in general paths were firm underfoot.

What a nice winter walk this combination of two walks made. The SWC 100 route as far as Burpham was full of scenic contrast - Arundel Castle soaring in the sunshine above the reedy river plain, then downland valleys and a panoramic view followed by a gentle walk across fields into Burpham. Six of us were booked for 1pm at the George and Dragon, but it turned out to be a good thing we arrived 20 minutes early. That meant we got our order in before a big rush of other arrivals. Since the food did not come out of the kitchen with stellar speed, we might otherwise have had a long wait. As it is we had finished lunch within the hour.

Afterwards a very nice walk along the river and then up over the hills of the Norfolk estate to Arundel, reversing the book one morning. With the late afternoon sun slanting across the hills, this was a nice finish to the walk. We had tea in the Mote and Something tea room and got a train home at dusk. All in all a very jolly day, and sorry to all of you that had to spend the day working....