Ascent/Descent:
604/718m; Net Walking Time: 5 ½ hours
Toughness: 7/10
Take
the 09.30 Portsmouth Harbour train
from Waterloo (09.55 Woking),
arrives Haslemere 10.20.
From Clapham take the 09.22 stopping service
(arrives H’mere 10.16).
Return to Haslemere from
Midhurst either by bus number 70 (roughly
hourly, £5.00 fare, last dep. 19.05) or
by taxi.
Return trains from Haslemere are on xx.02, xx.15, xx.32 and 17.37 and 19.39, journey time from 49 to 66 mins.
Return trains from Haslemere are on xx.02, xx.15, xx.32 and 17.37 and 19.39, journey time from 49 to 66 mins.
The route leads from Haslemere
station through the town’s centre and along the waymarked Serpent Trail through
a small Nature Reserve to rise steeply out of town and back down through
Camelsdale to then rise with the Sussex Border Path through pastures and pine and heather covered
slopes up to the Black Down. Following the
crest through open heathland, with far views across West Sussex and out to
Hampshire, you reach the Temple Of The Winds viewpoint, with further panoramic
views over the Rother Valley to the South Downs escarpment and easterly across
to the West Weald.
A long descent through the sloping
open grounds of Blackdown House and through bluebell-carpeted woods leads to either
the classic Sussex village of Lurgashall, with its pub and church at the corner
of a picturesque village green and cricket pitch, or to the hamlet of Lickfold
with its super-duper Inn.
The afternoon takes you through a mix
of flat farmland and wooded hills to the Cowdray Estate, with its golf
course-with-views as well as several polo fields, to the romantic ruins of
Cowdray House, as captured by JMW Turner. Climbing from the River Rother’s
banks, Midhurst's Norman castle ruins are passed en-route to the old market
town's attractive centre with its many tea options.
Lunch: The Noah's Ark in Lurgashall (10.3 km/6.4 mi, food to
14.30, booking recommended), The
Lickfold Inn in Lickfold
(11.0 km/6.8 mi, a la carte food to 14.30, bar food all day, booking essential!).
Tea: lots of choice en-route
to and in Midhurst
(see the pdf for details), recommended are The
Halfway Hut (3 km from the end), Cowdray
Farm Shop & Cafe (2 km from the end), Garton’s Coffee House, The Wheatsheaf, The Angel Inn and The Olive & Vine.
T=swc.48
3 comments:
25 walkers off the trains, fast and slow, in w=warm-and-sunny weather, with a haze, afflicting the far views. 3 took a taxi up to Black Down, 2 car drivers were met on Black Down and continued with the group. So n=27 in all.
Most seemed to walk via Lurgashall where we had only one small table booked, but plenty people found space outside anyway. Just as well as the pub stopped taking food orders after a while as they were busy with 2 large parties. The village shop was frequented by latecomers. Some muddy stretches are left in the woods, two woods either side of Lurgashall were in full bluebell carpet display, the shallow bluebell valley just before Cowdray golf club though needs a few more days.
A cuckoo was heard near Bexley Hill, a snake was spotted on the descent from Hoe Hill. No Polo was played today.
4 o'clock bus for some, tea or drink in Midhurst for others.
Worth recording the fruit cake in the Cowdray Farm Cafe was considered to be the best fruit cake ever, well as far as we could remember, the best fruit cake ever.
We spotted three deer bounding across the heath in the afternoon. Or was that just the effects of the pre-lunch gin tasting at the Blackdown Distillery kicking in? If you like gin/vermouth/fruity liquers, it is well worth checking out ***hiccup***
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