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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 25 April 2018

Wednesday Walk Billingshurst to Amberley - and Advance Notice of Planned Mid-Week Bluebell Walks

SWC 8 - Billingshurst to Amberley

Length: 22.4 km (14.5 miles)
Toughness: 6 out of 10.  One steep(ish) climb up onto the South Downs. Remainder of walk 3 out of 10

London Victoria: 10-06 hrs    Portsmouth Harbour and Bognor service.  CJ  10-12,  EC 10-23 hrs
Arrive Billingshurst: 11-10 hrs

Return:  Amberley to Victoria: 17 mins past the hour until (and including) 18-17, then 19-28, 20-29 and 21-29 hrs

Rail ticket: Buy a day return to Amberley.

Lunch: The Rising Sun, Nutbourne.  'Phoning ahead advised: 01798-812191. Your e.t.a.is 13-30 hrs

If the weather is half  decent this should be a lovely walk, with plenty of variety. The morning is mostly flat, but not uninteresting, as you head towards Nutbourne for lunch. Mud warning: paths in the lovely bluebell wood which you walk through soon after you leave Billingshurst are likely to be very muddy still, despite the recent hot weather which will have helped dry them out, but not fully. Hopefully, the bluebells will be near full bloom now, to make up for the slubberdub paths. Once you have left the woods, there should not be any further mud all day (tempting fate, I know.....)

The afternoon, after Nutbourne, is totally different to the morning terrain. The alternative name for this walk is "The South Downs Tease" as you have the escarpment of the Downs ahead of you for ages, and after Nutbourne it takes all of two hours to reach their base before you have the steep ascent up to the top. But once on top, you should have lovely views all around as you walk along the ridge (the South Downs Way, or - better - the permissive path over grassland to its north). You eventually leave the Downs and head down High Titten for tea at the The Bridge Inn, close to Amberley railway station.  The afternoon leg of this walk takes at least three hours, so you will be faced with a long - but rewarding - day's walking today, with no option for country dancing back in London this evening, unless it starts well after 8 pm.  Best just enjoy the walk today.
T=swc.8
Walk Directions here: L=swc.8


Mid-Week Walkers Planned Bluebell Walks

Wednesday 25 April (as above) SWC 8 - Billingshurst to Amberley

Thursday 26 April - Book 1, Walk 9 - Shiplake to Henley via High Wood

Tuesday 01 May- Book 2, Walk 5b - Tring to Berkhamsted via Dockey Wood

Wednesday 02 May - Book 2 Walk 13d - Guildford to Box Hill via Chantries Hill and Shere

May Day Bank Holiday, Monday 07 May - Book 1,Walk 42 - Holmwood to Gomshall, with option of continuing to Guildford




1 comment:

Walker said...


13 started this walk, not including our esteemed walk poster. But it turned out he had got a train half an hour early to get his lunch order in first, so n=14. It started out sunny and we hoped we might cheat the weather forecast. But no, at 12.30 the clouds rolled in and the showers started: some big heavy ones and lots of dripping in between, but some dry patches. Up on the downs at the end we had an enormous downpour, then bright sun, then more rain. So in all w=sunny-at-first-then-quite-wet.

Otherwise, a fine day out. As author of this walk I tend to be modest about its charms, but several in the group were fulsome in its praise. The bluebell wood at the start put on a decent show - about 70% out I would say - and there were other small patches during the morning. The walk also has a vineyard, whose magnificent display of dandelions was being slaughtered by a motor mower as I crossed it, and a glider runway where we saw one bring towed into the sky as we passed. And up on the downs in the gap between the deluges there was a razor-sharp view of the North Downs and all in between.

Eight of us lunched at the wonderful Rising Sun: alas, the rain banished us from its glorious garden but we had a nice big table in its characterful bar. I did not see any other diners. By basic arithmetic that leaves six sandwichers, of who three went on to who knows where. Three more left to get a bus to Pulborough - to escape the rain or to go to evening events, I do not know. So eight of us got to The Bridge at the end of the walk for a hurried tea before the 6.17 train home. For much of the journey the sun shone, but it proved to be a canny choice of departure time since there was a massive power at Victoria just after we got back.