South Downs Waywards

We Waywards have been thinking about a new walking project since completing the Way. We were keen to embark on the King Charles III coastal route, but information is still difficult to come by and only a few stretches appear to be fully open as yet. We decided to wait until it was a bit more established. Have guidebook, will travel Meanwhile, I had happened upon a copy of the West Sussex Literary Trail book in our local Lions bookstore and, being a literary sort, was intrigued. Thus, we embarked on the first leg on Friday 16th February 2024. We started in Horsham where the trail begins, but in the absence of the Shelley fountain, and until the Shelley Memorial Project comes to fruition with a new memorial in the town, we avoided the town centre and commenced our walk from Spencer’s Place.  We crossed part of Rookwood Golf Course and, after a short while, entered Warnham Deer Park where we encountered several of the red deer for which the Lucas family are famous. The Deer Park currentl

This was it: the finale. Friday 1st September 2023. The culmination of three years of covid-interrupted walking and planning. The last, spectacular stage of the South Downs Way. The cunning plan was for us to be dropped in Alfriston, then Strictly Lord Lloyd would travel on to deposit our bags at a seafront hotel in Eastbourne ready for our triumphant descent. Perhaps there would be bunting and fanfares... Except that driving to Alfriston took place in near-monsoon conditions. The pace of the windscreenwipers on Lord Lloyd's car was a disturbing indication of what was to come. Marti Pellow sang in a band that best describes how we felt during the first couple of hours. It was 'light rain', true enough, but the drenching kind of light rain that quickly soaks one utterly. A thing that looked good in the wet There was navigating of puddles to be done. Conquering of cows. A longish stop at the Cadence Cafe in Litlington a mere mile or so into the walk in order to see if it migh

In July 2023 I began walking the South Downs Way by myself, East to West, and, at the time of writing this post I'm just over halfway, having walked from Eastbourne to Amberley over four days.  Setting out: 100 miles to go I haven't always been someone who enjoys solo walking. Or perhaps I have and just didn't know it. It has tended to be a companionable thing, rather than an end in itself. Especially during lockdown, when it became a legitimate way of meeting a friend in the open air when other forms of socialising were largely forbidden.  In fact, when I think about it, I haven't done very many solo walks at all. I have disappeared off to climb Arthur's Seat a couple of times when I've been in Edinburgh. As a child I'd very occasionally wander off through countryside to the millpond with sketchpad and notebook. And I went to Mount Sturgeon by myself once or twice on free weekends when I was living in Hamilton, Australia. But I suppose, it just didn't o

Stage 8 means that we are tantalizingly close to finishing the South Downs Way westward: 88 miles of the 100-mile long trek completed by the end of this walk. In all our walking thus far, we've seen plenty of sunshine but never seen the South Downs dressed for midsummer as we did last weekend, on Sunday 9th July 2023. This was the walk of wildlife: the flora and fauna of Sussex in summertime on full display from Swanborough Hill, through Southease to the sea. There were snails underfoot and butterflies galore, and wild flowers everywhere: poppies and heather, knapweed and mugwort, cowslip and clover, thistle and agrimony, bindweed and ragwort. It was a riot of  colour, and snapshots from my phone don't do it justice at all.  The song of the skylark was our anthem throughout the day.  It sounds idyllic. And it almost was. Except there were cows. And there was a bit of rain. And a lot of hills. I know I shouldn't be surprised by the hills by now, but there we are. Since we kn