A special walk, this one: not only taking in parts of the South Downs Way which are closest to home and most familiar, such as Chanctonbury Ring, but also organised to coincide with significant birthday celebrations of a certain Strictly Lady Lloyd.
Hearth Father dropped us at Houghton Bridge at around 8.45am on the 27th December 2022. We were just about ready to blow off the cobwebs and slough away the post-Christmas and Boxing Day sluggishness. It's fair to say that we were running a little later than we'd planned, having discovered that we are now both very relaxed about a mere half-marathon-length walk. When we began walking the South Downs Way, preparations rivalled those of antarctic expeditions. These days I barely remember to bring a water bottle (let alone the picnic blanket that might have come in useful at the top of Chanctonbury Ring).
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| Views from Amberley Mount looking back |
We passed by the Arun River once more and regained the South Downs Way behind the tea rooms, enjoying the views of Amberley Castle and passing by some pretty cottages. Conditions were good: dry and not too cold (perhaps about 8 degrees). As we climbed away from the village it wasn't long before we were rewarded with a pleasing vista of countryside behind us looking back down from Amberley Mount.
As we headed on towards Rackham Banks we saw more birds than I think we've encountered anywhere else on the walk. I half expected Alfred Hitchcock to be lurking in a bush somewhere. The pictures don't really do it justice, but the whole area seemed to be alive with beating wings.
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| Birds |
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| Even more birds |
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| Yep, birds again |
As well as birds, there were also trig points. Strap in. Trig points are, so various websites tell me, the common name for triangulation pillars. The concrete pillars about four foot or so in height that I probably thought were some sort of memorial until fairly recently. There are more than 5000 of them across the country, apparently, and 14 on or near the South Downs Way.
Trig point
They were used to determine the shape of the country by the Ordanance Survey and are typically located at the highest point of ground in a particular area to allow a direct line of sight from one to the next. The flat top allows an accurate angle to be taken between trig points, should one have a theodolite and wish to engage in such activity. According to the maps we were in close proximity to five of such concrete pillars on this particular stretch, but noticed only two.
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Chanctonbury Ring ahead
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There were, unfortunately, some cows to deal with at one point. If
T S Eliot can be frightened of them, then so can we. We decided it would be prudent to walk
alongside the SDW to avoid passing through a field of heifers, which involved navigating some barbed wire in order to return to our route. But better barbed wire than boisterous bovine attention, frankly.
Bronze Age Sister
Chanctonbury Ring
We twist through green tree tunnel towns,
wending ever upwards to this vista
that shouts, hard-earned across brown tracts
of downland bearing burial barrows.
The ring of beeches bold the hilly fort
but I’m more about the Burh, Changebury
stronghold, and you, buried with your alloyed
dagger: weapon-wielding Bronze Age sister
in my Sussex country. We know the beech
man’s name, but not yours long buried here.
Perhaps you carried a wooden bowl carved
from an alder tree and offered your soul
for soup. I hope so. Let’s link arms now,
across centuries of sorority,
take a defensive position together.
T Gooda
It was as beautiful as ever up there, but the weather was beginning to turn, the sunshine dissippated and the wind getting up. We spent sometime traversing the ring looking for a suitably wind-sheltered place to stop for lunch and our celebratory Champagne. We settled on a fallen tree for our little party, and we giggled about our teenagers and their current trials and tribulations, including the pechant for evoking man-made waterways at every opportunity. ('Canal!') There was much merriment while the bubbles flowed into our glasses.
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| View from Giggling Log |
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| Lunch stop at Chanctonbury Ring |
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| Champers time |
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| Quick! It's coming! |
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| Cheers! |
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| Looking back towards Chanctonbury Ring |
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| Another trig point |
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| Memorial |
Funnily enough, I don't remember so much of the onward walk after half a bottle of Champagne. I know that the weather got steadily worse and the temperature dropped. It grew as cold as we've known on it on this route so far, but it didn't affect our mood. It turns out that Champers is a good insulator against the elements.
There was another trig point, and a memorial to a farmer and his family before we exited the South Downs Way for the descent into Steyning via a steep track, made somehow steeper by the increasingly urgent requirement for the toilet. Turns out that is a downside to a Champagne stop. We made it in the nick of time, making use of the facilities at the White Horse before heading onto the Chequers where we met Lord Lloyd and Hearth-Father for the now traditional post-walk debrief. It proved another delightful hostelry.
Another successful day filled with memorable moments. Bring on the next stage in January. We are hoping to make Eastbourne in three more legs.
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