Burpham Circular Walk - 28th October 2024

Since we last traversed the Downs, the Waywards have had an aborted attempt to complete Stage 2 of the Literary Walk. A route which requires revisiting.

In the meantime, a mild and bright October half term offered an inviting opportunity for a local walk. 

In the absence of chauffeurs, Strictly Lady Lloyd selected a circular walk beginning at The George pub in Burpham.

We parked up and crossed the road, heading through the churchyard and around the church. Once we reached downland, we were greeted by the majestic flight of a large dark coloured bird with the distinctive forked tail of a red kite. I'm not entirely convinced it was a red kite, because the tail was a bright yellowy-orange, but it was certainly that shape. I'm not sure what else it could have been. It was close to us when it took flight, and we watched it for a few minutes before it disappeared into the distance.



From open tracts we could look back and just about make out the outline of Arundel Castle against the skyline in the distance. 

Parts of the South Downs Way were very busy indeed on some of our walks, but we barely saw anyone on this trail, which was lovely - until we missed a fingerpost and accidentally ended up going too far along a path. We were surprised when a quad bike whizzed past at great speed and didn't slow down. 'Rude!' Except that it wasn't him that was being rude, it was us. A few minutes later we were accosted by the owner of the land that we had inadvertently begun to trespass on.

Cue profuse apologies and retracing of steps.




We were soon strolling through beautiful Wepham Woods, enjoying the glorious autumnal colours and ignoring half an hour of drizzle. 



Climbing a path back up to the sports pavillion at the end, we did battle with a bulldozer ripping out a fallen tree, but happily lived to tell the tale.

A cheery 7.5 miles to blow away the cobwebs finished up with a welcome cup of tea in the pub.

Back to the literary trail soon!




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