Sunday Apr 13th, 2008: 10 miles, approx 300m ascent (Map: OS Explorer 123)
This was a walk for the Sussex Women's Walking Group. The route that we followed is described in detail in the walk "Ten Miles and Five Tons" from Feb 25th, 2008, so I won't give much of a description of that here. Suffice to say that this walk includes a variety of Sussex landscapes, including churches, cottages, chalk heathland, and open downland.
Having met at the Long Man car park in Wilmington, East Sussex, five of us set off in patchy sunshine with some big clouds above us. The forecast was confused to say the least, which probably put a few people off walking that day.
Crossing Wilmington churchyard past the 1600-year old yew tree, we headed over the fields via Milton to the river Cuck near Alfriston. We stayed on the east side of the river, although we did discuss the best tearoom in Alfriston - top secret... We then went east towards Lullington, and after a detour onto the edge of the downs we went down to Litlington in time for an early lunchtime drink at the Plough and Harrow.
Crossing the road outside the pub we picked up the South Downs Way going south to Charleston Bottom. The rain had stayed away, and about half a mile along the bottom we stopped for lunch on the hillside. The grass around us was dotted with tiny cowslips. Another sign of spring was that we weren't wrapped up in hats, waterproof jackets, etc, and it was warm enough to sit and enjoy the scenery for a while.
Going north through the edge of Friston Forest, the sun was shining and some of us shed our long-sleeved layers. After stopping to admire some very laid-back and handsome British White cows sunning themselves by the path, we crossed Lullington Heath Nature Reserve and joined the outh Downs Way again at Jevington Holt.
Heading northwest along the SDW, with fantastic views of the sea and inland as far as the High Weald, we made for Windover Hill (above the Long Man), where we stopped on the earthworks on of of the hill for a breather and to admire the views in the sunshine.
We took the bridleway down the side of the Long Man to join the WealdWay heading northeast to The Holt where we joined the byway heading back to Wilmington.
It had been a wonderful spring day, the weather was great. We finished the day off with a visit to the Giant's Rest pub for late afternoon refreshments and all agreed that this had been a lovely walk, possibly our best route so far with the group.
Once again, thanks to Emma for her photos of the day.