Distance: 10.6 Miles
Pubs: The Black Rabbit - Offham, The White Hart - Arundel, The Six Bells - Lyminster, The Crown Hotel - Littlehampton
Walkers: Timmeh & Loz (whole journey), Matty & Yola (to Lyminster), Susi & Ben (to Arundel)
Terrain: Downland, riverbank, Woodland, open field; some muddy bits.
Weather: Overcast, sunny spells.
Notes: Reunited lamb with its mum, aaah.
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The journey out to Amberley from Brighton was a bit longer than we usually do, it took about an hour on the train. After a slight detour up the river, we headed back southwards through some woods and then up into the hills. Very windy on top, Matty admired the grass while Tim n Loz reunited a lost lamb with its mum - they couldn't hear each other bleating because it was so windy.
Some goats and chickens at the bottom of the hill, then we were at the Black Rabbit for lunch. Good outdoor seating, great food and fantastic beer (Hopping Hare?), definitely one to go back to.
Ben & I wanted to go to the Arundel Wildfowl Trust but as it was £8 to get in everyone else carried on the walk. The wildfowl centre was great though, all sorts of ducks and geese (which you can feed by hand) and dozens of tiny ducklings, very cute.
It's a bit of a trek out to Arundel station from the centre, and by the time we got there we were pretty glad to sit down. Saw a fox and some rabbits from the train on the journey home.
"Tim n Loz reunited a lost lamb with its mum - they couldn't hear each other bleating because it was so windy"
...and neither could the sheep. Badum-tish.
This was a very pleasant walk, initially along the site of the Arun, then through some woodland on the Duke of Wossname's estate. We saw a lamb lying on his own in a field bleating, and in the next field a ewe bleating even louder at the gate. Loz and I went back and herded the lamb through into the field where its mum was; after we all got out of the way she ran over to meet it.
Met Chicken for a most excellent lunch in the always fine Black Rabbit in Offham (not to be confused with the other Offham). The very fine beer was indeed Badger Brewery's "Hopping Hare" (now available in bottles in Sainsburys btw), served in special poncey engraved European-style beer glasses that I coveted.
Down the road to the Wildfowl Park which we thought we might have a quick stroll around. Matty, Yola, Loz and I decided that £8 each was too much for a quick stroll around, but we lost Susi and Ben to the allure of the ducklings. Walked along the river some more, then to an infinitely forgettable pub (The something-or-other) just over the bridge in Arundel.
Then south, through a field with a friendly cow that licked Loz's hand, and a field with an electric fence and a (fortunately distant) bull in it, past the Knucker Hole, which is supposedly bottomless and used to have a Dragon living in it, to Lyminster. The Mary Magdelaine Church in Lyminster is of a strange design: walls about 6 feet high and a roof about 60 feet thigh. I couldn't help but imagine a Spinal Tap like screw-up on the designs. Matty and Yola were picked up by Chicken to make their way to their evening festivities, so Loz and I continued alone.
The Six Bells, is clearly more geared toward dining than drinking, but they gave us a very warm welcome and served us fine beer from a reasonable selection. A very nice ambience and an excellent looking menu means that this place looks well worth an evening visit at some point.
Getting very weary now, we slogged into the chav-ridden shite-hole that is LA. The Crown Hotel was as charmless and unwelcoming as the rest of the place, and as we were too early for the "excellent" rock bands promised on various websites, the only entertainment was a lecherous, drunken chav who was clearly about to kick off. So we left quickly and got the train home.
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