Sunday, August 5, 2007

Southease - Rodmell - Glynde

Distance: 6.3 Miles

Pubs:
The Abergavenny Arms - Rodmell, The Trevor Arms - Glynde

Walkers: Timmeh, Loz, Susi.

Terrain: A bit of road, The south downs way.

Weather: Way too hot and sunny for walking on exposed downland.

Notes: Red Lion Pond is more of a dry ditch these days. Saw a kestrel and a few bunnies.

1 comment:

Alice said...

Southease station is a nice place to start a walk - the station is right in the middle of nowhere, with no buildings in sight, manual level crossing, and a cool rickety old bridge to cross on the way to Rodmell. Walk to Rodmell was uneventful - fairly flat, some hedges for shade, roadside walking but road not too busy.

This was our first time back to the Abergavenny Arms since the wet walk back in February, when its roaring fire and basic dryness made a welcome break. It was rather busier this time (and no roaring fire, as it was about 30 degrees outside) and we got a chance to try the food, which was pricy but tasty. Sunday menu was quite limited, but the beer was good - I forget the name of the one I had, it was a Darkstar brew with "a hint of spice".

Backtrack back along the road, bit dull and rather hotter as it was now the middle of the day, then across the train tracks and up onto the South Downs Way. Hill wasn't too steep but it was far too hot to be walking in places without shade; luckily there was quite a brisk breeze to cool us down. By halfway up the hill there was an awesome view down to Newhaven and the sea, and we could see the paragliders over on the hill above Lewes.

Turned off the South Downs Way at the crest of the hill and headed down towards Glynde, quite a steep descent as you'd expect from the north side of the Downs, and it didn't do our knees any good. Glynde looks like it must have been an old industrial revolution-era company town, as the houses all look the same and the streets (and pubs) are all "Trevor something". By the time we'd ordered our pints, we'd missed the train by about 2 minutes, so had to stay for another one (shame!). BIG beer garden at the Glynde pub but not much shade, so we sat by the roadside and listened to Morris music coming from within. Saw lots of bunnies from the train on the way home, but only one on the walk itself. We need to start walking later in the day I think.