The South Downs Way. A personal journey.
Day Four
Breakfast is fantastic. We arrive to the Dining Room to find 2 plates with an assortment of fruit - Melon, Kiwi, Blueberries, that sort of thing. Diana tells us that Kevin is Harbour Master at Shoreham. We talk about sailing - she says "how did you know?" before realising it was her recommendation that we call on Kevin's services, and he had dropped us off and was picking us up. The fruit is followed by a fry-up, and lots of excellent tea. Diana seems to be inspired by our walk and the lovely day, and says that she is going to "take myself up on to the Downs today". It seems she walks a lot, amongst her many other talents. She explains her route, and roughly where we might meet. She is most kind in getting various maps out and chatting about the area. We say goodbye, and hope we might indeed meet up on the Downs.
We meet Kevin as arranged in the Car Park in the village after we have bought the replacement map at Steyning Bookshop. A stroke of good fortune enables us to buy exactly the same map that we lost. It's an expensive stroke of good fortune, at nearly £12, but it is a very good map.
During the short journey, we found out that in fact, Kevin is Assistant Harbour Master, but nonetheless holds a full Masters Ticket, and is also a Harbour Pilot. Blimey - and a Minicab Driver! It was a shame that we are not able to chat more, because he had been a pleasure to know in the 15 minutes we had his acquiantance. We said goodbye at the same car park he had picked us up at, and walked the 600yds or so down the road to join the walk again. At least we didn't have a half mile trudge back to the start of the walk. The road was busy with people going to work, but in a way, that was somewhat satisfying. Almost smug, you could say.
Crossing the road takes you into the flatlands of the river and the first part is a nice easy walk, crossing the river, and walking alongside it. We were confused at first in that the river seemed to be flowing away from the sea - until we twigged that it is still tidal at this point, and the tide was coming in. Although not particularly big, it is navigable, and something that it would be nice to try one day, gently drifting upstream on the tide watching the wildlife. Bit like canal cruising I guess. We said hello to a dog out for his morning constitutional with his master. He was more interested in the smell of the numerous fence posts.
It took about half an hour until we reached the start of the first hill, which looked long but not particularly steep, and so it proved. We still took it in stages, stopping to look back at the view, which was very nice. It's becoming a part of the day to stop periodically and look back to see the landmarks we walked past disappearing into the haze. Yesterdays aerials look miles away already. More satisfaction.
The aerials, or masts, are there in the distance on top of the highest hill to the right of my hat. Speaking of which, cool hat, huh?
This is back to the walking we had so much enjoyed before. There are more tracks up here, and we are disappointed by the number of 4x4's, but the path is well surfaced so I suppose they're not doing any lasting damage. It's just rather unpleasant to have to keep getting off the path to let a stream of 7 or 8 vehicles past.
At one point, we pass a car park, with a group of people sitting by their cars talking quietly. A chap trudges past with an enormous backpack. Jackie later commented that she felt sorry for him, and hoped he didn't have to carry it all the way to Eastbourne. I pointed out that the people we saw chatting were paragliders, and the chap with the unfeasibly large rucksack was carrying his paraglider to the launch site. She said she wondered why a walker had a helmet hanging from his pack!
We walked on, past Chanctonbury Ring. We did stop for a moment or two, but for some reason, earthworks with stunted trees on top didn't inspire us. Apparently, there were a lot of mature trees here until 1987, when the "great storm" of that October blew them down. Shortly after that, we walk down to the A24 (sorry again, Kevin), and back up the other side.
We stopped more frequently than we had previously, having picked an easier day today, after the ardour of Day 3, and we enjoyed many rests and taking in of the views. We started to notice the views to the South West, to Arundel and Chichester and the sea again.
We met Diana as promised just as we approached the Car Park at Kithurst Hill where we were meeting our lift from my folks. We have plenty of time to chat, because we are over an hour early! We are really surprised at how well we are covering the ground, despite our taking it easy today. And not all all surprised when my folks turn up 45 minutes early. It's great when an early plan comes together!