Training Diary
12 miles, taking 7 hours, a double wadhurst circular walk.
I was aiming for 6 hours, on a walk which combined two circular wadhurst walks from the argus walks website. The plan was to take advantage of my Mum living in Uckfield and owning a car, so I caught the bus to Uckfield and got a lift to Wadhurst. I don't know why I never thought of this before - it gives me access to umpteen areas which I could never get to by public transport alone - but unfortunately this will be both the first and last time, since she's (almost certainly) moving to Sheffield within the next fortnight!
To get to wadhurst early enough for my walk to be completed in daylight, I got up at 5.30am and caught the 6.45am bus to uckfield. I saw my first lamb of the year, four bunnies, and a pheasant before I'd even got off the bus!
Rhandolph was at 'Swash' this weekend (a sort of symposium thingy for western sword-fighting) and it was really good to have something which focused all my attention, so I missed him less than if I'd been mooching around at home. Mum dropped me off in Wadhurst about 9am, with the plan being that I would meet her at 12.30 for a pub lunch and the second half of the walk, which she'd accompany me on.
The walk started with a peculiar triangle of randomness, a rather pointless section which took in the sewage treatment plant and a great deal of odd smelling mud. Fortunately once I'd finished this, things perked up bit and I was able to enjoy the beauty of the High Weald. This is the landscape I'm familar with from my childhood - a very distinctive bracken and gorse filled patchwork of fields, oak and beechwoods, rolling hills and claggy, clay soil, criss-crossed with sunken paths. It's very different from where I spend most of my time walking (the downs) and it's hugely important in keeping interest, to walk diverse landscapes when you're doing this sort of regular long distance walking.
I went up and down for a bit and then a long trail down to bewl water, at which point things got increasingly muddy, and hardwork. I'm sure the walk round bewl water is beautiful in the summer, and I saw a large flock of canada geese and some llamas! But on saturday the ground was saturated and it was like wading through quicksand to get through, followed by a tortous uphill slog against the clock as I was already running half an hour late to meet mum, and it was also very much on my mind that I had to finish by sunset!
Arrived covered in mud at the pub, and had to ignore very irritating comments from old men. Ate a very acceptable jacket potato, beans and cheese at the White Hart, although the pub itself was hideously rank and filled with awful old and young codgers - not in a nice country pub way but an 'orrible chav pub way. Wadhurst's odd like that.
Mum and I set off after a lot of faffing about, and took a couple of shortcuts as we were running a bit late on time. I was feeling quite stiff and tired by then so the stiles were hard work - mum was all fresh and practically running ahead in front! I hope I've got that much energy when I'm 60 - especially considering everything she's gone through recently and that she's a lifelong smoker. It was lovely actually, even though I was tired, as Mum was in fine fettle and the weather and scenery were beautiful. We made in back at about 4.30pm, both a bit shattered but pleased with ourselves. I was a human mudball and was stuffed in the wash and had to borrow some clothes from Mum. It was actually quite nice to be driven home and fussed over, and plied with ovaltine, rather than a cold wait at the bus stop like I normally have after a long walk. Mum was kind enough to run me down to brighton in the car afterwards (also she had loads of stuff she wanted to give me before her house move), stopped only long enough to admire the kittens and use the loo, and then I crashed out for the evening. Ahhh, lovely.
Here's the walk in all it's glory...