Training Diary
This week my walk came from the Saturday Walker's Club website - a very useful collection of walks based on the Time Out book of walks near London, and elaborations on these. There are a lot of complete walks with maps and instructions, in a handy downloadable free pdf. Very useful for me at the moment, this sort of thingy!
One thing that I constantly bemoan when searching for long walks, is the lack of public transport. I remember those halycon days when I had a car, and could drive out into the countryside and do gorgeous circular walks in the middle of knowhere. Much as I appreciate I am doing my duty by the environment by not having a car anymore (nevermind the fact that I can't afford one nowadays!) it is very frustrating when reading walk descriptions on websites and in books for country walks which sound delicious but which start and end miles from any available bus or train station.
Brighton and hove council does some brilliant' bus walks' leaflets which all start and end at bus stops. They are excellent, with colour ordnance survey map sections, but they are relatively short and don't include anything over about 5 or 6 miles at the most. The coastal bus service is great, and walks near the local train stations, e.g. Glynde, Rodmell, Lewes, Eastbourne, Arundel, Amberley, Pulborough, are in plentiful supply. But one can overdose on south downs countryside, gorgeous as it is, and hunger for a bit of weald or something a bit different. Some of the villages inland from the downs are harder and take longer to get to by public transport than the isle of wight!
With this rant in mind, the Saturday Walker's Club website is a godsend, each walk starting and finishing at a train station. Although not designed with brighton-based walkers in mind, at least it guarantees a train link of some description. I assume the reason that there are not more public transport based books is that:
A) it's very difficult to keep something like that up to date, considering you would need to check each walk at least three or four times and if you are checking 20 walks by the time you've done all that the buses services might have all altered.
B) walking is seen as a 'middle class' pursuit, mostly done by those who live in the countryside to start with, a group who are highly likely to have private transport. Perhaps a wider variety of people would walk for pleasure if the walks were more accessible (i.e., more public transport or at the very least more publishing of walks accessible by public transport).
ANYWAY.
My walk this sunday would probably have been quite a chore, and rather dispiriting, had I not had my beloved companion Rhandolph with me. Instead, it turned into an adventure. We had chosen a winter version of a Balcombe circular, but even so it was incredibly muddy, and had to break out the waterproofs in order to brave the rain and, for a memorable five minutes, hail! We walked along Ardingly reservoir, which I'd never seen before, and saw an incredible rainbow ending right in the middle of the water. Our pub lunch was eaten at the Oak Tree in Ardingly, and the food was yummy. Rhandolph had Steak & Kidney pie and I had vege lasagne and chips (I fancied a bit of stodge). Unfortunately we had to eat outside, albeit under the smoker's shelter so at least we didn't get rained on, because it was so busy inside and there were no tables free. There was a very sweet but naughty dog who whined constantly - apparently because he couldn't eat his dinner until he got home, as he got carsick!
The easy train journey and the good company made this walk enjoyable but I wouldn't want to do this in winter on my own.
I'm looking forward to next weekend when I do my first two day's walk and stay overnight at a B&B! Bring on the adventure, rock 'n' roll! ;-)