Arundel and Amberley to Bramber

Much to our surprise, we woke to sunshine, and this morning's weather was the nicest we've had so far on this holiday, with blue skies and warm sunshine. It clouded up during the afternoon but it didn't actually rain until we were less than a mile from Bramber. To return to the morning and the sunshine...after a pleasant breakfast (smoked salmon and scrambled egg which made a nice change) at Arden House we bought provisions from the Co-Op just around the corner then re-took some of the photos of Arundel that we took yesterday when the weather was less good. We walked along Mill Road, underneath the Castle (and with good views up to it); I'd have been interested in a visit to the Castle, seat of the Dukes of Norfolk and a spectacular place, but it's quite expensive (£25 per person for a ticket for the whole experience) so you probably need most of the day to make it worthwhile.

We walked the half mile or so back to Arundel Station where we were in plenty of time for the 10.12 train back to Amberley. The train was a few minutes late and a business man presumably heading up to London reminded us how bad the Southern Trains service has been recently; he is so dissatisfied with everything that he about to emigrate. When we got to Amberley and chatted to a couple of bike riders as we put on sun cream etc. It must have been about 10.45 when we set off.

After a short walk alongside the road towards Amberley we turned right onto High Titten, thus rejoining the official route of the South Downs Way (which appears to go a slightly different route from the River Arun to here I.e. not via the station). According to the guidebook there is a signpost here which marks the halfway point between Winchester and Eastbourne on the South Downs Way; there were two new-looking signs giving distances to local places, but no half-way sign! The view down to Amberley was good though and after we left the road for a track and climbed and climbed, excellent views opened up behind us.

The good views to the north continued as we passed Rackham and then Parham House and, to the south, we were within the sight of the sea. Were were making rapid progress and we reached the car park to the east of Springhead Hill around midday. There were a few convenient flat-topped bollards on which to sit (alongside others with less comfortable shape!) with a good view over a patch of cowslips and to the Storrington area to the north. We didn't feel ready for proper lunch, so just stopped for an apple, then continued.

We were aiming for somewhere around the A24 crossing for lunch, but a sign left over from the Ultra Marathon at the weekend alerted us to the fact that the recommended route (to avoid having to walk across the A24) turns left off the main but not recommended route, and takes a diversion around via Washington. We weren't quite sure what to do for the best, but the recommendation from the guidebook and the fact that Washington looked like an interesting village swung it in the end, so we turned left. It felt as if we were descending for ever, but when we got there, Washington was indeed a pretty little village and there was a conveniently placed bench outside the church where we stopped for lunch. The weather was increasingly threatening but the rain still held off.

Our route from the centre of Washington back to the place where the two South Downs Way routes merge just to the east of the A24 wasn't particularly thrilling, and the A24 seemed rather quiet so we were left wondering whether the detour via Washington had been worth the bother; however, I had enjoyed the village. We turned left and climbed steadily up through a quarry, to a T-junction of tracks, where we turned left onto Chanctonbury Hill. We passed a dew pond and then continued up to Chanctonbury Ring, a lovely place with a magnificent grove of trees, originally planted in 1760.

We continued along the crest of the downs, with good views to the coast at Worthing and an offshore wind farm under construction. A couple of miles past Chanctonbury Ring we were joined by the Monarch's Way and the routes continued together to a minor road, which took us around the summit of Steyning Bowl. Then we turned left off the South Downs Way (still on the Monarch's Way) and took a concrete drive which descended alongside Steyning Bowl. A lady in a landrover drove past us and at the bottom of the descent the drive undulated past some houses, where the landrover was parked alongside a vet's vehicle. Then we met vet and landrover-driver looking over a horse with a damaged leg.

The rain came eventually as we continued along the drive, and as we stopped to put on waterproofs the vet drove past us. Other than that the rest of the walk was uneventful, if a little wet! It was rush hour as we crossed the A283 and continued into Bramber (on a road which appears to be something of a rat run). We passed Bramber Castle and the Church, and soon reached the Castle Inn Hotel. We were shown to a room on the first floor (unfortunately overlooking the busy road) where we dried off a bit. In the evening we had a not very excitng meal in the hotel bar, being irritated by an American couple and their grown up daughter, but there was also a pleasant couple who emigrated to Canada from the Sussex area many years ago, and who were back visiting old haunts. It stopped raining in the evening and we went for a short walk, as far as the delightful 15th Century timber-framed St Mary's House and then over the River Adur into Upper Beeding.

Following leg