To Five Hundred Acre Wood from Hartfield and return

Seven months had passed since we walked the previous section of the Wealdway, but a huge amount had happened in that time. Richard's Dad had died on Christmas Eve, and his Mum realised that there was no way she could return to Hartfield, so agreed that the house should go on the market "in the spring". We'd got into a routine of coming down for the day every fortnight, spending each of these days packing up until we had a car load of things to take back to Norfolk. We were making good progress and the house had been for sale for just over a week. Today we intended to start clearing the loft....

In addition to this I was in the middle of a tough time at work and had been through a health scare...and it had been a cold, snowy winter followed by a wet spring, so our walks had been more or less restricted to (surprisingly enjoyable) walks along the Grand Union Canal. Now, having discovered that there was no particular reason to assume I was about to drop dead, but with renewed care for my health, it was time to get fit. This short walk was very muddy in places, but nevertheless most enjoyable. It was through rolling Sussex countryside, which provided just the right amount of exercise.

Our packing this morning was interrupted by an unexpected viewing of the house during which we'd made ourselves scarce, using the opportunity to walk up to Hartfield Church to photograph the Garden of Remembrance where Richard's Dad's ashes had been buried a month previously and to pop in to Pooh Corner, where we were successful in buying a china thimble to fill the last gap in the "spare" thimble collection I am keeping for Richard's Mum (she has the best set herself). However by 1pm we had a nearly full car, so we had a quick lunch, donned already muddy walking boots, and set off.

Our plan was to use the High Weald Landscape Trail to reach the Wealdway from Hartfield, and we were able to use a footpath from the corner of the Withyham road, very close to the family house, to access the High Weald Landscape Trail. We were soon climbing across the field that the house looks out onto, and we had excellent views back to the village. The sheep and lambs in the field assumed we were bringing them food, so showed a great deal of interest in us, whilst making a great deal of noise.

After a couple of fields we reached a little wood that had seemed a very long way from home to Richard as a small boy, and continued to the point where the direct route (via Old Buckhurst), which used to be passable, is now firmly marked as private. However the route was clearly signposted to the left through another wood: pleasant walking if a bit muddy! We emerged onto open ground, with good views to Old Buckhurst (complete with tower) to the right, and to Withyham Church and the River Medway to the left.

We crossed the grassy field and climbed over a stile onto the Wealdway, here on a minor road which goes from Withyham to the hamlet of Fisher's Gate. We'd just crossed the stile when Richard's phone rang; an offer on the house - good news, though the offer was low and the potential buyers still have another property to sell.

We continued on the road past the buildings of Fisher's Gate, with plenty of signs to remind us that we're on the Buckhurst Estate. The route twisted and turned a bit, mostly still on the road, but there was one section where the road was gated (and padlocked) at each end, and we were sent on a path to one side of the road. Unfortunately it was VERY muddy, but we just about managed to get through by clinging onto the fence as we edged along the slippery slope at the edge of the path.

We reached the edge of Five Hundred Acre Wood and top at 90 degree turn to the right. Overall, we'd climbed from our starting point, but there had been a fair few ups and down and. surprisingly, the track now descended to a stream before climbing again. Just past Kovacs Lodge (complete with rather noisy dogs) there we suddenly were, back at the point we'd reached last August.

After taking some photographs we turned around and retraced our steps to Hartfield, passing several dogwalkers (sensibly wearing wellies) and a group of four walkers walking in the opposite direction who assured us that we were doing the walk in the right direction. We didn't like to admit that we must have done it in the right direction, because we'd been both ways!

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