Right, today’s route is the longest single day I have planned, so I’m expecting it to be hard. Its just about 40km and fixed due to the lack of railway stations in between. I could do an overnight leg, but as its the easiest “commute” to the starting point (15 minutes on the train), I’m hoping an early start and perseverance will be enough. So I caught the train into Lewes and was walking before 9:00. I’m pretty glad I did the section upto the South Downs at the end of the last leg, as it has saved a lot of effort. It was really nice walk through Lewes, past the Pells Pool and onto the river path following the Ouse up to Hamsey.

I got to my last point on the GMT at 9:45 (BST!) and just under 4km of walking from Lewes, a nice warm up – I was ready to go. Today’s walk was heading to East Grinstead and the route goes through our normal Sunday walking area, so I’m expecting to come across lots of paths that I have walked before. As soon as a rejoined the GMT path I left the river behind, in fact following the GMT markers you would not see the River Ouse at all which would be a shame. The hills of the South Downs were left behind and it was onto huge fields of crops and the flat lands of the Weald. It was a beautiful morning and a really nice walk, mainly through open fields and occasionally passing through nice villages. One of the first was Barcombe, which had a pub – but it was a bit too early, and a shop. I’d bought a sandwich in Waitrose in Lewes so didn’t need anything, but it was the only shop I passed all day so perhaps I should have stopped. I think the most remarkable thing was how magnificent the trees were, specifically the Oaks, but the Horse Chestnuts coming a close second.

There was quite a long leg along a quiet country lane, which was a bit boring, but it wasn’t more than 2km in total and I know the difficulties of planning good walking routes around here. I’m already quite impressed how good the route is, considering it is trying to follow a straight line, the paths and vistas have been very interesting. I crossed over the A272 road near Chailey, this marks the point where I’m now north of my house, so all travel from now will be in a northerly direction. It seems that this also marks the point where the landscape changes. Imperceptibly, the countryside becomes a bit more hilly, and few more areas of open heath, more small rivers. The other main point of interest in this area is the Bluebell Railway, which stretches from Horsted Keynes to East Grinstead, my target for today. The Bluebell Railway is a steam railway running on the disused railway line that used to extend to Lewes. It runs mainly for tourists, but I expect I could catch it if I become completely exhausted! Despite crossing the railway a few times and hearing the odd “hoot” I didn’t see any trains. Out of interest the steam line runs right into East Grinstead station, so practically links up with the current railway network and very easy to get to. I continued to walk through some lovely villages, and Dane Hill is a good example. A really nice church, surprisingly big for such a small village and had a nice feel. The village green (a piece of grass!) had a really good bench commemorating the fallen in the world wars, it was beautifully cast in metal – I didn’t get a picture so I’ll have to go back!

The next section of the walk was through an area with lots of campsites (Wowo being the biggest). There wasn’t many people camping, but with the good weather and the Bank Holiday weekend approaching there was an air of anticipation. In a few days time I’m sure this area will be jammed! The official GMT route seemed to take a diversion to pass right by The Sloop Inn, it did honest! Upon reflection, is it on one of the few bridges across the River Adur so it makes sense, nevertheless I felt compelled to stop. I’d walked about half way – 20km – and was feeling pretty tired and the thought of doing the same distance again wasn’t to appealing. I went in for a quick stop and the intention for a pint of coke to refresh me as I thought a beer might be detrimental for the afternoon. However, once I got to the bar I blurted out a Bitter Shandy – made with Harveys Sussex, so I think was probably a good compromise. The accompanying sausage roll went down very well!

I think having only a shandy was a good idea, especially as I tried to get up from my seat and leave the pub. My feet hurt, my hips ached, yet within 10 minutes I was back up to speed feeling good. I think its the transition between moving and stopping that causes the problem, although the occasional high stile causes a grimace as you try to get over it with some element of style! The countryside definately got much hillier with some fairly big hills. These were generally disguised in forests with sandy tracks so I didn’t notice them so much. This was another very dramatic change of landscape. The other noticeable think were many more “country piles”, big country houses. The path went through some of them so was a perfect itme to be a bit nosey and see how the other half live. From what I’ve seen its not good enough to just have a tennis court, if you neighbour has their own cricket nets as well. The rolling country side continued with plenty of farm animals in the fields. I got adopted by a lamb, who I’m sure thought was its mother as I walked through the field, by the speed and the noise it approached me. I also had to get through big fields of cows, and at one point ended up wih a convoy of sheep following me. I think watching “Clarksons Farm” has help me a bit with handling farm animals, although I’m wary of coming across a “danger cow”. It was nice to walk through a herd of lamas (or alpacas?) to remind me that I’m training to go walking in the Andes.

I soon got a glimpse of a church high on a hill in the far distance, and guessed it was East Grinstead. I’d never thought about the town being on a hill, but clearly it was going to be a fair climb. This was further exacerbated by the route dropping down to Weir Wood Reservoir (did Paul Weller do a song about that?), then all around the toe of the dam before climbing up to my finish point. It was quite hard going with a few navigation problems, mainly in big fields where I couldn’t find the footpath out needing quite a lot of zig-zag-ing through long grass, which is always the way when you are tired. There was one incident with a horse on a narrow footpath, I managed to coax him back up the path and into the field with a handful of grass. It was just as well as there was no way past him. There were some nice old “byways” into East Grinstead, including a road alongside a sandstone outcrop. This area is known for he sandstone and I’ve done plenty of climbing on various outcrops, including Stone Farm Rocks which overlooks Weir Wood Reservoir. I tried to spot it as I walked up, but couldn’t see it. I was soon into East Grinstead with 40km of walking under my belt! It looks a really nice old town and one I’ve not visited before. I rushed to the railway station to miss a train by 2 minutes, but will spend longer looking around when I start Leg 3. I eventually caught a train, which went via Croydon so I had a compulsory stop for a few beers, and drag night in the pub, but that is a whole other story :)

One of the longest walks I’ve done. The profile shows how much harder the second half was – lucky I didn’t have a pint!