South Downs: Polegate to Berwick

On the first stretch of the South Downs Way I walked last year, from Eastbourne to Southease, I'd originally wanted to include the Long Man of Wilmington on the route. However I had got distracted once in that neck of the woods, caused either by the joyous sense of isolation I was wallowing in atop the South Downs, or possibly because my brain was addled by the extreme temperatures of that July heatwave.

Thus for today's walk I thought it might be good to go back and try and fill in that missing piece, which made for a pleasant walk in itself, even though I actually didn't quite achieve that objective!

This was a very fortunately timed walk in terms of the weather, which seemed to have been almost constant rain all week, with this Saturday morning the only proper break from grey skies and precipitation. The views from the train on the way down to Polegate were encouragingly pleasant, with a decent helping of blue overhead.

The walk started with a slightly boring trudge from Polegate station to the town's perimeter. However very soon after leaving behind the last house behind I was treated to wide open spaces and some generally very pleasant countryside. I managed to lose my way a little bit here, thinking I could join the Wealdway at Cranedown Bottom, but was deterred from doing so by rather draconian fencing around the reservoir there, so had to retrace some of my steps and rejoin the footpath I had originally been on.

After a while I reached the tiny and secluded hamlet / village of Folkington. The road leading to it appeared to be a dead end, and there were only a handful of pretty but slightly enigmatic houses, including the one pictured with a high wall partly covered by a vine (on which the grapes had seemingly been left to rot). Oh and a church, which I passed just before the road petered out, from where I then continued my walk along a track, part of the Wealdway.

This was a really nice wooded section of the walk, with the views starting to open up to the right hand side as I climbed, whilst the left hand side provided sylvan intrigue. I couldn't help but think about the possibility of spotting porcini here, but I suspect it wasn't quite the right setting. There seemed to be a bit too much greenery on the ground (low lying ivy and so on) which didn't feel like quite the right environment for boletus edulis.

Beyond the woods lay Wilmington Hill, and here the scenery suddenly opened up rather dramatically. Even from the Wealdway, which appeared to be at the base of the hill, there were sweeping views to the north. At this point I should probably have thought more carefully about my route, the Long Man of Wilmington was just around the next corner of the hill, and  these kinds of hill figures generally require a little bit of distance to be seen properly. So I should have stayed on the Wealdway here, which might have been at sufficient distance to actually see the carving from. However, a rather tempting path led up the hill, straight towards the Long Man, and I seemingly couldn't resist the opportunity to gain more altitude.

The steep path up the hill delivered me to just above the Long Man, and looking back down the hill I could just about see a white line or two but couldn't make out the whole figure from this angle. So in the end I didn't really get a proper look at the Long Man this time either!

I followed the path round a bit, and tried to get a look from the other side - I could just about make out a few more lines of it from here, but still not really the whole figure. I didn't seem to mind, despite this being the original objective of today's walk, seeing the Long Man ultimately didn't seem to matter, and I was simply happy to be out on the South Downs in the fresh air.

The air was very fresh indeed. It was quite windy on the top, to the point I felt myself leaning into the wind to stay up. Hard to get a sense of that in still pictures of course!

A little way beyond the Long Man I realised I was joining the South Downs Way, after a bend where it swerves to the south side of Wilmington hill, this causing the walker studiously following its route to miss the Long Man, as I had done, without a considered detour. Many of my walks since completing the South Downs Way have retraced a small section of its route, and it is always with great affection now that I rejoin it, however briefly, like meeting an old friend.

This chalky track descending from Wilmington Hill towards Alfriston seems to be particular popular with mountain bikers, although personally I struggle to see the appeal of that mode of transport in this setting, compared with the simple slow (and comparatively easy) pleasure of walking it.

Down towards the bottom on the last stretch leading into Alfriston was a shady lane which I recall being particularly thankful for on that hot day in July last year. Today, with it being a shorter walk in less extreme weather it all seemed like a walk in the park (albeit a park with spectacular scenery!).

I didn't go into Alfriston today, and instead veered to the north east of the town, crossing the river Cuckmere at Long Bridge, which made for quite a picturesque spot.

From there I walked through the tiny hamlet of Winton, intending to then take the Vanguard Way into Berwick, but somehow ended up missing the path and instead following "Comp Lane", which eventually got me to Berwick, albeit by a more indirect route.

I had chosen Berwick (not the one Upon Tweed) for the end of my walk for two reasons - firstly because it had a station (albeit one of those villages split into two, with a presumably older part, then a gap, then a newer part where the station was), but also because the pub there - in the older part of the village - looked rather nice.

Indeed the Cricketers Arms at Berwick was very nice, with Harveys served straight from the barrel, good food, lovely cottagey gardens, and a pleasingly unspoilt interior.

Alas the final stretch of the walk to Berwick station - a good mile away - was a bit less pleasant, with some of it being along a road with no pavement and a steady stream of cars obviously in a hurry to get somewhere. That could have been avoided with a diversion to follow more of the Vanguard way but there was only one train an hour in each direction and I was keen not to miss it!