It seems that I have stumbled into long distance walking after a rather impromptu and excessively painful 42 mile jaunt around Jersey. Almost everything I have done after that seemed slightly inferior until last week. With a week of annual leave to use and a thought about saving money we opted to stay in England. A throwaway comment of 'we did think about walking the South Downs Way once' became the inspiration, and I set about arranging the logistics of walking 100 miles.
I always love organising a holiday, particularly one of this kind that requires an itinerary. It is always very satisfying to research routes and accommodation, giving a sense of anticipation before the holiday and achievement when you turn up and people thankfully seem to expect you. Perhaps not ideal walking weather in early March, but we prayed for the best and opted to stay in relative comfort with B&B's and family rather than camping.
Our itinerary was based on the time we had off together - 7 days. Allowing for a day of faff and travel giving 6 days of walking. We walked the South Downs Way from Eastbourne to Winchester. I'm not 100% sure why I picked that way, maybe something about being far away and feeling like you are walking home. In retrospect it was the wrong decision - we are very accustomed to wide open plains and fields as found around Winchester but the cliffs at Beachy Head would have made for a spectacular finish. Walking East would also have provided a helpful wind, instead of being blasted backwards by 50mph winds over the first few days. Not as frustrating as cycling into a headwind but a consideration.
Neither of us had walked long distances for multiple days before, so some preparation seemed apt. Training is not a word to which we are accustomed, the normal plan being: we're young it'll be al-right, but after failing to complete the Welsh 3000's last year, we wanted to finish this. Both working different shift patterns there wasn't much time to train, but we snuck in a few 8-20 mile walks.
Below is our itinerary before leaving (we ended up walking substantially longer distances than this, I'm slightly unsure why as we generally stayed close to the path). I will write more about each individual day later.
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| The Start of the Route |
Our itinerary was based on the time we had off together - 7 days. Allowing for a day of faff and travel giving 6 days of walking. We walked the South Downs Way from Eastbourne to Winchester. I'm not 100% sure why I picked that way, maybe something about being far away and feeling like you are walking home. In retrospect it was the wrong decision - we are very accustomed to wide open plains and fields as found around Winchester but the cliffs at Beachy Head would have made for a spectacular finish. Walking East would also have provided a helpful wind, instead of being blasted backwards by 50mph winds over the first few days. Not as frustrating as cycling into a headwind but a consideration.
Neither of us had walked long distances for multiple days before, so some preparation seemed apt. Training is not a word to which we are accustomed, the normal plan being: we're young it'll be al-right, but after failing to complete the Welsh 3000's last year, we wanted to finish this. Both working different shift patterns there wasn't much time to train, but we snuck in a few 8-20 mile walks.
Below is our itinerary before leaving (we ended up walking substantially longer distances than this, I'm slightly unsure why as we generally stayed close to the path). I will write more about each individual day later.
| From | To | Miles | |
| Day 1 | Eastbourne | Rodmell | 20 |
| Day 2 | Rodmell | Pyecombe | 15 |
| Day 3 | Pyecombe | Amberley | 17 |
| Day 4 | Amberley | South Harting | 20 |
| Day 5 | South Harting | Warnford | 15 |
| Day 6 | Warnford | Winchester | 14 |
