As promissed last week, I have now put together a South Downs Way photo series.

The series is made from photos we took when we walked the South Downs Way a few years back.

As you’ll know from our South Downs Way articles, we divided the 159 km trail into 9 walks. For each photo in the series I’ve provided a brief description, which lists on which of the 9 walks the photo was taken. The description also provides a link to the article related to that particular walk.

Naturally the photos were taken as we were walking the trail, so some of them are not of the best quality. Nevertheless I hope you’ll enjoy the series and perhaps even get inspired to walk the trail too.

View the South Downs Way photo series >>

Read our articles about walking the South Downs Way >>

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Ever since the South Downs National Park announcement on 31 March 2009 I’ve seen a surge of people searching for information about the South Downs Way arrive at The Travel Cooler. I’d like to take the opportunity to welcome these new visitors.

In order to make it a little easier for you to find the information you are seeking, this is a summary post of the articles that I’ve written about the South Downs Way.

I walked the entire lenght of the South Downs Way with two other people back in 2006. We divided the 159 km trail into 9 walks and spread the walks over several months from July to December. This way we got to enjoy some of the seasonal changes along the trail.

I wrote the following articles about the walks:

• Sweltering South Downs Way Walks
• Lost on the Milky Way
• The Walk of Changes
• For the Love of Sheep
• Devil’s Work?
• Crossing the Greenwich Meridian
• Eastbourne never looked sweeter

Each article includes some of our photographs, but next week I’ll publish a South Downs Way photo series, which I hope you’ll enjoy.

If you have any questions regarding walking the South Downs Way, please just ask by leaving a comment and I’ll do my very best to answer your questions.

It was almost poetic that we should wake up to this year’s first sign of frost on our last day of the South Downs Way walk. We took the very first steps on the 99-mile journey in the sweltering heat of July and had followed the Way through the changes of 3 seasons.

Southease to Alfriston

The previous day we had walked in beautiful December sunshine from Southease to Alfriston. With only 8 and a half miles to walk it had been our shortest walk so far on the South Downs Way. We saw very few people on the short route, apart from a few horses racing past us up Itford Hill.

The route had also been relatively easy and dry despite the previous weeks’ storms that had raged over the south of England. Within no time we found ourselves enjoying a late lunch and a pint in the toasty atmosphere of The George Inn in Alfriston.

Alfriston to Eastbourne

So it was to the ringing bells of Alfriston church that we set out on our very last 10 mile leg of the South Downs Way. The sun was out again and as we were following Cuckmere river, we could hear the gentle crackling of the thin layer of ice that had covered the small flood lakes. I had heard the flood warnings for Cuckmere river on the local radio station a few days before, and we saw traces of just how high the river had been all along the river side. One of the traces was mud – I was very happy, I had brought my gaiters.

Our spirit was high for the first hour as we walked through Cuckmere Valley in the mild sun protected from the wind. Apart from a steep climb leading up to Friston Forest and another after the forest, it was easy walking and we were chatting about how lucky we had been with the weather.

When we reached Exceat and started the climb towards the first cliff of the Seven Sisters, we immediately felt the wind picking up. But the fantastic views of the English Channel kept us going, and I was amazed how fairly unscathed we all seemed to be as we climbed the steep cliffs.

Then I hit a wall, just before we reached Beachy Head. The wind was now so strong, I was struggling to walk in a straight line, and my legs were feeling very heavy. I knew, we were very close to the end, but all I could see was yet another very steep cliff to climb. I have to say, with my head hanging in shame, at that very point I hated the South Downs Way! But miraculously, as we started the climb, as if to make sure I didn’t give up now, the wind turned its direction ever so slightly to get behind us and practically pushed us up the last two climbs.

And there is was, the view of Eastbourne. Now normally I wouldn’t say the view of Eastbourne is something to get excited about, but at that particular moment, Eastbourne had never looked sweeter!

We still had a little way to go, but being able to see the end point made all the difference. We made it to the car well before the lurking rain started and went straight to The Ranch for our celebration steak and pint.

It feels a bit strange to have finally completed the South Downs Way, and I’m sure we’ll soon be looking for new long distance walks . But for now, apart from maybe a short circular walk after Christmas, I’ll retire my walking boots for this year and look forward to a new year of sweat, aching muscles and fresh air.

Related articles

You can read about all the stages of our South Downs Way walk in these articles:

Sweltering South Downs Way Walks

Lost on the Milky Way

The Walk of Changes

For the Love of Sheep

Devil’s Work?

Crossing the Greenwich Meridian

Eastbourne never looked sweeter

South Downs Way photo series

He turned just as we walked past him and on his arm was what he had been hiding with his coat – a falcon. “It’s a hawk”, just spurted out of my mouth, “I mean it’s a falcon!”, as if everyone else hadn’t figured that out already. The falcon’s head was covered with a hood which reminded me of an executioner’s hood. The making of falconry hoods is an art in itself, I’ve learned after a quick search on falconry.

We watched this impressive bird take off and fly about for a while, before we went on our way on the third to last leg of our South Downs Way walk.

The sight of the falcon greeted us towards the end of our 14-mile walk, which took us from Pyecombe to Southease. We started the day at the Jack & Jill Windmills and headed out in sunny weather, which given the time of year was another pleasant surprise, albeit not as big a surprise as seeing a falcon.

Soon after the windmills we crossed from West Sussex into East Sussex, as we were catching up on news from the five weeks that had passed since our last walk. We reached Ditchling Beacon in no time and were rewarded with a fantastic view of the rolling hills.

Being half way through November I had expected this part of the South Downs Way to be very muddy and grey. But it was still very green and with the sunny weather I had to stop quite a few times just to enjoy the panoramic view, as we were making our way to the A27 crossing.

We got to the A27 crossing in record time, for us that is, and I made a comment about the ease of the walk that I would soon be made to regret.

Immediately after crossing the A27, as we were climbing to the ridge of Cold Coombes, my feet started burning. A burning that I now know was the first signs of my very first South Downs Way blisters. I put the burning sensation down to the hard work of the ongoing climb and was more concerned about my legs, which were feeling very heavy.

I tried to forget the pain and enjoy the view towards Lewes as we were walking along Jugg’s Road, which is an ancient route previously used to carry fish in pottery jugs to Lewes Market. But clouds were gathering, the wind was picking up and my feet were not feeling any better. I felt very much like I was being punished for my remark about the ease of the walk.

We were all starting to feel the walk in our legs by now and I for one was beginning to look forward to seeing the river Ouze which would mark the end of our walk.

Struggling across the Greenwich Meridian we forgot to celebrate passing into the eastern hemisphere, and I think we all enjoyed the breather that watching the falcon provided us.

The last half an hour of the walk seemed the longest, but we finally made it across the Ouze and to our car. When I took my boots off, I was greeted with bloody socks that were covering four blisters and various cuts on my feet.
I hardly ever get blisters and as these were my first South Downs Way blisters, I put them down to the socks I was wearing.

We drove back to the Jack & Jill windmills to pick up the second car and finished the day with half a pint in the Jack & Jill Inn.

Next stage

You can read about our final two walks from Southease to Alfriston and Alfriston to Eastbourne here: Eastbourne never looked sweeter – The South Downs Way Walk

Related articles

You can read about all the stages of our South Downs Way walk in these articles:

Sweltering South Downs Way Walks

Lost on the Milky Way

The Walk of Changes

For the Love of Sheep

Devil’s Work?

Crossing the Greenwich Meridian

Eastbourne never looked sweeter

South Downs Way photo series