England & the South Downs Way April 24, 2016
Well, we've been out of touch lately, since April 1. Bruce has been following the Camino de Santiago Portugues, and I have been wandering around the South Downs of England, south of London.
Bruce will have to tell his own story, since I didn't share it with him. But what an amazing adventure I had with my two Canadian cousins, Dori and Peggy! There is nothing like walking to have encounters with real people, and England has got to be the best place for that. They have such a deeply ingrained culture of walking and of allowing people to cross their lands on public footpaths. Of course, speaking the language makes it possible to converse and really connect.
The South Downs Way is a series of high hills that stretches for 100 miles from Winchester to Eastbourne. It was our goal to walk all of it. Historically the way served as a market route during medieval times. Today it is a national park which offers a swath of relatively undeveloped land in a very populated part of England. And it is glorious!! Rolling and green and bosomy, composed of chalk and flint with a thin layer of dirt, populated by sheep and farmers and small, CHARMING villages and the kindest folks you could meet anywhere. Maybe it was because we were a bit of a novelty, being three "senior" North American women setting out on a rather daunting challenge, especially at this time of year when there are virtually no other tourists, but we encountered so much encouragement and assistance and just plain sweetness!
Dottie, at St. John's Croft in Winchester, our first hostess, kept my suitcase for me for the 3 weeks that we were hiking. Rosemary, our nurturing hostess in West Meon, served us tea and the most perfect walnut layer cake when we arrived. "I think you deserve it when you've walked a long way," she said.
Angie, a look-alike for a younger Judi Dench and our B&B hostess in Bignor, brushed off our muddy shoes so that we would be presentable for dinner at the fussy local pub. Amanda, in the town of Lewes, when she heard that we planned to have bread, cheese, and wine for supper, set the table in her tiny back garden, under a glass canopy where we ate by candlelight with a soft rain falling all around.
Stane House, Angie's B&B in Bignor, seen across the fields. Those are the downs in the back.
We love exploring ancient churches. In Petersfield and again in South Harding, we met church ladies. In the former, one elderly woman told us about her own hiking days and then blessed us as we left. In another, we arrived on a Wednesday, just as a few of the really old folks were finishing their mid-week service, held for them in a sunny new addition where it's warmer than in the old stone sanctuary. They showed us around and then offered to make us coffee and sent us on our way with directions for how to get to the trail.
We had been disappointed when we were unable to attend evensong at Winchester Cathedral, so we jumped at the chance when we stumbled upon evensong at the tiny Church of England in Lewes. It turned out to be not at all what we expected. This mid-week evensong was not sung, and we were the only attendees! Yikes, the pressure was on, but the elderly priest and his two lay assistants kindly helped us follow the half hour service. It turned out to be another sweet experience.
The ancient St. Petersfield Church
Window featuring St. Michael in the South Harding Church.
Countless people along the way wanted to know where we were from, where we were going, and went out of their way to offer suggestions and to have chats. On the trail we met a couple out for a walk who joined us for awhile and then, when we were forced to take a bit of a detour due to a flooded field, helped each of us get safely through a barbed wire fence. One older (than us) couple told us that they were members of PAWS (Pub Appreciation Walking Society :) and were scouting a new route for their group to "amble" on before settling in at a pub. Other elders shared stories of their childhood in England during the war, which we felt privileged to hear.
Before we actually began hiking, we spent two days in Winchester, the ancient capital of Saxon England. What an enchanting city of graceful antiquity! A statue of King Alfred the Great, who ruled there in 870's, holds sway over the lower part of the main street. Winchester Cathedral, the magnificent church with the longest nave in Europe, held us captive for 3 hours! We found ourselves singing, humming, whistling the famous 1960's song as we walked. It sticks with you!
Once we got out on the South Downs Way, after months of planning, we were excited to finally begin our adventure. In total, we hiked for 8 days, covering an average of 10 miles a day, although only 50 of those miles were actually on the trail. The rest of the mileage involved getting up and down from the downs each day (seems odd, but the term for the high area is "downs"). The terrain varied from beautiful, bucolic open fields with wide vistas over the hills to woodsy paths or tracks bordering sheep and cow pastures, sometimes along rushing streams. It was blowsy and green, damp and lush - and we loved it.
Our huge "full English" breakfast each morning included cereal, yogurt, fruit, eggs, bacon, roast tomatoes, mushrooms, toast, coffee/tea, and juice - enough fuel to keep us going for hours. We would usually eat at 8:30am and waddle onto the road around 10am. Since there is nothing commercial on the downs, we would take snack materials for a picnic lunch, and then have a nice pub meal in the evening, when we came down into a village for the night. Pub meals were always delicious, creative, and surprisingly upscale.
We were lucky to be able to book only a day or so in advance, without having to plan out the whole trip, since it took some time to get a sense of how far we could walk in a day. This was possible only because it was early spring and not crowded. In fact, we encountered only one other tourist couple walking the South Downs, Australians about our age (who were having their bags transported for them).
In addition to seeing sheep and cows, we ran into horses and dogs -of course - though sadly for Dori, no hedgehogs or badgers which she had hoped to see. She and Peg are both avid bird-watchers, and they introduced me to lots of species. Wild primroses and daffodils, those classic English spring flowers, brightened up the landscape. We hoped to see some "bluebell" woods but were just a bit early for them. On the weekend, especially, kids and parents and single amblers and small groups of friends were out on the downs. Even in rain, the Brits get out to walk!
Fields of lambs always required a stop to watch them frolicking and nursing.
We did very little sight-seeing along the way, other than the churches on the day that we took Dori to the doctor. However, we couldn't pass up the chance to visit a Roman villa, close to our B&B in Bignor. It was discovered by a farmer back in 1811 when plowing his field. The remains are some of the best mosaics in England, the earliest of which date back to around 200 AD! We took an hour to look around one morning before getting onto the trail. Having Medusa look up at us through the centuries gave us pause for thought.
Getting up onto the downs each day and then ascending and descending some of the even higher hills that cropped up along the way was a challenge. Spring rain had made it muddy and slippery underfoot. We began our adventure on a sunny day, which was lovely, but, this being England in April, we ran into drizzle and bone-chilling rain, at times.
At the half-way mark for the entire South Downs Way, near Amberly, we all hit a wall. Dori had been suffering from hiker's toe and had required medical assistance, a very pleasant encounter with the British medical system. We found that foreign visitors are given one free medical visit. With her toes carefully bandaged up, Dori kept walking for a few more days but finally had to stop. Peg and I were tired, too, and chilled from the rain and drizzle that had gone on for 3 days.
Reluctantly, we ended up deciding to curtail our hiking part of the adventure and, instead, to visit some interesting towns and cities close to the trail, including Arundel, Brighton, Lewes, and Eastbourne.
Arundel and Lewes are two very historic towns. Arundel was our first stop. It has a storybook castle which is still lived in. We spent 3 days in Arundel, recuperating in a small hotel owned by a quiet Indian couple.
In Lewes, I learned that Thomas Paine, who influenced both the American and French revolutions, had spent several years there, developing the philosophy and ideas that he promoted in his book, Common Sense. More than once, he had earned the dubious title of "most Headstrong". Lewes is known as a feisty old town that is very proud of its influence on Tom and, even today, is an independent-minded transition town which has issued its own currency, the Lewes pound.
Brighton and Eastbourne are both Victorian seaside resorts from the days when it was thought that "taking the water" was healthful. King George IV built himself a "pavilion" in Brighton. On a gorgeous sunny day, we rode the giant, enclosed ferris wheel on the seafront.
Eastbourne is where the South Downs Way ends, and we were eager to visit, even if we hadn't walked there. We did manage to get out to the magnificent Seven Sisters which are at the end of the trail. These lovely ladies are high undulating chalk cliffs, standing in a humble, dignified way along the south coast. It was a dramatically cloudy day when we saw them, the sky changing color every few seconds, turning the shallow sea silver and turquoise and dark blue. We drank in the beauty for as long as we could. Finally the rain caught up with us and drove us away from this scene and back through sheep pastures and along the muddy track to a cozy inn for tea.
Our total walking mileage was well over 100 miles, when our city explorations were included. (Bruce and I just logged 8 miles in Dublin yesterday.) All in all, it had been a fantastic adventure, with both hiking & nature-immersion in the countryside and a town/city part where we got a flavor of Britain, historically and present-day. The queen celebrated her 90th birthday while we were there, and we heard about the upcoming vote on whether England will leave the EU. Everyone is terrified of Donald Trump.
Bruce and I are eager to get back home now. It's been four months since we left Gorham in January. We're hoping that all those daffies and tulips that I planted last fall might be peeking up through the spring soil.
This will probably be the last blog post for awhile (unless Bruce recounts his pilgrimage). Let me know your thoughts about this post: lwebb34@gmail.com.
Have a lovely summer!
