Deciding to head down to the semi-local Ashdown forest seemed to be a simple, straightforward idea. As the home of Winnie the Pooh and Christopher Robin, what could possibly go wrong? Well, the first thing to go wrong was finding a route itself! There is of course the well-known circular taking you to all the famous spots, on the hunt for Heffalumps and Woozles, Roo’s sandpit or even Eeyore’s gloomy place, but we were after something a little more challenging. However, we really struggled to find routes in our normal range – 5 to 8 miles – and ended up picking one from the Brighton and Hove newspaper ‘The Argus’.
Route finally chosen, we set off, arriving about 40 minutes later in Wren’s Warren car park a little shy of midday. We set off into a clear and sunny autumn day, down the type of sandy heathland track one associates with the southern UK, before wandering down someone’s driveway (we were assuming this was allowed?) and onto the road.
Now, for those who are regular readers of Pathfinder (hi Mum and Dad!) you will have realised by now that my walking buddy is the Piglet to my Winnie. We had not yet gone half a mile, and Piglet was already fretting over getting lost and trespassing, and in quick need of the remedying reassurance of a trusty yellow way marker. Thankfully, this arrived right on time, directing us off the road, up a driveway and away. Tucked a little along the footpath, we were fortunate enough to encounter a deer – one of the lesser-spotted beasts we encounter on our adventures – before crossing another road into the trees on the other side.
After crossing a small wooden bridge over a stream and walking a short way uphill, we made our first true mistake, having to retrace our steps by a couple of minutes to find the correct way. In our defence, this was down to the fact that since the instructions had been written, the footpath had been redirected slightly, with a big ‘Private’ sign on the original!
This upset Piglet. Unfortunately, the combination of unreliable instructions and the pressure of a mid-afternoon pub booking (my bad), resulted in an anxious Beth who was unable to fully enjoy the rest of the route. About five minutes later, after crossing another road and going slightly off course once again, we discussed the pros and (mainly) the cons of using a route that didn’t come from one of our regular sources.
Fortunately, one known remedy for Piglet is animals, and the next mile or so offered us up a few well-timed encounters. First up was a pony, who plodded over to say hello, and was a vast improvement on the last horse we came across on a walk, who tried to bite us. Not long after this, we stumbled upon an unexpected goat who was standing in the middle of the footpath. When he spotted us, he panicked and ran back through the enormous hole in the fence to rejoin his sheep friends – frankly, it is only the animals’ herd instinct keeping it from running away; it’s certainly not the poor excuse for fencing!
Continuing on our way and we were soon scratching our heads again at the instructions. Fortunately, we made the right decision and chose the correct path, which led to a road, and then about a hundred yards later, back into the woodland. This pattern then repeated a couple of times (which included crossing a ford – always cool) as Beth began to fear the worst – we were going to be late!
As the path led us away from the road for the final time we began to follow a wooded path steadily uphill at quite a pace, and once through the trees we paused to have a sip of water before completing the final portion of the sloping track. We made the final turn back toward the car park along the road with beautiful views of the forest, and Beth’s spirits returned to non-piglet levels as she realised that we would not be late for our lunch reservations after all, and we were able to enjoy the last half mile stroll as the sun began to turn the world gold.
To round off our day, we had booked a table at The Anchor Inn in nearby Hartfield, a place we had stopped before and always enjoyed. The warm food and refreshing drinks were well received as we relaxed, noting what had gone both well and not so well!
The biggest takeaway from this experience is that the routes are much easier to follow when written by an established walking group or similar organisation (ramblers, National Trust, councils etc.), since for those of a slightly anxious disposition this can cause issues. Not that the route creator didn’t know what they were doing – in hindsight, the walk was rather nice, took about two and a half hours and we would probably do it again – but we struggled more than we normally would have on this occasion.
On a positive note, we did discover that there is a 14-mile Ashdown Forest circular available, which we are planning on returning to and completing in the spring – watch this space!
Full instructions and map available at https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/9469110.ashdown-forest-circular/
Matthew G. Huggins 