Wadhurst to Buckhurst Circular – 5.5 miles

  In this edition of Pathfinder, we are honoured to welcome and excited to introduce for the first time, a very special guest – Pumpkin.

  Pumpkin is a young greyhound who belongs to our friends, and she is their pride and joy.  Whilst they have been away on their honeymoon to the Caribbean, we had the privilege of taking care of her for a weekend, and naturally thought she would enjoy joining us on a romp through the countryside.

  Now, for background, Pumpkin is a rescued ex-racer, and a very good girl, who we have known for over three years.  When taken on walks, she is very rarely allowed off her lead, as she is just so fast (for regular dogs – not so much for greyhounds!), and with this precaution taken, she makes the perfect companion.

  Except for one thing.

  Due to her dad working nights, she has a well and truly-established habit of waking up in the middle of the night.  She also doesn’t like being left on her own, nor does she like going up the stairs of our house, as they are too steep for her.

  I think you can see where this is going.

  So, after two disturbed nights, two torch-lit visits to the garden (one of which she didn’t even wee, just wagged her tail and tried to visit next-door’s garden) and two nights of sleep for me on the sofa to stop her whinging and wining, we awoke Sunday morning somewhat bleary-eyed, but determined to get those miles under our boots.  With the threat of storm Isha looming later in the day, we agreed it was best to get out early, and so by half-ten, we were parked up and ready to go.

  We had chosen the day’s route carefully.  Greyhounds are of course sprinters, so long-distance walks aren’t normally their thing.  However, she had accompanied us on another walk a couple of years previously and managed just fine, so we chose one of similar length – on the lower end of our normal range! – and one we knew from previous ventures shouldn’t be too taxing.

  Setting off just across the border into East Sussex from Wadhurst station, recently voted the best place to live in the UK, don’t-you-know (the village, not the station) we walked down a somewhat busy road, which wasn’t the prettiest start to a walk ever, but we were soon away across those oh-so-familiar farmers’ fields, and off on another adventure!

  About half a mile in, Pumpkin had her first, and surprisingly large, poo.  Not a problem, we thought, there’s bound to be a bin somewhere, and so carried on.  The first major obstacle came shortly after, in the form of a medium-length, sharp incline, which required a breather halfway up *Ben Nevis looms ominously on the horizon*.  After this was dispatched, we walked down a quiet country lane for a few hundred meters, before following a footpath on the left, stretching back out across the fields.  Pumpkin promptly pooped for a second time, with no bins yet to be seen, and the bag inflating with a gust of wind to form a poop-balloon (this would later catch on a bush and pop, naturally requiring re-bagging).

 For a while we walked through a combination of farmland and thin copses at the field’s edges, during which time Pumpkin enjoyed a myriad of smells, including that of some badger fur, which on closer inspection, she decided tasted disgusting.  Despite the warnings, the day had remained calm and warm for the time of year, with the only slight challenge being the mud, which did grow a little thick and slippery on occasion.  This was brought to a head whilst walking down a slope through a patch of woodland.

  I stacked it.

  There’s no other way of putting it, my boot went from under me, and I hit the deck.  I would like to say however, that I recovered well, and hardly got any mud on me or my clothes.  This incident also made it 1-1 on the falling over scale, following on from Beth’s legendary slip during a circular and particularly muddy walk from Robertsbridge last year (one which we are yet to return to…).

  After this, we managed to veer a few feet off the path, which apparently made the difference between walking up a proper track, and half wading through a muddy stream to the top of a slope (whoops).  Here, we emerged from the trees into more open farmland, only now closer to the top of the hill, where the wind had finally begun to show itself.  This delighted Pumpkin, who suddenly had a thousand smells shooting up her hooter.  A few fields on, I was ready to go straight through the obvious gate in front, when Beth remembered that this was exactly what had happened last time, and it was in fact the wrong way.  The actual path we were aiming for was tucked away amongst the bushes to the left (good save babe) leading down a slope, before ascending up some nice stone steps through the trees on the other side.  This led up over another field, before taking us through the middle of a farmyard, during which time Pumpkin was excited by the smell of cattle.

  A little further after this, we agreed that it would be good to stop for an early lunch, oddly enough spotting where we had previously eaten last time only seconds later.  We did not stop for long, as the wind had begun to pick up in earnest on the exposed hilltop fields and a large portion of that time was spent trying to stop Pumpkin from eating sheep poo.

  Following lunch, we made our way carefully past some horses, past Buckhurst Manor and then on along the footpaths leading through Ravensdale Farm (shout-out to Ravensdale for their top-tier footpath maintenance!), along which Pumpkin found a nice spot in a stream to have a quick splash.

  This brought us to another quiet road, which marked the beginning of the very last stage of the day’s route, which was a simple matter of finding the footpath on the left, and following until you see the station.  After crossing the final field, we arrived at a stile, leading to the rail crossing.  Navigating stiles with a dog is not something we have had to consider on Pathfinder before, but thankfully the route had provided plenty of Pumpkin sized gaps and doggy-doors along the way.  Pumpkin was unsure of these at first, but by the end of the day, had become quite the expert.  On this occasion however (and the only instance of the day), there was no way through for her, other than to pick her up and carry her over.  In true Pumpkin style, she was as good as gold.  This might have had something to do with the fact that she was quite pooped at this point and would probably have happily been carried all the way back to the car.

  Fortunately, this was not far away and her tired paws didn’t have much further to travel.  Soon enough we were back on the road and walking into the station car park, where, much to her relief, Pumpkin was soon loaded into the back of the car and fast asleep.  For those who are interested, we did manage to find a bin in the end, only it was back at the station, meaning we ended up carrying the poo for five miles.

  This was another good route, with a few challenging sections, but overall fairly simple.  We got back to the car a little after one o’clock, giving us a total time of about three and a half hours.  Like last week, this was a little off our normal pace, but on this occasion, I think we can probably put it down (at least in part) to Pumpkin’s added sniffing time.  Beth was also very pleased with the instructions and how many Way Markers there were along the route – there were actually notably more than normal, and we hardly went wrong at all.  The start/finish is very deceptive, and within minutes you are thrown into the countryside, not emerging again until the very end.  I would suggest this would make a good walk for spring (don’t they all!) due to it being largely livestock fields (thinking of the lambs) and woodland (thinking of the flowers).  It is worth noting though, that there is no opportunity for a pub stop on the way around, which is very unusual for us.

  Of course, the star of the show was naturally Pumpkin, who did so well.  She was well-behaved and happy to be out and about, despite the distance being a challenge for her.  In contrast to the previous nights, she slept all the way home, and then slept some more when she got there, rousing a couple of hours later just long enough to slink onto the sofa, where she slept some more.  Pumpkin was a delightful guest, and we hope that she would like to join us again in the future!

Original route was provided by East Sussex County Council, with full instructions and map available at https://www.eastsussex.gov.uk/media/j5sbeuxz/buckhurst-walk.pdf