I don’t know why we hadn’t done this route before. It’s been available to us for years, on the same website as several of our regular walks. It’s through our favourite area and is a great distance, but for some reason, we had always shied away from it. Not matter, whatever the reason was, today was the day, and what a perfect day for it too. The sun was shining, the sky was blue and the day was warm, and we arrived at the free car park at the south end of Mark Cross just before half past eleven. Before us, we could see promising-looking countryside rolling away. We made it as far as the first footpath, almost twenty yards from the car, before we encountered our first problem. One of us, naming no names, announced a sudden and urgent need for a toilet. As such, we turned back into Mark Cross, and our quest took us to the garden centre across the road. Whilst one of us used the facilities, the other picked up some mealworms and suet balls for his bird feeders, and after returning these to the boot, we tried again.
It did not take long for things to get going. Only minutes in, and we came across our first sheep field, containing the corresponding first lambs of the day. As we walked amongst the trees at its edge, we headed toward the opposite corner, and as we drew nearer, the sound of baaing grew increasingly more insistent. When we emerged back out into the open, we found out why. The flock were steadily being herded through the gates to be inspected by the farmers, who were corralling them through their hurdles one at a time. We climbed over a stile to find ourselves amongst part of the flock, before carefully making our way through a metal five-bar gate back into the main paddock where the remaining lambs and ewes awaited their turn. There were loads, and you don’t often get a chance to walk right through the middle of such a close-together flock. This was obviously a great start, and things continued to be awesome as we descended into a patch of woodland, which was of course carpeted with bluebells.
We made our way through the sunlit trees for a while, eventually coming out into a stretch of meadow, then descending down into further bluebell-filled woodland, over a small stream and up the other side. We came back out into more sunny farmland, and heard the bleating of more lambs, which we spotted prancing through their paddock a couple of fields away. Around this part of the walk, there were a few route deviations due to farm works, and we did have to stop and think for a moment, but thankfully chose correctly on this occasion. This led us along the bank of a small stream where the scent of wild garlic wafted strongly in our noses, before turning and heading back uphill. Bluebells continued to serenade our passage, all the way to the farmyard and out the other side, where we found another sunny glade full of them. Just beyond, we spotted a lamb on the wrong side of a gate. It quickly wriggled back underneath, and when we too reached the paddock found yet another sheep field for us to walk through. These were mostly relaxing in the shade about the fields edge, and as we continued to climb upward, we spotted several more fields of ewes and lambs dotted about the surrounding countryside, and came to the somewhat obvious conclusion that this was in fact a sheep farm.
After passing a few more sheep, we eventually arrived at the day’s first road section. This was a pleasant little lane, lined with blossom and – you guessed it – fields of lambs. We picked up a path on our right and descended into another patch of woods, which glowed green inside as the sun shone through the new leaves. Birds tweeted in the branches above, as our minds turned to lunch. After we had walked a short way down another road, we continued into the countryside, and as the afternoon was ticking away, picked an acceptable looking spot beside the path and plonked ourselves down. However, it became quickly evident that this particular patch of longer grass was full of spiders, and so we decided to press on a little. This was very fortunate, as a couple of minutes further on, we found a great spot beneath a tree at the edge of a sunny, sloping field.
As we sat in the shade and enjoyed our lunch, Beth spotted the woolly back of a sheep slowly appearing over the brow of the slope as it steadily grazed its way toward us. Soon, a couple more appeared, followed by the shape of a lamb at their side. It wasn’t long before five ewes and five lambs had appeared across the field from us as we finished up our food. By the time we had begun to pack our rubbish away, a couple of the lambs had started to show quite an interest in us. Steadily, step by step, as if daring each other on, they came closer, until they were only a few feet away, looking at us curiously. It’s highly unusual for lambs to come so close in the open, and they were adorable. A third lamb began to show interest too, but at this point their courage broke and they began to back away, just as one of the ewes came to inspect what was going on. Highly pleased with our lunch break, we rose to our feet and made our way down the edge of the field, meeting the rest of the flock along the way.
We entered a small patch of bluebell-filled woods before coming out onto a little concrete track. The theme of the day was clearly lambs at this point, and so it continued. For the next stretch, our path was lined with field after field of them, stretching away as far as the eye could see. We continued to follow the track, which eventually turned to a lane. Ignoring a footpath to the right, we continued past further sheep and even a snake (alive this time) which Beth spotted slithering amongst the hedge. We approached a busy road and descended downward to reach a path which ran in the dip beside it. It was immediately more overgrown than what we had experienced so far, and a little less solid beneath our boots. We continued along for a while, and eventually both concluded that this was our least favourite stretch of the day. We saw a bridge appearing before us, and Beth said there ought to be a way up to the road here. We could not immediately see it, and so thought it must be on the other side. This meant walking through the tunnel beneath. I reached its mouth first, and as Beth approached behind me, I stared into the darkness. It was a long, shadowy and very creepy tunnel. It was somewhat ‘murdery’, and I’m not easily spooked. Beth is however, and so I reached back to hold her hand and led the way through. The magic power of whistling Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah soon brought us out the other side unharmed, yet we still could see no way up. We stopped to consult the OS app, and it was here, after some head scratching, that we realised we had made quite the mistake. Remember the path to the right we ignored a little while back? Yeah, we should have taken that. Too far to go back, we accepted our mistake, consulted the map and carried on forward to meet up with the route a little further on. It wasn’t too long after this that we were back on track, and no harm was done. On the plus side, we now know where the scariest place in the High Weald is, Beth saw a snake and we even passed a patch of Wild Garlic which we were able to harvest some leaves from to make crackers with later this week – next time however, we will not make the same mistake!
Once we were back on course, we picked up a footpath which took us past another barn where swallows swooped about (summer is coming, folks). We came back out to a road, along which we found another small field of lambs – thank goodness, I had begun to get withdrawal symptoms. This road eventually gave way to a byway lined with cool roots and mosses, which then brought us out to the busiest road of the day. We crossed over and walked along the verge (sheep in the distance) and a minute or so later left the fast road behind. We were very much on the way back by now, and began our final series of footpaths by entering a field on the left. Guess what it contained? I don’t even have to say it, do I? At the bottom of this field, we again found a lamb on the wrong side of the fence. Unlike the first, it didn’t wriggle back beneath and continued to bleat at its mum, who was bleating back somewhere amongst the field the lamb was supposed to be in. As we approached, it looked at us for assistance. We would likely have helped, apart from the farmer was at hand, and he assured us that he would eventually find his way back in. Last we saw, he was investigating the gate beneath which he had snuck, so hopefully he did make his way back to his awaiting mother. Only a minute further on, and we came across our next lamb encounter. This time it was four lambs on the correct side of the fence, showing great interest in our presence. I wonder if they may have been bottle fed, as we were able to kneel down and even pet them a little without them running off.
And then suddenly we were walking back through the farmyard which we had passed at the very start of our adventure. The farmer and his farmhand were still hard at work, tending to the last members of their flock. We made our way past the final waiting ewes and lambs, and noticed that one of the ewes had an amniotic sack hanging from their back end. Knowing what this meant, our eyes quickly darted about and soon landed upon a tiny, newborn lamb tottering about, suckling from his mum – the farmer told us that he had been born within the last hour. This really was the cherry on top of what had been a fantastic day, and so we turned back toward Mark Cross and retraced our steps back to the car.
We switched our boots for trainers, with thoughts of a well-earned pint. On this occasion, we had the opportunity to try a pub which we had passed several times, saying we should stop one day; The Lazy Fox. This is part of the ‘Elite Pub’ range, which we visit regularly, and so knew what to expect. We grabbed a couple of pints of Aspalls from the bar, before making our way out into the garden. This may have one of the best views of any we have frequented, as we looked out over the countryside which we had just explored. As was only fitting, we could even see a spattering of sheep, as we sipped our drinks and ate some Haddock Goujons.
So far this spring, we couldn’t help but notice a lack of lambs. Well, we’ve found them all! We have never encountered so many lambs on a single walk, and that’s not to mention the carpets of bluebells and assorted spring flowers that grew along the way. This was an excellent walk. If we weren’t in woodland, we were in idyllic countryside, and there was plenty of undulation to keep things interesting. This is probably one of our more challenging routes overall, but I like that about it; plus, there is a good pun waiting to reward your efforts at the end. I’m sure it will be even better next time, when we go the correct way and avoid the murder tunnel – when measured, this detour ended up adding almost an extra mile!
Matthew G. Huggins 