For today’s adventure we began in the familiar village of Burwash, setting off from the free car park at about quarter past eleven. The day was significantly greyer than recent weeks, and cooler too, although as we got going the humidity soon made us sticky.
We made our way out of Burwash down a stony track and onto a footpath, which brought us out into a field where before us and to our left was a large flock of sheep. Half of them broke away to the right where they could safely observe us from the middle of the pasture, whilst the others missed the opportunity to go with them, and so remained amongst the trees at the fields edge and watched us pass. Once we were a suitable distance along, they too dashed out to join their friends. Beth and I stood and watched the sheep for a moment and then decided to take the opportunity to practice our first dance. All of this excitement must have distracted us from the task in hand however, as when we got going, we missed a path to the right and instead carried on straight ahead in the wrong direction. After five minutes, and amongst another flock of sheep, Beth finally realised our mistake and we doubled back.
Once back on the correct path we carried on through a series of fields, before turning left to again climb up the hill we had previously done by mistake, if from a slightly different angle. As we went through the gap in the hedge, we startled a ewe and her two large lambs, who had been enjoying a drink from the stream running along the ditch at the fields edge. One of the lambs took a couple of attempts to get out of the ditch, but eventually managed and joined his mother and sibling to stare at us reproachfully. We went up the gentle hill, and passed the rest of the flock huddled beneath a tree – the day’s sheep seemed to allow us closer than your average sheep would. In the following field, we encountered a small herd of cows. We monitored their behaviour as we walked up the field edge, and they did indeed begin to look agitated by our presence. Beth decided to hop the fence and walk along the private driveway on the other side. I continued along the footpath, but knowing I didn’t have to worry about Beth was a relief. The cattle got a bit jumpy, but ultimately turned and trotted off away into the field – I won this round of chicken. Just at this moment, an unexpected shower began. This was however something of a relief against the humid day, and we then entered a tree-lined drive, so didn’t get that wet anyway. As we made our way up, we passed the same flock we had accidentally disturbed earlier, lazing along the fence line, watching us go. When we got to the road, we found that the instructions had written left instead of right, but thankfully this was quite an obvious one and so we didn’t go wrong here. We picked up a path which steadily rose, first past a couple more cattle herds, and then through woodland. This continued for quite a while, and by the time we had come out at the other end, we had harvested quite a bit of moss for our table-decorations.
We then crossed the road, and found ourselves on a section of footpath we had walked earlier in the year. Thankfully much drier this time, we made our way past some horses and further sheep, down through Bog Wood and along the stream trickling at the bottom. After a few minutes, we turned away from this familiar footpath, and went left sharply upward. The first section of this climb was somewhat overgrown, and we briefly disappeared from each other’s sites amongst the large quantities of head-height bracken. When we emerged, the slope grew more gentle, and led us through some woods, a minute or two into which we turned left along the path that would take us back down. At the bottom, we found a herd of cows lazing on the other side of a large metal gate, who seemed to be having a tough time with countless flies bothering them.
We then finally got view of the day’s planned lunch spot, Batemans. This is one of our favourite stops, and somewhere we have visited often over the years. Once in, I had a Cornish Pasty, Packet of Crisps, Lemon Meringue donut and a Mocha. Beth had a cheese scone; I felt quite guilty! Just as I was finishing my vast lunch, the rain began again, but much harder this time. We sheltered beneath a tree and waited for it all to pass, and once we were back underway, it was a simple walk across farmland to Burwash. This doesn’t take long, and is a section we had done several times now, yet somehow we managed to briefly go the wrong way! But soon enough, we were back at the car, and another adventure was complete.
This was quite a nice little route, which we could imagine becomes rather muddy in other seasons. It’s therefore probably better to stick to drier months, possibly including parts of spring because there is likely to be an abundance of lambs on display! It’s always nice to take a walk through Kipling country, and this is another lovely walk to add to our roster.
Also, this walk officially marked 500 miles blogged – go us!
Matthew G. Huggins 