To Ditchling and back

30th November

When I wrote the last Brighton Walk blog we were enjoying a rare two day window of perfect late autumn weather.  It didn't last long,  the rain returned and seemed to fall non-stop for a week.  Well the sun came out today again, wonderful, but it was a sun which had lost any remnants of heat.  Winter has arrived on south coast and we got our first proper hard frost.  It was a perfect day for a walk - the only challenge was escaping from a lovely warm bed.

18 miles via Ditchling

Having filling a flask with coffee (after years of arguing that a flask was a bit "geriatric" I'm now a convert) - we jumped on a 24 bus and headed off to Falmer (next to Brighton and Hove Albion Football Club and the University of Sussex Campus).  After getting off the bus at the University, walking for a 100 metres or so, we were in middle of trees and in the countryside.  

A Circular Walk via Alfriston

We definitely experienced this walk at its very best. Absolutely perfect Mid-November weather,  clear blue skies, low autumn sun and amazing views.  Any walk would benefit from this, but it particularly suited the South Downs.

The walk is just under 15 miles long and took us around six hours including a stop for lunch.  Starting from the train station at Southease (located mid-way between Lewis and Newhaven with a train stopping about every hour) the route follows the South Downs Way to Alfriston.  Just after Afriston it leaves the South Downs Way and heads directly west towards the Norton farmstead just north of Seaford.  From Norton you head north until you hit the South Downs Way before heading west again back to Southease.

Reflections on a Year's Walks - 2012

I've had an amazing year. Eight walking trips, 95 days of full- on walking and loads of adventures.   At the moment, as well as trying to keep fit on the South Downs, I'm busy working out a schedule for 2013 and reflecting on the lessons I've learnt this year.

The lessons with hindsight seem blindingly obvious.

The first - already having an impact on plans for next year - is that you can't have too much of a good thing.  I had thought that 7 weeks in Nepal would satiate my appetite for the Himalayas but it had the opposite effect.

Although I didn't get to the top of Mera Peak (the weather was exceptionally bad this spring and very few groups did),  I had an amazing adventure.  The memories of the night at high camp (perched on a 5,400m cliff on the edge of a glacier in a ferocious storm), the attempt on the summit next day (a fall into a crevasse followed by an agonising trudge through fresh snow a metre deep) and the descent the following day with arguably the best mountain view in the world (clear sight of five 8,000 m plus summits including Everest) will stay with me forever.

The view to Everest from Mera

Grande Escursione Appenninica (GEA) - a Review

For me, feeling good about something is often to do with the gap between what I was expecting and what happened.  The experience is better when your expectations are exceeded but worse when they are not.   Although it's just a few days since I got back from a 12 day, 200 kilometre walk along Italy's Grande Escursione Appenninica (GEA), I have to say disappointment with the walk is the dominant emotion.

12 days along the Grande Escursione Appenninica

Day 12 GEA Abetone

We had already decided that we were going to finish our trip at Abetone so today had that end of walk, anticlimactic feel to it.  I had originally hoped to get as far San Pellegrino (at least) but the struggle with accommodation and the time involved in completing some of the stages have left us a couple of days off plan.  Despite the fog we've been lucky with the weather but the forecast for the rest of the weak suggests that this luck is coming to an end.  Also it's easy to get down the mountain from Abetone so the plan for one more day's walking,  and then a trip to Lucca and a day's recuperation before flying home,  makes a lot of sense.

We had also been lucky with our stay at Cutigliano.  Catigliano is not as accessible as it looks on the map and if we hadn't managed to cadge a lift both ways it would either have been very expensive (taxis) or involved some tough additional walking.  Walking all the way to Abetone would probably have been a better option but that it would have been a long day and dependant on a early morning lift up to Orsigna from the owner of the Hotel Melini.

Big ones!

Day 11 GEA Cutigliano

If the weather had been just a bit better today would have been the perfect walk.

Reception area at the Hotel Melini

Day 10 GEA Pracchia

The autumn mist returned with a vengeance today and again we couldn't see a thing.

The first task was to get up to ridge and onto a route which would take us back to the GEA. We identified a spot and managed to persuade our host to give us a lift. Fortunately he agreed to take some money because it turned out to be a long way, very slow, and along a track impassible without a four wheel drive.

Another foggy