Ten top tips – walking the South Downs Way

Uncategorized

Gallery | Posted on June 15, 2021 by stevenicaragua

The South Downs Way (SDW) is a hundred mile path on top of the South Downs in England. I walked it in May, as a response to a year of lockdown. This blog is mainly a gallery of my photos. There is some advice for you if you are thinking of walking it. The photos and the paragraphs are not meant to match up.

WALK EAST OR WEST? I started in Winchester and I think it worked. The wind is more often behind you walking East, and you are not looking into the sunset (when there was sun). But mainly because walking towards Eastbourne you end on the high of the Seven Sisters. The last day is dramatic, besides the sea, and with a beautiful end at Beachy Head. That is also one of the toughest days so its good to be fit by then. I wouldn’t want to start the walk in Eastbourne, because your first morning would be walking up and down the steep Seven Sisters.

Day One, under leaden skies. The hills in the first two days from Winchester are slightly gentler than in Sussex.

HOW MANY DAYS? Work out how far you want to walk each day. I did it in eight days, so about 14 miles a day. Fourteen miles a day was quite tough for me, but you have all day so can walk and rest, walk and rest. But be prepared – you won’t only walk 100 miles, because you don’t sleep on the route. Every evening you have to drop down off the ridge to the villages below. So you’ll walk about 110 or 115 miles.

Day two, with my sister Stella. The rain and mud significantly slowed us down.

Red Kites above me.

WHERE TO SLEEP? The SDW is not as well served as I had expected with places to sleep. You’d have to be very strong to carry a tent etc, so your options are either Bed & Breakfasts (B&B’s) or a support team who will pick you up in a car and drive you home each night. I did B&B’s. So once you have decided how many days you will do, you have to find the villages in which to sleep at the required distance. Then book your B&B’s. That is quite difficult and takes tenacious days of research on the web, phoning and emailing.

Day three with Jules. I went to his wedding 49 years ago and have hardly seen him since! I was accompanied on my walk, on one stage or another, by 14 different people.

TRAINING. If you are like me, not especially fit, you’ll need to train beforehand, in the pair of boots you are going to wear. I did one walk each weekend from about January to May. In retrospect I think five months was too much. By April & May I was getting almost bored of walks, and my long-suffering friends were having to fend off perpetual invites for walks.

WEIGHT! My most important advice of all is DON’T TAKE MUCH STUFF! I took little, and found it was still too much. I begun with a few spare clothes, two bottles of water, a few medicines etc. After my first two days my back was really aching. When I first had the chance I jettisoned half my stuff and just carried the bear minimum. I washed my shirt and socks every night and didn’t take spare shoes (shoes are heavy).

Day 4 with Anna & Will. Will rescued me when I needed it most, my back was really aching, and he carried my pack for a day.

On my walk I raised money for tree planting around the world. So it made it special when I saw young trees being planted and walked through some lovely woods.

FUNDRAISING: I found Justgiving to be a good platform, easy to set up. If you are going to make your walk into a fundraiser you need lots of photos beforehand and on the route. I did lots of social media (a bit of a waste of time). A fundraiser is a good opportunity to make contact with old friends and workmates. I raised nearly £1,500 on my walk, from 56 supporters. That will fund tree-planting in Nicaragua, in the UK, and mainly in Africa. I gave 90% of the funds raised to TREE AID which supports tree planting across dryland Africa.

Near Blackcap. Most of the walk is through fields, along the open top of the Downs. But some nice sections are through woods.

Day five, walking mainly on my own.

PLANNING. Hope for the best but plan for the worst. I failed to do that. I planned my walk for May, when the weather should be dry and sunny. But in the weeks and days before I set out it was cold and rainy. I hadn’t prepared for that and felt an idiot. In the end I rushed out and bought waterproof trousers etc. I wore plastic bags under my (not waterproof) boots. I was lucky in that I only had rain the first two days and by the last few days it was nice and sunny.

MY BEST PURCHASE: For years I have walked in my old coat, which is perfectly good but heavy & bulky. For this walk I bought a down coat which is very light. It kept me warm when I needed it and didn’t weigh me down on the sunny days. Highly recommended. The one thing I forget to take, which I missed, was lip salve. I ended with burnt lips.

SHOPS AND WATER: Again there are less than you might think. Usually you will need a packed lunch, so you have to plan carefully. Don’t assume you can buy stuff. On some days, 14 miles, I passed no cafe or shop. There are occasional water taps, but intermittent, and on one day both of the water taps were bust.

Day 6, weather getting better. Lovely spring flowers all the way along.

The South Downs in May are green and yellow. Yellow rape and yellow buttercups.

STRETCHES! In the end I managed the whole walk, with no major problems with my legs or muscles. Which surprised me, because I am not young. The advice I was given, which I followed, was to do my stretches at the beginning of each day and ALSO at the end. When you arrive tired in your B&B the first thing you should do is do your stretches.

Day 7: Near Southease YHA. There are two YHA’s on the route, and a nice bunkhouse I stayed in, in Houghton

TECH: It’s all about your phone, if you have one. You can buy a good map-app of the SDW for £3. With that map you don’t need carry a guidebook. I also got a free trial of ‘audible’ which gave me a book to listen to when I was on my own. I had an ipod-mini which was excellent. You need to make sure you have enough battery for your phone, because at the end of the day when you are tired, and looking for your B&B, you need to be able to phone your ‘accom’.

COMPANY: Well everyone is different but I could never have done it without the company of friends. Although the views are lovely it would be dull to walk every day on your own. I can see disadvantages of walking the whole way with the same people (imagine if you began to argue on day two!) so I was happy with my arrangement, different friends every day. Kath and my walking partners both kept my morale up, and did loads of favours, bringing this, taking that. So thank you everyone, and especially Kath.

Day Eight, the White Horse near Alfriston

Day eight, the challenging Seven Sisters ahead

The End. Beachy Head above Eastbourne. Mission accomplished!

More photos on Instagram: @owstonlewis

Hampshire Hiking South Downs National Park South Downs Way Sussex walking