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Walking The South Downs Way in Five Days

As many of you know, we decided to walk the full 100 miles of The South Downs Way to raise money for our beautiful friend Ella.

Initially we were going to walk from Winchester to Eastbourne but half way through our training we decided that it would be nicer and way more motivating to do it the other way round so that we were walking back home.

We also toyed around with loads of different ways of doing it. There are tour companies that will move your bag from place to place but none of them do it over five days, the shortest we could find was seven. We eventually decided to get the train to Eastbourne and, with the help of a taxi driver, Tom's auntie Gill and cousin Sam, a couple of the hosts at the airbnb's we stayed at and Tom's mum, we had our bags moved back towards Winchester.

Day One: Eastbourne to Kingston

Links:

- Accomodation in Eastbourne

- Accomodation in Kingston (airbnb)

- Lunch in Litlington (The Plough & Harrow)

We set out from Eastbourne on the morning of Saturday 14th October in a bit of a frazzle as Frankie had face planted off the bed in the hotel that morning and given herself a fat lip. We then proceeded to take a wrong turn, leading us onto the inland path of the South Downs Way (we wanted to do the costal path) and walked 4 miles out of our way. Although it was an absolute pain in the arse having to turn back, it was totally worth it. The walk from Beachy Head, over The Seven Sisters and then inland through the Cuckmere Valley is absolutely stunning and we lucked out on the weather so the views were spectacular.

We thought it would be a good idea to get the two longest walks out of the way on the first two days. Our destination on day one was Kingston, near Lewes.

Knowing we'd lost precious time in the morning we pushed on as quickly as possible. We had a head torch with us so weren't too concerned about finishing the walk in the dark. As dusk set in we were in high spirits, feeling like we were nearing our airbnb and a hot shower. It was pretty surreal walking over the top of the downs with the valleys below filling up with pink mist, like being on another planet with no one else in sight.

We hit a concrete road that seemed to go on forever and as we neared the end of it the mist surrounded us, the last of the light went and we realised that our head torch was pretty useless as we could only see 5 metres in front of us. The last hour of our walk was a bit hairy. Frankie was kicking off and we couldn't find a clear path so had to guess where we were going. It ended in a half mile steep decent down a wet, slippery chalk path into Kingston. It was a huge relief to get there!

Day Two: Kingston to Steyning

Links:

- Accomodation in Washington (airbnb)

- Lunch stop in Pyecombe (The Plough)

Day two was tough. After the adrenaline of starting had worn off, the reality of how far we had to walk set in, along with quite a few blisters (I had 10 on one foot). Frankie wouldn't settle on Tom due to teething so I ended up carrying her for over 20 miles. My feet were a rank sight!

Our intended destination for day two was Washington where our airbnb was right on the South Downs Way (accommodation right on the trail is quite hard to find) but, worried we were going to get caught out by the dark again, we decided to call it a day at Steyning Bowl and were rescued by Tom's auntie Gill who took us back to her house for a vey welcome, delicious meal and hot shower.

Day Three: Steyning to Cocking

Links:

- Accomodation in Cocking

- Lunch stop in Amberley (The Bridge)

- Dinner in Cocking (The Bluebell Inn)

We decided to give Frankie a break on day three as she was having such a tough time with teething and although we were sad not to have her with us, it meant we flew through the day covering twenty miles in six hours.

For the last few miles of the day we put our headphones in to distract us from our sore feet (works a treat!), we arrived at our B&B in Cocking in really good time and Frankie arrived back from her day off with friends Alex & Tim. Tom's auntie Gill and Cousin Sam met us at the local pub for dinner and came bearing medical aid for my feet which was hugely appreciated!

Day Four: Cocking to The Sustainability Centre

Links:

- Accomodation at The Sustainability Centre

- Coffee break at Queen Elizabeth Country Park

We had an amazing night's sleep at The Moonlight B&B. Our bed was incredibly comfortable and Frankie slept through the night. We had a delicious breakfast in their little cafe where Frankie made the other guests feel comfortable by staring and shrieking at them whilst they ate. We ordered sandwiches from the B&B so we wouldn't have to stop long for lunch and set out up the long chalky hill for day four.

It was a very tough day indeed. We both had very sore feet and various aches and pains but Frankie was in a much better mood and entertained us, along with the views, for most of the day.

Arriving in the rain to the pink splendour of our yurt, 'Rosie', at The Sustainability Centre near East Meon was pretty exciting. We had called ahead and ordered dinner from the Beech Cafe on site so had food waiting for us. Tom's mum Pam had collected our bags from Cocking and dropped them off with us, along with a fresh supply of blister plasters and some snacks for the next day.

We had a bit of a faff trying to get some matches to light the log burner but once it was lit, the yurt warmed up in about 20 minutes and we heated our dinner up in the log burner.

We arrived in good enough time to have a hot solar powered shower (which surpassed all expectations) before bed, it all seemed pretty romantic .........

Unfortunately the log burner was horribly inefficient. It needed refuelling every couple of hours and opening the broken door woke Frankie up, who decided it was playtime, and the extra bag of logs we'd ordered, just to be on the safe side (haha), didn't last the night. Not much sleep was had by anyone.

Day Five: The Sustainability Centre to Winchester

Links:

- Lunch in Exton

- Tea in Winchester

- Dinner in Winchester

Day five was a real mixed bag of emotions. Setting off was a bit grim, the weather was drizzly and 20 miles seemed like a long way, however we managed a really decent pace and arrived at The Shoe in Exton for our lunch in really good time. The 'Winchester 10 miles' sign after lunch was encouraging but it seemed to take forever!

We had arranged with our friend Helen that she was going to walk out with her baby Em and join us for the last few miles and had just started to wonder where she was when we walked round the corner to find she'd bought along two other friends, Denise and Georgie, with their little ones, Joycelyn and Ruben. They were the most welcome sight to us all, especially Frankie, who was so excited to see her little friends. As we walked into the outskirts of Winchester we were joined by our friend Pete, who had cycled out to meet us with some apples and we all made our way through town and along the river to the finishing point outside the City Mill. It was a really great end to the walk. Obligatory photo's were taken next to the South Downs Way sign and we all went for a coffee at The Bridge Patisserie.

All in all quite a mental five days. A proper physical and mental challenge with some real highs and lows. The highs were incredible and the the lows just reminded us why we were doing it, for our amazing, brave friend Ella and her family. It has been a wonderful thing to do as a family and, although challenging doing it in five days with a baby, has been an awesome experience.