I intend to do the slightly shorter walk of 10 miles

See you tomorrow

Hayley

15 set out to make the most of the one fine day forecast for this week. After yesterday's heavy rain, the ground was sodden and we had to skirt around a lot of large puddles but it was all manageable with some boardwalks over the worst bits. There was a great variety of birdsong in the morning including nightingales identified by one walker and later on a cuckoo. We had a cloudy morning brightening to a sunny afternoon . In Amberley, six people dined at the Sportsman pub and had a long wait for their food. Four had a picnic in the bus shelter. A couple of people took the train home from Amberley. Some people may have dined elsewhere or taken different routes after lunch.

Seven had tea at the RSPB cafe in warm sunshine with a lovely view over fields and wetlands. Lots of rabbits were seen,not that many birds. We eventually dragged ourselves away and made it to Pulborough station just in time for the 17.04 train.

Anyone keen on this walk on Sunday 14 Aug?

6 and a tiny dog assembled at Amberley station. It was another hot day sunny at first cloudy later We set off at a brisk pace along the riverside then through Amberley village. The gardens were looking a little thirsty with their dessicated hollyhocks. So were we and, by the time we reached the Sportsman, it had been decreed there would be two ‘lunch’ stops. More of a cider stop really, apart from the cheesy chips. We didn’t stay long, mindful of a possible snap walk inspection at the Crown.

So it was off, across the parched Serengeti for more cider. No sign of the walk inspector there. Phew!

Another yomp took us to the RSPB tearoom where cake, coffee and ginger beer were consumed. It probably wasn’t a good idea to let my squadron of trained wasps out to stretch their wings. They were soon in everything. We had to time our departure carefully for the final stretch to meet the hourly train. So I gathered up my wasps and off we all went at an even brisker pace. A bit of a slog in the increased humidity. We got there in time, only to find the train was 15 minutes late. Harumph!

A grand day out, anyway. The dog seemed to enjoy it too.

I may come on this walk but do my own Amberley to Arundel walk Walk 22 best,

Jane

Nine off the posted train and one car driver plus dog set off at a leisurely pace from Pulborough and were caught up by a walker from a later train making a total of 10 on this very pleasant walk in mainly sunny , comfortably warm conditions, the perfect day for a walk through water meadows and woods with long views framed by the downs against the sky. The ground was dry and the going was easy. Our canine companion plunged into what looked like a shallow stream and disappeared under the boggy water but thankfully rose to the surface and managed to scramble out and went on to enjoy lots of rolling around in grassy tussocks. We humans were less daring but I think all enjoyed the landscape and renewing acquaintances after long COVID gaps. On reaching Amberley, one dined at the Black Horse (highly praised) while the rest of us had our sandwiches in various locations around the village (bus shelter, church and sports ground). The churchyard sounded like the best of those options. After lunch, two caught the train from Amberley and eight carried on to Pullborough, taking the short option, omitting Parham Park. we were disappointed to find the RSPB centre closed due to staff illness. We headed straight for the train station in Pulborough and caught the 17.04 train. A few people remarked that the walk instructions offered too many options and left them confused. It might be better in future to mention only the main walk in the posting and omit mention of the circular loop around Amberley which could be a separate short walk in itself. A lovely day.

No idea how many did this at the appointed hour on Sat, but two regulars did it independently on Sun, taking different trains and eating at different pubs, the Black Horse and The Sportsman, meeting briefly at the latter. Both were very happy with the lunches served in these places. Some slightly menacing cloud in the morning dissolved into warm sunshine by the afternoon.

Sportsman: You're a closure out of date... Closed and re-opened again since then. The view from the terrace over the flood plain is as lovely as ever, but seemed overpriced. Call ahead for an outside table if its a nice day.

Crown Inn: Popular (so I must be missing something) but variable food. The 2/3 course "smaller portions" set menu is good

There's a new Thai bar/restaurant (?) by Pulborough station

This walk works much better with a lunch stop in Amberley and when The Sportsman closed in January it wasn't looking good (the Black Horse had been closed for many years). But as someone reported on another walk The Sportsman re-opened in April and so the walk is feasible again, hence this posting. And next year there should be a choice of two pubs again: a successful campaign by the Amberley Society saved the Black Horse from conversion to two holiday homes, an extensive renovation is underway and it's due to re-open in the winter.

This is the only link that I can find for the Sportsman pub

https://www.amberleystores.co.uk/the-sportsman-inn/

but unfortunately it doesn't give menus

There is a facebook link but that is of little value and their website address does not seem to be working

thesportsmanamberley.co.uk

Somebody must be able to find it

The Sportsman has no website, just its Facebook page. Odd, but oddly, not unusual for a reopened pub! The food is "OK", the usual suspects... burger, fish & chips, and a few more interesting options... mine didn't quite work.

Good to hear about the Black Horse. I'd heard locally that it was going to be more of a upmarket restaurant. Seems it'll be part pub after all.

24 turned up on a warm humid day. Quite a pleasant walk and would have been uneventful had not a slightly crazy woman with a dog (not one of us) insisted on following me through a field of cows, shouting at them, waving her stick and even chasing them towards me at one point. Mercifully, the cows were docile. At the other side she said “you got to be strict with cows”. Yeah, right. Amberley Wild Brooks was dry for Amberly Wild Brooks. (Slightly sploshy but not as sploshy as it could have been). Amberley's gardens were pretty as ever. About half the group made it to the Sportsman. A friendly place. I foolishly declined the Harveys, opting instead for "Treefrog" pale ale. Big mistake. I don’t even like pale ale and I think this particular pint could well have once been treefrog habitat. And so, on down an uneventful lane to Pulborough Brooks for tea and cake. Wiggonholt churchyard had flowering orchids. Then a final push back to the station for the 16:55.

Beautiful walk. Added bonus for the picnickers opposite the Sportsman was a kind offer of tea from the lady in the cottage. She gave me a lovely cuppa, in a china cup with saucer, and digestive biscuits!

going

5 off the train, 1 woman and her dog up from Brighton by car, i.e.: 6 walkers in initially foggy but soon bright and clear weather. Largely uneventful and only modestly pacey walk, in an attempt to keep the group together and due to all the stops ogling up the wildlife en route (herons, geese, other birds, more birds, and then some other birds, deer, antlered deer and then more deer, especially in Parham Park, of course). Amberley Brook muddy in places, but always with an easy deviation around the bloopy spots.

Splendid walk all in, with a nice lunch at The Sportsman (inside, as no big enough table was available on the terrace) and with a tea stop at the Cafe in the Visitor Centre at Pulborough Brooks (interesting Chocolate and Vanilla cake, if with too much icing), this time at an outside table with views across the wetlands.

By then our most famous SW London walkers had had enough of the rest of us and hitched a hike to Pulborough Station.

16.43 train for the rest (minus the woman with a car and the quietest dog ever on an SWC walk).

p.s.: the SWC Roast Potatoe-Inspector was on the walk, but he had a curry, so he's not writing the walk report

20 or so on this walk. Largely sunny but cloudy and cooler later . Path through the Wild Brooks almost overgrown in places. From Amberley, one or two split off to Arundel. Black Horse still shut but Sportsman fine. Most went through Parham, some didn’t. Pulborough Brooks reserve’s teashop was also fine. Large herd of deer seen from there. Big population of white doves too.

"…and willows, willowherb and grass

and meadowsweet and haycocks dry

No wit less still and lonely fair

Than the high cloudlets in the sky."

(Adelstrop by Edward Thomas)

Just want to add two things to the above report

1) The morning was beautiful, full of butterflies and flowers. 5 minutes after the start there was a thistle-ridden verge of an arable field which had painted lady, gatekeeper, peacock, small tortoiseshell and skipper butterflies all over it. The meadowsweet came later by the river. On the Wild Brooks, more butterflies.

2) Two of us who lingered over these delights hooked up with four members of the main party on the terrace of the Sportsman, with its gorgeous panoramic views, and decided (six of us in all) to go off piste and go up onto the downs: a beautiful climb with more flowers and butterflies. At the top, alas, the skies clouded over, so it was rather grey on the walk down to Burpham, but again with luxuriant verge flowers as a compensation. We got to The George in Burpham for tea/drinks at 6pm (or rather 5.55pm: they made us wait the extra five minutes for the kitchens to open before they would take a pudding order), and we then took the river route to Arundel (with some drops of rain), getting the 8.30pm train from there.