6 at the station, 2 of whom decided to go south in case it started raining. An over-optimistic 4 set off on the northern loop. The rain started at the top of the hill, light at first, then hail, then heavier rain. So mostly wet .

All was going swimmingly (in both senses of the word) until we crossed the bridge over the Rother. Guess what, readers, the path along the Rother was closed. For flood defence work. Frowny face.

It will be closed till October. Frowny frowny face.

Luckily one of our number was adept with his gizmo and maps and stuff and identified paths through the marsh that would lead us home. I say ‘luckily’, that’s maybe not the best word. Whoever thought marshes would be wet? We had to cross many an impromptu river, and make many a detour past an impromptu lagoon before we reached Rye. Mr Tiger’s socks were wet. Very wet.

Once there, we ventured into the Ship Inn where three ordered slap up meals. They deemed the food good. After a pint of beer (also good), Mr Tiger made his excuses and left, needing to rush home and shake any surviving frogs out of his boots.

Safe to say people enjoyed the walk despite the arduous conditions.

Pleasingly, Southern have indeed taken to running longer trains on the Marshlink line, so the connecting train was busy but had seats for all. We started in sunshine and found the initial route north out of Rye quite interesting, with some views and interesting buildings and churches. The next section (River Rother to Iden) was a touch less interesting I felt as it basically is just flat pastures without views and the odd bit of woodland. At Iden we stopped for refreshments at The Bell.

The return route to Rye is more undulating and therefore more rewarding. All in: a good start to the walk.

We'd been 7 off the train, with 1 other coming in from Brighton who had his train running out of fuel!, so was stuck in Hastings for a while and was always behind the group all day. At the lunch stop in Rye, the garden of the Ypres Castle pub, we were met by two others though: one was unable to make the posted train, so had planned to be an hour behind but then saw that train cancelled (the one that run out of fuel en route to Ashford?), so now being 2 hours behind, abandoned the idea of doing the morning loop altogether; and [you probably expect this] the walk author was also waiting to join us for the afternoon loop, i.e. 10 .

The sky was now more dominated by grey clouds and at one point it even threatened to rain, but it never did, not where we were anyway (you could see sheets of rain not far away though at various times). That made for big skies and beautiful cloudscapes over the marshes that came next after an extensive meandering loop through Rye itself: the enormous Camber Castle, lakes, bird hides, shingle deserts, Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, the Sea. Very enjoyable this although the long last stretch back along the coast and river Rother to Rye Harbour is entirely along tarmac. 2 took the shortcut in the marshes (i.e. the normal walk route), while the Walk Author and the picknickers had left first from the Ypres Castle pub anyway and we only met them again just before the William the Conqueror in Rye Harbour, where we then had a well deserved break at an outside table, now again with blue skies. Still 40 minutes to walk from there back to the station, catching the 18.48 (apart from 1 walker who is overnighting in Rye). mostly sunny

All in: very little overlap with the other walks in/around Rye, and a fine walk at it (and with loads of blackberries).