The South Downs Way – A Sunday Picture Special

Eleven years ago, on 12 February 2010, I set off on from Winchester to walk to Exton.

It was my first day on the South Downs Way National Trail, a 161km long National Trail.

I was living in London at the time and had done many day walks in the area. I knew some parts of it very well. But I’d never tried to do the whole trail. Indeed the South Downs Way was only the second walking trail I’d done, coming after the Cumbria Way the previous summer.

I walked it over four weekends, the last with a group of friends, arriving at the end in Eastbourne two months later. A few weeks earlier, the trail found itself in the United Kingdom’s newest National Park. A much deserved addition to the countryside.

It remains one of my favourite trails, thanks to the stunning scenery of the South Downs. It features, for instance, the stunning white cliffs of the Seven Sisters. There’s sweeping panoramics from the downsland. Wonderful windmills. Big skies.

Oh those blue skies. The late winter sunshine. In many ways it was amazing how well I did with the weather on that trip given I was walking in the early part of the year. It didn’t rain once, and by the time I did the final sections in April, the weather was glorious.

True, it did rain at least once. And there was a lot of mud in some sections. And some of the fields were being ploughed and didn’t look their best. But that’s not what I really remember. I remember a wonderful landscape. I remember taking pictures of shadows on the hillside. A beautiful sunset near a partially built windmill.

I remember it with joy. With happiness. And with a deep, very distinct desire to go back and do it all over again.