This report is hopefully better late than never.  On October 29th I turned up for Jan’s latest walk because her description was flat and short, two words I always look for … this turned out to be misleading but I enjoyed it nonetheless, and felt very proud of myself when I finished.

The walk was around the Steyning Bowl on the South Downs Way to Bramber Beeches.  The Bramber Beeches are a small triangular clump of trees which were bought with money donated by branches of the Womens Insitute from all over West Sussex, to mark the Sussex WI’s diamond jubilee in 1979 – a fittingly local tribute, especially as the first ever WI meeting took place in Sussex in the Fox at Charlton.

The first surprise was seeing double as Jan’s sister Jacky was with us, no they are not twins, just 2 years apart – I won’t embarrass one of them by saying who is the older!

We set off along the Steyning bowl overlooking Steyning.  No ,the way wasn’t flat – more like a long gradual slope – I had to stop several times to catch my breath, very envious of the sisters, Diane, Heather and Karen who seemed to manage it splendidly!  It was an interesting walk with views right out to sea, a pig farm with plenty of little piglets, and the field used by the Sussex radio controlled flying club, unfortunately not flying that day.

When we reached The Beeches we set to clearing the nettles, brambles and rubbish from around the commemoration stone, and the path down to some very convenient benches where we could rest and enjoy the view.  Jan very kindly provided us with much needed Kit Kats!

The way back was a bit of a slog as the rain which had been threatening us all day, finally arrived – we got back to the cars rather soaked.

Jacky had set her smart phone so we had concrete proof of how far we had walked – 4.9 miles- not short by my reckoning, as I usually manage 3!!

However Jan you are forgiven as I very much enjoyed my day out in the fresh air with lovely companions.  Thank you for organising a really interesting walk.

For more photos please click here.

Kate Claisse