Sussex Scrapbook
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Nature walks throughout the year
Saturday 5th June 2010
Pulborough - Watersfield - Bignor - Amberley
10 miles
OS map 197 - Chichester & the South Downs.
Following on from our
last walk (down the Arun Valley from Billingshurst to Pulborough), today we
continued south on
The Wey South Path as far
as Greatham Bridge. Instead of continuing downriver across Amberley Wildbrooks,
we veered off westwards for a visit to beautiful Bignor before returning to the
Arun at Amberley for a well-earned, ice-cold cider.
Really hot today: a beaming 29o F in the shade by all accounts and by
the time we'd got to Coldwaltham Brooks I was ready to throw off all my clothes
and jump in with the Mallards. Unfortunately Gill was only in time to stop me
from jumping in! Luckily no one seemed to be about at all today, possibly due to
the severe conditions, but heatstroke's not a good enough reason to stop this
pair of nutters, so we were able to enjoy a fantastic day's walk in almost
complete solitude.
Our only concern was the impending 'climbing of Bignor Hill' and collapsing in a
pile of sweat near the top, but we needn't have worried, as by the time we got
there the sun was low in the sky and the temperature was edging back down to
that which is capable of sustaining human life.
Our last memory of the downs, as we again spied the river, was the five rats
that we'd seen nibbling on sweetcorn seeds, in a field full of rabbits. They all
seemed very happy and healthy, and as Gill was keen to point out, very
sweet-looking too. Rats - you gotta love em, you live with em (apparently)!
The urge to join in and dabble was almost over-powering.
Ah! Shady bits... phew!
Cardinal Beetle. Is that sunburn?
Speckled-Wood Butterfly.
Gill exhibits classic heat-stroke symptoms - tree-hugging.
A clump of Ragged Robin. We were a bit ragged by this point too.
Bignor churchyard is always a paradise of flowers in the summer. Today the main
theme was Ox-eye Daisies.
Wild Pansies too.
The church spire at Bury seen from
The South Downs Way on
Bury Hill.
Looking down on Amberley, the end of the walk, and most importantly... the pub!