Sussex Scrapbook
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Nature walks throughout the year
Saturday 6th February 2010
Burton Mill - Sutton End - Sutton - Barlavington Down - Duncton - Burton Mill
7 miles
The plan for today was
very simple: bike it down
to
Burton Mill Pond; tramp around its surrounding nature reserve; invade
several, small, unsuspecting villages; stomp our way o'er woods and fields;
scramble and sweat up onto Barlavington Down; slither and slide off Duncton
Down; capture a rare
Bittern just before sunset (optically you understand), then hack off home
again via the fabled
A272. All of this to be accompanied by copious amounts of strong tea and
fruitcake of course!
The plan went almost perfectly. We biked, tramped, invaded, stomped, scrambled,
sweated, slithered, slid and even momentarily captured (woo hoo!). We even
slurped and chomped. It was when we came to hack, that we realised that
for the first time ever, we were very close to running out of petrol. The nearby
garage that I had (stupidly) been depending on was shut... for good! I'd got at
the very most 10 miles left in my tank and not a clue as to where the next dose
of jungle juice was to be had. Images of 'she who must be obeyed' stranded at
the side of the road, at night, in February, waiting for the RAC came to mind. A
large deficit in my brownie point account was a very likely outcome. What to do?
Using new-fangled, alien technology we were able to find the
nearest petrol station using my phone's GPS system. By using the browser we
also found their phone number. A quick phone call confirmed they were indeed
still open for business. AMAZING! We don't use any of this technology when out
walking as we prefer to be 'old school' and use a map and compass, but in
motoring terms this tech certainly paid for its keep and saved our bacon this
evening.
Burton Mill Pond - home of the Bitterns.
Sutton Church of St John The Baptist.
Sussex is already starting to look spring-like. It definitely felt like it
today.
Sutton Village as part of a large embroidery in the church.
Oil painting in Sutton Church of the view to Chanctonbury from Barlavington
Down.
Lichen is plastered all over the churchyard.
Out between the villages catkins have burst...
... and Snowdrops have popped!
Nosey Fallow Deer
Our view of Chanctonbury from Barlavington Down was hazy due to evaporating
water in the air.
Through the woods in the picture we seemed to be surrounded by hunters.
Shots were going off all around
and at one point the spent shot was falling down around us.
Quite unnerving to say the least.
The memorial on Barlavington Down to
Sir Ian Fife Anstruther, 8th Baronet of Balcaskie and 13th
Baronet of Anstruther.
Sir Ian was a keen walker of the South Downs and he has a fine view of them for
all eternity.
Duncton Church. Time for another cuppa.
We spent a lot of time on
The Literary Trail today and the roads we did touch on all had Wildlife
Verges.
We arrived back at Burton Park House just
before golden hour, giving us time to get back to the pond for some Bittern
hunting before dark.