Sussex Scrapbook
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Nature walks in Sussex throughout the year
Sunday 21st June 2009 -
Summer solstice.
Horsham - Nuthurst - Monk's Gate - Mannings Heath - Horsham
9 miles
Well one of us got up
at 04:30 to see the sun come up and toast the solstice with a cuppa: no prizes
for guessing which one of us that was.
Anyway, we needed to take the train to our start point today, as the
final-drive belt on the Harley is just about to snap: it's already ripped
half-way across and has been for a few weeks now. Fixing it will swallow about
500 of your Earth pounds and so it'll just have to cope until I can save up
(please don't break!). Needless to say, we can't expect it to haul both of us
and all of our gear without giving up the ghost. So in
Southern
Railways we put our faith, for a very short hop to
Horsham.
The walking on this route is very easy with only very low hills, but the terrain
was made up of ancient woods and meadows full of flowers and grasses. Birdsong
and bird activity was going on everywhere, with fledglings of all sorts still
making demands on already tired out parents.
As we approached Mannings Heath, we came across a familiar face: it was the
actor
Peter
Vaughan,
famous for playing Grouty in
Porridge. As an ex Crawley boy himself, we had a reason to stop and have a
little chat with him. He was a very nice, friendly man, not at all like his
on-screen character.
We stopped at the village green to drink tea and watch the cricket for a while
before setting off on the last stretch back to Horsham.
Healthy walkers who need to sit down? That's us!
Cinnabar Moths feeding on thistle
Lots of meadows left fallow for us to enjoy
Nuthurst Church. Another Sussex church with a wooden steeple full of
woodpecker holes.
Medieval coffer
One of King Alfred's cakes
Cricket on the green at Mannings Heath
A 'used'
Wren's egg that Gill found on the
footpath. Less than 1 cm across!
