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About us and our site.

Our online scrapbook is essential if we're going to remember where we've been and what we've seen. This is because we've got the most appalling memories imaginable and would forget everything in less than a week without a good scrapbook to put all of our mementoes in. We've already got loads of the old-fashioned, paper ones, but they take up far too much room: the website also creates far less dust.
Sussex Scrapbook also acts as a vehicle for showing off our beautiful county of Sussex, with suggested walks. We've taken it upon ourselves to combine West and East Sussex into one large shire and our hope is that our site will encourage you to take advantage of its fantastic network of footpaths for yourself and discover the many hidden treasures that our home has to offer.
Happy exploring.

'Walking is Man's best medicine'
Hippocrates


Andy started hiking at the age of around 11 or 12 when he was forced by the school against his will, up onto the South Downs and later made to trudge up and down rainy hills in Wales. This was back in the days when schools were still allowed to kill you in any way they could think of, without anybody being sued. However, despite the sadistic teachers, the seemingly continuous downpours and the howling wind: the wild beauty of the hills and mountains, the intense feeling of freedom that scaling them awoke in him and the physical challenges involved in doing it, developed into a real love for stomping around in the countryside. Subsequent training in the Scouts supplied the outdoor skills and experience to continue the hobby and in 1978 at the age of 16 he walked the 300 miles of the Pennine Way with a school friend. It took over three weeks of wading through knee-deep mud, over some of the harshest environments in Britain to reach the end, and it literally nearly killed him (hypothermia, a torn Achille's tendon and exhaustion). He doesn't have much recollection of what they lived on, but it was most likely tea, biscuits and jam sandwiches.
Since then he's continued hiking, but has taken a lot more trouble about doing it well. Enjoyment, relaxation and exercise are the main reasons for doing it, so safety and comfort are of paramount importance.

Dr Andy BSc PhD is now a holder of the Mountain Leader Award, is the Scouter-in-charge at 1st Crawley Scouts (12 years a leader) and regularly takes groups of young people camping, hiking and up into the British mountains. In 2018/19 he spent six weeks walking alone in the wintry Nepal Himalaya but can also be found wandering aimlessly almost anywhere in Britain but especially on The South Downs.

Several of our videos have turned up on TV, including Springwatch and several of the photos on our little website have also been published which shows that we must have been doing something right, on at least several occasions!

When not wearing out boot leather he and Gill can instead be found tending to their garden, allotment and their thriving bee farm or burning rubber on their bike.

Andy imbibes foot-fuel at Mount Caburn.  


On teaming up with Andy in the first year of the new millennium, Gill was immediately squad marched along the treacherous coastal path on the Isle of Man, dragged kicking and screaming along the South Downs Way and even forced up Snowden by the evil maniac. Finally, after being pulled from her comfortable warm bed and tortured in this way for months on end, she finally had to confess that she'd come to love it too (Andy says its called Stockholm Syndrome). Since then she's gone on to become a highly experienced hiker in her own right and can now get out of bed on a Saturday morning herself, without being pulled out by the ankle.
Together they could quite happily walk to the ends of the Earth, as long as there was tea and cake halfway.




"Star shine"
by Diane Ibbotson
Oil on canvas


"Hiking"
James Walker Tucker 1939

"If you pick 'em up, O Lord, I'll put 'em down"
Prayer of the tired walker.


'Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light'
Helen Keller