Our latest practice hike

After our abortive 2nd practice hike (thanks to the Goodwood Festival Of Speed and a nasty bee sting), it was great to pull the boots on again and head out on another practice hike.

The aim was really to do some gradient rather than just distance and we had 3 steep-ish hills to tackle.

We started from Jack & Jill windmills in a group of 11 - Ben, George, Aidan, April, Joe, Lewis, Jude and Freya, plus David Mott, Roger & Dave Allen. From there we headed to New Barn Farm and then along the South Downs Way past Pyecombe Golf Club (pic 1 and 2).

We went through the east side of Pyecombe (pic 3), crossed the A23 and had to pause for a few minutes to re-tie boot laces and patch up George, who fell over and cut his knee.

We continued up West Hill (pic 4) and over to the edge of Saddlescombe then stopped for an early lunch. We sat and chatted for half an hour then loaded up and headed back up the other side of the hill and headed for the west side of Pyecombe and another A23 crossing, with views back to our start and finish point (pic 5).

We wound through Pyecombe and up the steepest hill of the day. The wind had whipped up by this stage and we thought that there was a strong chance of rain (although the threat looked less strong once I had taken my sunglasses off!).

We continued north to the Jack & Jill windmills then had a quick dash across the A273 to the comparative sanctuary of Underhill Lane.

We continued along there for only a few hundred metres before cutting back up the scarp face of the South Downs and back to our start point.

It was a good day out and there were some strong performances.
Of some concern, though, is that with only 2 practice hikes remaining, many of our Kandersteg party have yet to appear on one of our hikes. Those that do them will feel the benefit in 3 weeks time!

Our next hike is on the 28th - hope to see you all there!

Dave