SWC walk 22 - Balcombe Circular via Ardingly Reservoir, winter walk Length: 16.2km (10 miles)
Longer option: 18.1km (11.3 miles): see ** below Toughness: 4 out of 10
9.12 train from
London Bridge (9.25
East Croydon) to Balcombe, arriving 9.51
For
walk directions click
here (you only need pages 1-8, unless you want to do the longer option).
It has been a couple of years since the Balcombe Circular winter walk had an outing. It is designed to make use of lanes and firm tracks as much as possible, but it does inevitably have some mud. You start with a walk along quiet lanes and then pass under the magnificent
Ouse Valley Viaduct on the Brighton Line (more interesting than it sounds: see
comments for this walk), then passing
Ardingly Reservoir to climb up to Ardingly village for lunch.
Here the
Ardingly Arms is now the only lunch option. Its website has gone a bit more fancy so I am not sure if the food has done the same, but in the past it served hearty meals.
I have picked a train to get us to the pub early in case there is competition for tables (though this has never been a problem in the past) and also because after lunch it is 4 miles to Balcombe village and it is nice to get to the
Balcombe Tea Rooms in time. They close at 4.30pm, but will sometimes stay open a bit later for a group if you phone them to say you are coming. Otherwise, the nearby
Half Moon Inn sometimes has some of the tea room's cakes on offer at its bar, plus tea.
Trains back are at
22 past the hour. In the dark it is tempting to use the main road route to the station, but the recommended route down the back roads is only a bit longer and is very atmospheric at night.
** Longer option: Hard nuts and those keen to put the mud-resistant qualities of their boots to the test can, if they wish, do the
summer afternoon of this walk (
pages 12-16 of the walk document). It is only
1.3 miles longer, but is a
squelch-fest in winter
(as the walk author can attest, having researched it in a long-ago January. He reckons this makes him the only SWC-ite who has ever done this route in winter: YOU could be the second!!). It is also much more hilly. Astonishingly, the
Wakehurst Place Cafe is still open in winter (until 4.15pm), though you will have to be a speedy walker to both complete the walk route and get your chocolate cake in.
Nevertheless I have given you an early train, so it might be possible.