26 gathered at the small Southease station and were later joined by one more starting in Lewes, making for 27 in total, including a few first timers. We set off under somewhat disappointingly cloudy skies with clear signs that it had been raining heavily recently.....but, as we approached the lunch pub, the skies starting clearing and many enjoyed their meals outside on the patio. All agreed the lunch portions were very substantial... making the steep push up the downs a challenge! The walk across the downs was fabulous -- bright clear skies with far views to the sea and white cliffs. Arriving in Rottingdean about 5 or 6 went swimming in near perfect conditions while another 5 or 6 relaxed on the beach. I believe most then caught the bus to Brighton. A fine day out in initially cloudy then clearing to warm sunny conditions.

Planning to come & will definitely swim

Catriona

Gorgeous walk, thank you Walker. Great to see some old faces

20 on this walk, braving a very crowded train to the coast. Despite this arriving at Lewes two minutes late, everyone (I think) made the connection to the Southease train. The skies were thickly clouded at this point, but soon cleared on arrival, and it was basically, as forecast, a day of hot sun .

After the river section in the morning the route went across a lot of arable fields, but these were bordered by interesting wildflowers on which butterflies (especially newly-emerged summer generation whites) were visible in abundance.

10 of us, accompanied in due course by 5 picknickers, had no trouble getting shady outside tables for lunch at the Juggs. This was being run on Biblical principles - ie the last to order got their food first. Thus, despite being told there would be a 45 minute wait, my food turned up in ten minutes, while earlier orderers waited half an hour or more, no doubt to the benefit of their immortal souls.

After lunch, we passed the profuse hollyhocks in Kingston village and made the steep climb up onto the downs. I got behind here, contemplating butterflies and downland flowers, and this got worse on the top of the downs where a kilometre or more of arable set-aside was awash with flowering knapweed, thistle and musk mallow, all fretted with whites and peacocks and walls (the last three being butterflies).

Consequently I lost touch with most of the group till Rottingdean and even there I only had partial accounts. Some may or may not have gone to the Grange for tea, and three others to the Trellis Tea Rooms. Five or so certainly got the bus in to Brighton, but did any walk?

What I can say with certainty is that ten of us swam in the sea, which was a delicious temperature - really delightful. Two swam 200 metres from the shore around the furthest buoy, with glorious views of the surrounding coast on the return leg to the shore.

Afterwards a gaggle of us went to the White Horse for tea, wine and cider, where there was debate about how to round off the day. The initially not-much favoured option of completing the circular walk to Southease eventually garnered a surprising five votes, and off we set for a lovely walk over the downs in golden light.

We got to Southease at 7.40pm, in time for a can of beer at the YHA (whose cafe is open for drinks at least till 8pm, it seems), and then got the 8.05pm train, stopping in Lewes to get takeaway pizza, and consuming this with other “supplies” on the not-too-busy 8.57pm train to London.

I may have got this wrong, and apologies if I have, but, according to National Rail Enquiries, the 09:16 Littlehampton train from Victoria does not call at Lewes.

However, the 09:46 train from Victoria to Ore and Littlehampton (dividing at Haywards Heath) does call at Lewes at 10:53, connecting with the 10:59 to Southease.

Well indeed, it's not the Littlehampton part of the Littlehampton & Eastbourne train that goes via Lewes, but the Eastbourne part. 9.16, be there or be square... (splits at Haywards Heath)

I stand corrected! I should have known better.

17 off the train, 1 outside the gates, 1 later overtaking us after having missed the posted train, i.e. 19 overcast to lunch then sunny

A well-timed posting of this walk, seeing that we had little mud, far views (even while it was still overcast) and glorious sunshine after lunch. The route as walked had not been posted before I have been assured by the walk's author, so it must be said that it works expremely well, especially in winter time with early darkness (the Southease finishers got to the station at 15.35, meaning there was enough time to frequent the cafe at the YHA Hostel before the 16.05 train (although only 3 took up that option).

Fine views on the usual westerly route out of Lewes via Kingston and then from the Downs (with a cooling breeze from the side), and on the descent into Rottingdean. 5 pub-lunched at The Plough Inn (by the village pond and church) and were joined by some picnickers. The others had strode on and apparently had tea at the cafe in Saltdean (minus the 3 that walked on to Brighton). Further fantastic views on the ascent out of Saltdean and then from the ridge.

There we bumped into a (no doubt up to no good Fox-) Hunt, followed by a handful of masked hunt saboteurs, with police and a couple of ambulances visible away to the left.

Most chose the road route down into the valley, only about a handful the valley route.

Attractive esplanade?

It is always a gamble picking a walk to post. The afternoon of this one can be bleak on a grey day, crossing featureless downs. But when the sun shines (as it did today) it is a glorious promenade across the heights, with the sun glittering off the sea ahead and sharp views to Newhaven, Seaford, Cuckmere Haven and - yes - even Belle Tout lighthouse as a speck on the horizon.

The day started less auspiciously. I left my Network Card at home and so had to pay full fare, and the 9.17 train was delayed for 45 minutes between Gatwick and Hayward’s Heath by a signal failure (I always love the unintended dual meaning in that phrase) at Balcombe. So we got to Southease an hour late. But had the posted train been the 10.17, Lord knows when we would have got there, as we left a chaos of cancelled trains in our wake.

Because of the delays, the 18 walkers at the start swelled to 25 or so as others who had eg come from Brighton materialised. We still got to the lunch pub at a reasonable time and it was not over busy. There were the usual warnings about meals maybe taking a while to cook but they nearly all arrived quickly. As we ate high cloud cleared to sun .

Some SWC types complain about “too many options” but on this walk all were appreciated. Two did the short walk to Southease to have time to visit Virginia Woolf’s house. The rest of the group went to Rottingdean but a good number - five or more? - then elected to do the long circuit back to Southease (I would love to know how they got on). Among those that remained there was some talk of sea swimming, but instead we tarried in the garden tea room of the library, enjoying the sun, and by the time we got to the beach the sun was low and the heat (and the moment) had gone. We had a nice walk along the cliff bottom promenade instead, two catching a bus just before the marina, three of us going to Kemp Town for tapas. Two of us the finished the walk to Brighton station for the 9.28 train, so all posted options got done.

All in all a lovely summer day out - except it is now autumn. Boo hoo.

4 plus one well-behaved dog did the long Southease circular walk and met the 2 who had visited Virginia Woolf's house at Southease station in time to catch the 18.36 train. The walk through Telscombe and on the South Downs Way was glorious in the evening sunshine. We passed fields of corn, ripening pumpkins and yet more apples for the taking. The walk directions were clear apart from point 7 where the faintness of the grassy path caused one walker to delay enabling another to catch up.

Sadly the cafe in Lewes station was closed but a machine taking only old pound coins provided some necessary refreshment.

A great day out in good company.

15 on this walk, sun and cloud then grey and windy . There were signal problems on the way down so we missed our connection at Lewes. Most of us decided to walk south along the river to connect up with the specified walk route: one waited 50 minutes for the next Southease train and still got to lunch not much later than us, one noted fast walker took a short cut to lunch….

A lovely sunny morning out on the flatlands, a pleasant lunch at the Juggs, and then the steep but very scenic climb up onto the downs (one of the best downs ascents we do, in my opinion). After that the clouds built up and it was really rather windy and autumnal. Despite this, four brave souls still plunged into grey seas with metre high waves for a sea swim at Rottingdean while a well-muffled lifeguard looked impassively on, and pronounced themselves well satisfied.

Two of us carried on along the promenade into Brighton and were rewarded with clearing skies, the wind dropping, and a very nice sunset swim near the pier