Saturday 22nd March 2008
Haywards Heath - Horsted Keynes - Haywards Heath
11 miles
The last weather
forecast that Gill heard before we left this morning said "apocalyptic weather".
Well if the apocalypse was going to happen then we certainly didn't want to miss
it, so we jumped on a train to Haywards Heath, which we figured would be an
appropriate place for the four horsemen to appear.
We walked through the town to the village of Lindfield and from there out
through farmland to Horsted Keynes. We had presumed that the apocalypse would be
warm, possibly even quite hot, instead it was quite cold and wintry, and we got
caught in snow flurries all day. A lot of the land we went through was wooded
and wood anemones, wild daffodils and wild garlic covered the floor. The
addition of a dusting of snow made it all look very picturesque. A lot of the
woods were carpeted with bluebells as well although they had only just started
to flower. The real show should start in a week or so.
The walk also took in parts of the
Bluebell railway where the Railway Children was filmed. The steam trains
were running today and made a great soundtrack to the walk.
A lot of the footpaths were very muddy underfoot today and made the walking
quite energetic. By the end of the day we were more tired than we would normally
be after 11 miles.
The weather was really good for walking though and the snow was mostly falling as
tiny round balls, so it wasn't even wet. Mostly we had sunshine with black snow
clouds surrounding us that gave a very spectacular look to everything. If that's
what the apocalypse is going to be like then bring it on!
Part of the "Old Place" in Haywards Heath
The Bluebell railway
Horsted Keynes Church
Wood anemones, wild daffodils and
bluebells
A sun dial in the wall of the church at
Lindfield.