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Saturday 27th October 2007
Lewes - Alfriston - Berwick
15 miles

It was time we had a much longer walk with lots more uphill sections than recently, so we planned a 15 miler from Lewes train station, South along the River Ouse past Rodmell to Southease, then East along the Downs over Firle beacon and Bostall Hill to the pretty village of Alfriston. From there we would go North to Berwick church and then onto the small train station of Berwick a mile or so further on. We were hoping for lots of fungi on the Downs at Firle beacon and we were not disappointed. There were so many types there that if we had stopped to identify them all we would still be there now. We also had great views of a
Peregrine flying over towards Newhaven for its lunch.
There are lots of
tumuli on the downs here and we made use of their cover to take in the stunning views of patchwork Sussex away as far as the North Downs and southwards to Newhaven. The hills are very broad here and the rolling patterns they create, covered in dots of sheep, are very special. We did actually came across a sheep lying by a fence in apparently a bad way. We don't have any idea what was wrong, but it allowed us to come up to it and stroke its head.
We had a huge piece of chocolate cake in the tea shop in Alfriston as well as about 4 cups of tea before setting off again as the sun started to sink so the last stretch of the walk was done in darkness, which was great and gave a completely different view of things.
The weather today was perfect for hiking with a fresh breeze, lots of sun and interesting cloud patterns, we even saw a colourful
parhelion or "sun dog" as the sun was going down.


Goldfinch


Firle beacon in the distance as we walk along the Ouse.


Gill crossing the Southease Road bridge, built for hikers and riders and opened last year.


An Eyed Ladybird that visited us while we were eating lunch.


Sick sheep.


Berwick Church. The inside is covered in paintings by members of the Bloomsbury Set who all lived in nearby Charleston.