Walking the South Downs Way

Day 1 - Winchester to Meonstoke


The official starting point is King Alfred's statue and Eastbourne is 100 miles east.


Here's the route for the morning (all routes are external links to Google Maps)


You'll see that we stopped at the Millbury's pub for a lunchtime drink and defrost

And here's the afternoon route

We stayed at the Buck's Head in Meonstoke

Day 2 - Meonstoke to East Meon


It was rather muddy! Here's Karin negotiating the damp path on the way up to Old Winchester Hill


Here's our day 2 route

Day 3 - East Meon to Buriton.


It rained. But there was a lovely pub in Buriton where we had lunch and dried out ready to walk another mile to our B&B at Nursted Farm


Here's the day 3 route

Day 4 - Buriton to Cocking


The start of the day was misty and it rained again in the afternoon. This time we got very wet and the pub in Cocking was just closing. Luckily, Sue and Steve at the lovely Malthouse B&B were more than happy to let us in early and we changed into dry clothes. We had a lovely meal there and it turned out that Steve plays English trad music, so we had a jam session to round off the evening. We also met the Four Amigos for the first time - a group of retired chaps walking the same route as us.


Here's the day 4 route

Day 5 - Cocking to Amberley


The sun shone and all was well with the world. We walked part of the way with the Amigos and stayed at the Sportsman in Amberley.


Here's the route for day 5

Day 6 - Amberley to Steyning
This route took us past Chanctonbury Ring, an Iron Age hill fort and we were fortunate to be able to see the stunning views from the top.


The Chequers in Steyning was our only B&B disappointment and we parted company from the Four Amigos here as well.
Day 6 route

Day 7 - Steyning to Pyecombe


This took us over Devil's Dyke, where we met old friends Collette, Dave and Molly for lunch and they walked a short way along the SDW with us.


The descent into Pyecombe is dominated by views of the 2 windmills, Jack and Jill. Jill was working that day so we could see the sails turning. The B&B here, Hobbs Cottage, was fantastic.

Here's the route we took in the morning

And here's the route after our lunch

Day 8 - Pyecombe to Kingston-Near-Lewes


We went past the windmills and off to Kingston, where we stayed for 2 nights so we could have a good look round Lewes, the county town of East Sussex.


Here's the route

Day 9 - Kingston to Alfriston


Another sunny day and we had a very pleasant walk to Alfriston where we had a cream tea and visited the National Trust's Clergy House (link to NT website) - the first house purchased by the NT for £10 in 1896.


The route for day 9

Day 10 - Alfriston to Eastbourne


The final push took us over the Seven Sisters - a series of folds in the downs with sheer cliffs dropping down to the English Channel. Whilst a bit scary, it's good that there are no fences and that, in this health and safety paranoid world, people are trusted to make their own decisions about acting sensibly.
Here's the route for that last day


So, overall, we walked closer to 130 miles after taking into account diversions for interesting things and the extra walk to and from B&Bs


There are many more photos in this gallery.


Maps were collected by running Google MyTracks on a Samsung Galaxy Tab - and it worked very well.