Twenty-seven Pang Valleyers braved the M25 to arrive in picturesque and historic Bramber for a weekend’s walking in early October.
A short walk on the Friday explored the few remaining ruins of Bramber Castle, originally constructed in 1070, the interesting St Botolph’s Church, and made us play chicken across the busy bypass to return to the hotel. On Saturday, we had a choice of a 9.5 or 6.25 mile walk. Somewhat surprisingly 19 of us chose the longer walk – it would be great to see that reflected in the normal Sunday 10 mile walks! Perhaps the most difficult part was trying not to drive 
past the car park entrance, but Hilary helpfully stood at the road side and waved everyone in. After that it was a steady climb, reaching the Iron Age fort of Cissbury Ring for our packed lunch, with a panoramic vista – and not a selfie stick in sight! We then had to drop down, before a further climb to the Chanctonbury Ring, again with wonderful views. The shorter walk was from the hotel across the River Adur, climbing up to the South Downs, with views across the Weald, then returning along the Monarchs Way to Bramber. On Sunday, we walked through the village, pausing for an impromptu talk from Chris about the 15th century St Mary’s House. From Upper Beeding, we climbed up the Downs to see glorious views of the Weald, before dropping steeply to Tottington Manor, and on to Small Dole. The return was along the flat riverbank, but made more challenging by some difficult styles.
The Old Tollgate hotel was comfortable – some people even had sumptuous accommodation. We ate a lot – or at least a lot of food was on offer. If you felt you deserved you cream teas on Friday and Saturday for all that walking, you were probably wrong as I am sure we ate and drank more calories than we burnt off over the weekend. Dinners were an eat-what-you-can carvery, breakfast was plentiful (too much, someone said), and there was good beer and other drinks on offer. Some of us also felt the need to help the local economy, with a short 0.5 mile walk (no styles and no ascent) to another hostelry in the evening.
For many, it was a “blast from the past”, as we had former chairman John as our main walk leader for the weekend, with his colleague Jacqueline leading the other walk on Saturday. John had laid on remarkably good weather, with only a hint of rain as we neared the end of the Sunday walk, which caught out those who had believed the weather forecast. Thanks are due to John, and to Pauline who negotiated the deal with the hotel, quite relentlessly – I know, because I heard some of the conversations. Everyone seemed to enjoy the weekend, so if you weren’t there, you “missed yourself”. Ask me or Google it!
Next year, Wells in Somerset – put a tentative note in your diaries for October.