Nettle Alley, a mythical bull and a BIG hill...

aka as walking from Pulborough to Amberley - 10.7miles...

Craig, Julia and I headed off on a walk yesterday - a new one that had only been checked once by the person who submitted it to the Time Out website. We normally do our walks from the published books, but had been struggling to find one that we fancied then I saw this one...

After fighting through a large patch of bracken, avoiding the gorse we had felt quite proud of ourselves (see photo below). There was a path somewhere through it but we couldn't find one! It wasn't too bad until we got to the path forever known as Nettle Alley - accompanied by a loudly barking dog the only way was through the nettles - cue much screaming and swearing. And lots of stinging legs and arms for the rest of the day... Craig rezipped the legs of his walking trou back on - while I stupidly neglected to realise that I could have pulled up my socks which would have afforded my poor wee shins some protection.

And before anyone posts a comments telling us to look for dock leaves as 'they always grow by nettles' we have decided that is an urban legend. We didn't see any dock leaves and boy did we need them!

Then we got to the field that was roped off because of the bull. Apparently it is illegal to keep bulls in fields that are public right of ways, but this farmer wasn't having any of it. According to some other walkers we met, they said there was no bull but Julia and I weren't prepared to risk it. So 1KM around the road instead and we picked up the walk route again.

Then it was straight up to the top of the South Downs (check out the view behind me and Julia below) which was a tough stretch but well worth it for the views at the top. Then it was along the South Downs Way and back into Amberley for a well deserved drink while we waited for our train back to London. Cracking day and not a bad walk - all things considered!