Day eleven – Amberley to A285 near Upwaltham

Day eleven – Amberley to A285 near Upwaltham 

“She walked by a field of gold"

I crossed a bridge over a river and came across some buffalo in a field of sheep.   Albeit a different species, they had real Horn of Plenty style horns, resembling also traditional blow horns.     

Leaving the river behind and starting to climb the hill once again, I was taken with the crop this farmer had grown.  Up close it looks similar to wheat although with a fine hair on top.  From a distance it is a exquisitely fine lime green carpet. 

In contrast to this beauty, I found the next section a hard slog.  I was going up a hill, but there were a lot of cyclists on their way down, also too when going along the top on the narrow pathways.  One duo stopped to let me pass because they were on a tandem.  They said it was harder to control when there were two of you and I thought I wouldn't feel very safe on a tandem descending the South Downs. 

At one point I thought it may be death-by-bike!  I went to move out the way and one of the cyclists did too.  I was then faced with a wall of them in a line coming straight at me.  Okay, in reality it wasn't so quite so dramatic, but you get an idea!      

Up a steep hill there is a monument to a sailor and Hunter, plus a few other people.   Behind this were two men erecting something.  It took me a while to process what it was, but I eventually made out it was a ginormous aerial.  I'm not sure what they were going to use it for.     

Now here's where I had to explore two paths due to ambiguous signage.  First I walked through a little flower meadow, which was very pretty, but in the end it turned out to be the second route and I would have known this instantly had I taken it first as there was another sign imminently.  It added in a little extra walking, but wasn’t a disaster. 

I met a funny sheep farther along shimmying.   I’m sure he probably just had mites or fleas, but it looked like he was dancing.   He was in a field with others and they had all obviously been shorn very recently for their coats were white as snow.  Unless of course the farmer uses Daz to wash his sheep.      

Today's walk had been difficult, so when I came to a brow of a hill and saw a glowing yellow field ahead of me at the bottom, it was a little like the gold pot at the bottom of the rainbow finally being found.  I imagined it was buttercups or some other kind of flower, but as I neared I realised it was dead grass!  It was a moment that your brain can't quite process: how can such a stunning sight, end up being just a collection of failing leaves.  Still, it was a lovely image while it lasted and I guess shows there is beauty in everything.

Fortunately, the last slope was downhill for me, however I met a cycling club on the way down. The youngsters were about 9 and I was very impressed that they would tackle such a hill. Admittedly some looked like they were struggling, but the adults around them were very encouraging and I'm sure they will have made it to the top eventually.