3 Men on a walk 2017: A leg-stretcher up the South Downs

Arlington to Alfriston - a two-peaks walk

Well as the first walk of 2017 and having not walked since before Christmas, we desperately needed to remove some of the seasons excesses and give the legs a good stretch. And the best place we know for doing that is our old friend the South Downs Way.

To make things a little different we parked up at Arlington Reservoir and walked from there to Wilmington and up the North face of the South Downs. As soon as we reached the top we reached the South Downs Way (SDW) and headed straight down into the Cuckmere Valley and the lovely ancient village of Alfriston where the Smugglers Inn awaited our custom for lunch.

Whilst Alfriston is a great place for lunch its position on the River Cuckmere means that any walk along the downs from it means a big climb up and out of the valley and we do hate big climbs directly after lunch! Still the wonderful views from the tops are worth the effort and it was great to be back up on the SDW. It wasn't long before we had to turn north again and traverse down the escarpment and make our way through the village of Berwick and back to the car at Alfriston.

We all agreed that the 10.5 miles and two hills was an excellent way to start the year. That was until we had to get out of the car after journeying home and found that the legs didn't want to move !