Leg 5 to East Hoathly

Kings Standing to East Hoathly April 30th

After taking a "Rain Check" last Monday because of foul weather, today was a perfect walking day yet again - apart from the fact that my new boots got muddy! The wettest April for 150 years left its mark and the path was exceptionally wet and slippery in places.

We started out back at Kings Standing and walked across the Ashdown Forest to Camp Hill.

Here are a couple of "Mincers" feeling very at home on Camp Hill!

Below, a much better view from this spot.

 We walked down through woods at Barnsden and then on to Fairwarp where unfortunately we were too early to stop off at the Woodcutters Arms for refreshment. On to Five Ash Green and then across to Buxted Park. We stopped off at the 13th Century Buxted Church to see the wonderful stained glass windows.

Buxted Church

This leg of the walk was proving to be very demanding on the legs. The terrain was far more undulating than we had thought and being very wet under foot made for tiring walking. Add to this the fact that we were constantly crossing streams which meant short but steep drops and rises. Also, the constant need to play "Poo Sticks" at the bridges was causing delays!

Yet another round of "Poo Sticks" somewhere near Uckfield.





We plodded on following various streams and rivers often coming across some wonderful converted mills like the one below and passing through small coppice's full of Bluebells.

To be honest most of the time whilst we knew where we were on the map we didn't know where we were in relation to anywhere we knew and we came across some amazing places out of the blue.

Eventually we reached our end point at East Hoathly where we caught the bus back to Crowborough to pick up the car. Legs were exceptionally heavy by this point and the 45 mins wait for the bus was an excellent excuse for a pint at the village Pub!

Two memorable events during the day were the first sighting of a Cuckoo this year (one day earlier than the traditional UK arrival date of 1st may) and also watching a Skylark soar and sing. Its years since I have seen a Skylark and down on the Sussex Weald its clear they are still relatively common.

Stats for the day were...

Date	Steps	Distance (mi)	Time (min)	Calories	Average speed (mph)	Average pace (min/mi)	Elevation gain (feet)	Elevation loss (feet)
30/04/2012	26088	13.7	345	1741	2.4	25.2	2148	2607