Cuckoo Trail

Cuckoo Trail Monday 16th July

Well it had to happen - RAIN. In the worst and wettest Summer on record we haven't been able to understand how we have achieved at least 9 day-long walks without hitting "Precipitation" but today made up for it! Ivan's physio had said some reasonable exercise was good for his bad knee so the two of us set out for a gentle walk along the old railway track now named the Cuckoo Trail from Heathfield. The weather said "Showers" but in reality with the constant dripping of water from the trees that overgrow the trail it didn't matter if it was raining or not, we got wet whatever! We decided that Trevor must be the "Good Weather God" and we missed him. Without a Cuckoo in sight it's highly probable that we were the Cuckoo's for being out in that weather.

This was a good walk for a guy with a dodgy knee - flat and well drained with mostly a tarmac path - but it was a bit uninspiring. Walking almost entirely through high trees obscured the views on either side, which, when we did get a glimpse, looked very nice.

Ivan wishing a train would come and give us a lift!

We walked the 4 miles to Horam; checked the watch and knee and decided we could push on a little further. After another mile and a half we about turned and as a particularly heavy shower hit us we nipped into Horam to find the nearest hostelry.

Getting out of waterproofs and with a nice pint in hand, we discovered a traditional "local" complete with a friendly bar lady (well bar girl to us old codgers where anyone under 50 must have just left school) and a cut price menu for the over-60's! It took us at least 20 mins to decide which of the OAP dishes we should sample but in the end the Bar Lady convinced us that the home made Curry was good so that's what we ate.

We intrepid walkers are not scared to accept help for the aged! Two curries for £9-95 on the OAP menu was irresistible.

Feeling righteous we set out in the rain again and made our way back to the Car at Heathfield.

Stats for the day (I had a small electronic malfunction and the pedometer - well I forgot to press the go button!) and so the first few miles have been estimated from the data for the rest of the walk.

Date	Steps	Distance (mi)	Time (min)	Calories	Average speed (mph)	Elevation gain (feet)	Elevation lost (feet)
16/07/2012	16059	8.6	198	1052	2.6	869	642