Mud . mud, glorious mud! 11 miles from Itchingfield.

6th February 2021

With lockdown still in place I met up with a friend to walk in Itchingfield which was on my way home.

As it turned out, the predominant feature of this walk was mud; from thick sludgy mud to wet slush, we got to experience it all!

The walk started from Itchingfield church and wended its muddy way to the Downs Link which is a path along a disused railway line (so slightly less mud here!).

Although we've had a lot of rain recently we did get some sunshine and blue skies early on in the walk.

And from the Downs Link there was a view of Christ's Hospital in the distance.  Christ's Hospital started as a school to educate and take care of the destitute children of London in Tudor England.  It moved to this location in 1902 and has its own railway station.

Not long after passing Christ's Hospital (sadly, no good views) we turned off the Downs Link and went back to crossing fields - and more mud - as we headed south.

I loved these very cheerful flowers - there is a sunflower in the background too.

More mud!

Thick oozy mud and lots of water made walking very interesting!

Having gone about six miles we turned west and had a short stretch along a lane and we passed a house with this in their garden.  A lovely collection of old signs and bikes as well as the old style petrol pump.  

Have I mentioned that this was a muddy walk?  Unbelievably the footpath went straight across this ploughed field and the mud was so deep I wasn't sure I was going to get across without leaving a boot behind!

These are my boots after crossing that mud!  Fortunately the field we then walked through was flooded so the boots were clean by the time we got to the next stile!

After that we turned north and started back towards Itchingfield Church.

The walk was 11 miles in total.  I quite enjoyed it even with all the mud.  There is some lovely countryside and in better weather there might even be some views.

The GPX of this walk can be downloaded here and you are welcome to try it out for yourself.  Please remember that you walk it at your own risk and don’t forget to follow the Countryside Code.

If you do download the walk I ask that you make a £1 donation to my fundraising which can be found here.

Many thanks and enjoy this walk.