Hooksway walk on 10th May 2023

We gathered at the Royal Oak’s car park at Hooksway to egg each other on for the 4.8 miles of promised undulations with the threat of a significant ‘little hill’. The lung dilation started immediately on the first undulation as we left the car park through Phillis Wood. Part way up, we said a temporary goodbye to two walkers that wisely took a shortcut to save their bodies for future outings. On reaching the South Downs Way we continued on past the Devil’s Jumps and Monkton House where a peacock and pheasant announced their presence as off-key choristers. The Edwardian house was built to Edwin Lutyen’s design in 1902 but was not visible through the woodland. The route burst into the sunshine and open downland to reveal calves and their cows on one side and ewes and their lambs on the other as we headed towards Didling Hill where we turned off down towards Didling. John and Maureen’s guiding made sure we did not miss the path to descend to the Shepherd’s Church. Ash trees were being removed in this area due to Ash die back, the forester told us it would be five to six years for the virus to die off before they can replant the area with Ash. Our coffee stop was at the 13th Century Church overlooked by lambs and the ancient Yew tree that had survived an erroneous attempt to chop it down in 1945. Once refreshments including a bountiful supply of Canadian maple biscuits had been consumed, we headed towards Treyford at which point John took us up the ‘little hill’, definitely not an undulation! Then back up to the South Downs Way passing a spectacular wooded carpet of wild garlic. As we walked alongside Germanleith Copse there were bluebells and deer to admire before we were back at the Royal Oak, where drinks and lunch hit the spot for us all.