Walk til you Drip!

It wasn't the greatest weather forecast, and there had been several changes suggested for a Friday walk. Yet another storm was heading our way and with winds expected to be gusting along the coast, we opted to drive to an inland car park in Horam and ventured our efforts to walk the Cuckoo Trail north to Heathfield. A grey day which was likely to get greyer if the forecast was anything to go by.
At around a little over 2 miles, we considered this would be an ample round trip to enable whatever cobwebs had collected over the previous week to be blown away.
The water-proofs were to be put to their best test. Although as we headed uphill to Heathfield we encountered a collection of lesser dressed dog walkers and child-minders who were making leisurely strolls in the opposite direction. The frequency of Horam walkers lessened but after another mile they were exchanged by Heathfield dog walkers who were tempting their dogs out for some exercise. One in particular gave some ferocious growls and barks at one of our group which caused him to have second thoughts about approaching any others for the day.
The rain was relatively light and didn't seem to be affecting us too much. The pace was kicking along at around 2.5mph.
The cuckoo trail was claimed when the last railway connections between Eridge and Polegate, opening in 1880, was closed down in 1968 after a programme of closures put forward by Forest Row resident and British Transport Commission Chairman Dr Richard Beeching.

We walked toward Heathfield and discovered a local resident has used an old crossing gate as part of his fence that backs onto the footpath and other railway memorabilia adorn his garden.

We reached the destination point, the site of the Old Heathfield Railway Station where more skateboarders congregate nowadays than passengers for trains. We regretted not bringing our boards to test out the ramps... but then thought 'we don't own one between us'.

Heathfield High Street was full of Friday shoppers dodging the rain and the wind was increasing gradually.

We navigated our way back to the Trail as the wind and rain started to get stronger into our faces.
The pace didn't relent much and the trek back to the car park in Horam seemed a relatively easy task. It was a steady descent but at least it was the exact opposite as our ascent an hour earlier, so we knew what to expect, even though the landscape did look different from this approach. Dog walkers were fewer than before...
the car park was in sight and the drips from us contributed to the river that flowed by us before getting our boots off and driving home.