Jevington, Gallops & Friston Forest

The group today was depleted to 3 men and 2 accompanying dogs who had been out a few weeks previous. The meeting place was Butts Brow overlooking Willingdon with an intention to walk down into Jevington.
The weather was overcast, still and a little humid to be honest, as we walked down the first protected footpath as sheep watched us from the safety of their field. We cautiously traversed our way through gateways in which livestock had previously gathered and trod a muddy trail. The first mile was soon over as we made our final descent into Jevington. Crossing the road outside the birthplace of the Banoffii Pie (the now closed Hungry Monk restaurant) caused a little tricky as the A27 had been closed due to an accident and much of the traffic wishing to travel west and east were squeezing their way through the village of Jevington.

The dogs were only on their lead for a few minutes before they were puffing their way pass the church and looking through the fence of the horse paddocks with patches of buttercup carpet. Meanwhile the horses were being stirred into action by a handler in the field, but only run horse obliged by galloping around the field.

We ventured to the summit of the hill whilst the dogs took refuge in a conveniently positioned puddle, submerging themselves for a cooling bathe and drink.

The sight of Lullington Heath National Nature Reserve came into view and decided to cross a portion of it in order to get to Friston Forest. There was a misty landscape in front of us, but the sound, when we stopped, was deprived of everything except birdsong both in the the trees and on the wing.
We eventually reached a gate and whilst our initial route was to turn left, we reconsidered this option as we encountered a lonesome long horned bullock who was static yet determined to stare us out. The dogs didn't appear too troubled, however we continued on our path and took the next left, leaving the stare behind us, daring not to look back.

We were soon on one of the trackways through the forest with an aim to get to cross the gallops which overlooked the Jevington Road.
Piles of logs were neatly stacked at intervals along the road, marked and probably ready for collection at some point later. The logs had curiously coded markings on them... 'logalog' and 'stack 3'.
We exchanged 'good morning' pleasantries with several horse riders as we finally reached the bench overlooking the gallops which were looking less than overused with grass growing to a harvestable length.

We stopped and sat whilst the dogs rested and we recharged our stamina batteries.

During our steady descent down towards the main link road between Polegate and East Dean our eyes were caught by a vibrant red poppy on its own and a little further discovered several 'egg and bacon' plants.

We were soon passing by the old Hungry Monk building again. This time we would walk towards the 8 Bells Pub via the church to make the final ascent to Butts Brow. The pub were advertising a special 80's sing-a-long night that evening...

Our steady walk back up the hill was greeted at the top with more views to the north hampered by a grey mist hanging over the distant landscape. We then turned the corner across the top of the hill to see more of Eastbourne. There was, by this time, a more frequent passing of other dog walkers, eventually reaching the car park after our 5.5 mile walk.