Five Hills long walk on 8th November 2022

The weather forecast from three Apps was promising, sunny intervals with light showers for the 18 mile jaunt from the car park at Older Hill. The rainbow at the viewpoint at Older Hill we felt was a portent that the weather deities were with us. The walk leader, Paul suggested we start at 09:00 to ensure we finished in daylight. In the team esprit of total belief everyone brought a torch. The first hill of Older Hill conquered, we set off north through Heathfield Rough, skirting round the Hollycombe Steam Collection for our second peak at Parkgate Copse before disrobing excess layers due to the heat whilst enjoying the views. No sooner than we had reduced our attire, the ‘light showers’ commenced necessitating a raingear stop before manfully striding our way across Stanley Common dropping down the valley to start the climb to Linchmere Common picking up the Sussex Border Path. We crested the third peak at Marley Common slightly behind schedule but stopped for a coffee and Polish fudge break in the sunshine. The route plunged off the common down to Bell Road to facilitate the next ascent to Black Down, the fourth peak following the Sussex Border Path. The weather was being good to us as we looked forward with eager anticipation to our well earned lunch. Our leader took the opportunity to show us the distant hills we had traversed, but being shrouded in mist we took his word for it. The smugness of our exploits to that time proved to be our downfall. The short distance to the Temple of the Winds on Black Down gave the Temple of the Winds time to call up their friends ‘heavy rainfall’ for a demonstration storm dance together. The lack of wind and rain shelter made the Temple uninviting for our lunch break, so we scurried down the hill to take shelter under trees for lunch. Driving rain did its best to dampen the lunchtime spirit, but the welcome Polish sausages banished thoughts of misery and discussions about the meaning of ‘light showers’ in meteorological circles. The efficacy of our waterproof attire was proven to each of us by this point. The inducement of the weather to tarry over lunch returned us to our leader’s time schedule. Descending to Blackdown Farm saw the sun break out to warm and dry us as we skirted the vineyards to Verdley Woods for the climb to Bexleyhill. The continued sunshine at Bexleyhill gave the encouragement to remove raingear, have a tea break and demolish a communal bar of decidedly foreign chocolate. The final leg of the walk took us along roads south of Henley past the King Edward VII Estate to pick up the Serpentine Trail back to the car park at Older Hill. It was still daylight when we finished.