4th May 2010 Circular walk from Eridge railway station via Groombridge station on the Spa Valley Railway

The 4th May 2010 was not a particularly nice day for a walk. It was very cloudy a lot of the time, and the threat of rain was ever present. It was also rather cool out, but on a few occasions the sun did come out, and in the sunshine it did feel pleasantly warm.  As well as the weather not being too goog, I was not feeling too good myself. I usually like to eat very carefully the day before a walk, and sometimes the day before that too. On this occasion I had eaten most carelessly the previous two days and that made the going really hard until I warmed to the pace. A further complication was that I didn't realise just how many steep hills I would encounter on the route chosen. I did know that I would be starting on a particularly steep hill, but after that I expected things to be fairly flat. That was most definitely not the case, and even the second leg of the walk involved many hill climbs whereas I had imagined that I would be on level ground following a river valley.  All that hill climbing over a 6.15 mile walk managed to burn off a respectable 946 calories. In some respects I felt much fitter when I finished compared to when I started, but as usual it was my feet that were starting to let me down. They were not as sore as when I walked 9.5 miles, but it was a relief to get back home and put my feet up.  My choice of route on this occasion was because I wanted to see for myself the progress the Spa Valley Railway had made in their extension work from Groombridge to Eridge. My walk would take in both stations, and from various vanatge points I could see the state of the track Along the way I took photos of both railway stuff and countryside stuff. I have split these sets of photographs into two separate web pages. Both are worth a look but one or other may have a better appeal to some.
Click here, or on the picture to see my pictures of the countryside.		click here, or on the picture to see my rail pictures.