Day 3 of 8 hiking days. The lodging properties that our hiking outfitter selected includes breakfast. This morning’s meal at the Blue Bell Inn in Cocking was our best yet. Bob got a breakfast burger (egg, sausage, bacon, hash brown, and mushroom) that came with fries, and Beth got a vegetarian main. Both were tasty.
Today’s route took us from Cocking to Amberley. Checking our weather apps, we saw chances of rain around 9-10 am, so we got out ahead of it so we might get an initial big hill in prior to the rain. We succeeded, but Bob saw on radar a fairly big system likely to pass through at 10:30. We were prepared for it, but the wind and rain for awhile was fairly intense. Luckily, both came from behind and slightly to the right, so as we had trees on our right-side, they helped serve as a buffer to both. Of course, the rain increased the muddiness of the trail.
Even after the front went through, the wind stayed strong and was mostly at our backs, pushing us to Amberley. The mileage today of 12 miles was significantly lower than the 21 and 20 miles we had the previous two days, which allowed us to get to town early. We couldn’t check-in until 3pm, so we walked around the small town.
an open field after the rain.
as it helped with the wind and muddy fields.
for Toby Wentworth-Fitzwilliam,
one time secretary of the Cowdray Hounds (trail hunting)
close to where we turned to head into Amberley
(open as hotel and restaurant)
Peckish Travels 