Kingley Vale: a first walk

It's really easy to slip into a rut. The weather takes a turn for the better, the urge to get out for a walk builds, and so you head out. But you make a beeline for one of your familiar haunts. For us, it's Pulborough Brooks, or Woods Mill, or WWT Arundel, or Nymans.

But one of the eldest's new school friends has walking parents, and they invited us to join them on a walk somewhere I've had on my “to-do” list for ages: Kingley Vale.

I can see why we avoided this one when the girls were younger. For one, some of the climbs are steep. The walk up towards the Devil's Humps reminded me that certain of my muscles, the ones used for going up and down hills, have been under-exercised of late. But, I grew up in Scotland's Ochils. I'm used to hills. While my girls have grown up in the shadow of the Downs, they've sent most of their time on the flat coastal strip. They need more hill time, badly.

The other reason it's less attractive to parents of young children: two carparks but no toilets. You need a certainly level of continence to enjoy a couple of hours in this vale…

Vale of views

Despite arriving nearly half an hour late, much to our embarrassment, we had a stunning loop up and around the vale, climbing up through the ancient woodland, and up onto the ridge, and the Devil's Humps.

It was perfect weather for it: warm, spring sunshine, with the birds singing and the plants blossoming. Warm enough that some of our party stripped down to t-shirts, but not so warm any of us were sweating.

The climb is worth it: you get a view over Chichester, and we could clearly see across the solent to the Isle of Wight. I immediately had a yearning to see this view in the autumn, when the browns and gold would make it stunning, Something to plan for…