Berwick to Horam

We start our trip not knowing how many days we will be walking, having booked just one bed and breakfast in Horam (the May Garland Inn).

Our taxi from Eastbourne arrives at Berwick on a rainy Sunday morning, we unload and get Arthur in the carrier straight away, the rain and distance we need to cover today mean he likely wont be able to walk much.

We head north/north-west along the Vanguard Way, the rain making for muddy paths and fields. Tanya carries most of our gear, clothes, food, water etc, I am carrying Arthur in the Little Life carrier, he's 3 and a half now but it's still very workable with his weight.

Arthur identifies some 'Molehills' (large piles of earth in a line across a field) as we make our way past Ludlay farm and on towards Mays farm where we get lovely views back across the Low Weald.

Two fields of mud later we land on a welcome road, we share the route with numerous joggers and work our way past Chalvington and onto a bridleway, we pass horses (being careful as the carrier tends to make then uneasy) and continue up the path towards Marnhull farm house.

Arthur aquires my camera and takes about 400 photos, we decide to try and get him his own camera before the next trip, something lighter with very good battery life and large memory card to accomodate his trigger-happy approach to photography.

We've taken Arthur out of the carrier by now for a walk along this stretch of the trail, he plays with sticks, chases us and watches the tractors and horses as they pass by.

The rain starts again so we get him back in the carrier, eat a few snacks and make our way off the road and up towards Limekiln farm, we catch a rainbow on our way with the sun and rain periodically interchanging.

Our slight detour off the road keeps us on the Vanguard Way but it's muddy and hard work in the showers, we eventually arrive at a stream which is completely overflowing making the small brick bridge unpassable (just before Chiddingly).

We eventually get over the stream (Tanya jumping over, me throwing all the gear over inc. Arthur and then myself walking across a fallen log) and make our way up into Chiddingly where we take a welcome break in the local pub (the Six Bells).

Half an hour later we walk up an incredibly muddy foot path we leave the Vanguard way, we pass throgh Stream farm and make a wrong turn into Mill wood (rather than Forge wood), we wind up about 20 minutes down the road to where we wanted to be so make the final push up the road and to our inn for the night.

The owner/manager of the May Garland Inn is very welcoming (even though we are covered in mud), we do our best to keep the shoes and coats away from the lovely white walls :) The room is very quiet (albeit next to the main road) and it's easy to access the pub itself via internal corridoor.

There is a small playground for Arthur, we order a drink, Tanya and Arthur share a desert and we order a take away since the kitchen is closed that evening.