Walking holiday in the South Downs (day 1)

Abingworth House (our room - all three windows on the
first floor (left one is the bathroom) and one window on the
right front)

I've just returned from a four night walking holiday in the Sussex Downs with a friend. We went with HFHolidays who my friend had used many times and I have to say that they are brilliant. Everything was included and the attention to detail was second to none.

The country house we stayed in was called Abingworth which is set in eight acres of land about five miles from Pulborough in West Sussex. It has lovely gardens, a croquet lawn and a lake with a rickety-rackety bridge. The lake is filled with fish and there are many ducks and lots of trees.

My friend and I shared a room which seemed to take up one quarter of the first floor. We even had our own settee. Windows looked towards the lake and down below was the conservatory where we had after dinner refreshments and some of the evening entertainment took place there. Our bathroom was huge, about twice the size at least of my son's tiny bedroom.

Conservatory

Entrance and restaurant to the right

The breakfast choice was superb. One the last morning I even had the full vegetarian breakfast (usually I opted for porridge and toast or egg on toast). We were spoiled for choice on our packed lunches. The ballroom had tables laid out with sandwiches and baskets filled with everything you could think of, such as three types of fruit, crackers and cheese, crisps, cake, cereal bars, packets of dried fruit and peanuts, yogurt and even little packets of hand wipes and a brown bag to put everything in. On the first day we took which ever sandwich we wanted. After that we would fill in a label with our room number on it to order the sandwich we liked. Again the choice was astounding and the choices changed slightly each day (including extra fillings). One day I opted for a banana sandwich. I cheekily asked if there was any chance of some peanut butter with it. The next day there it was and with crunchy peanut butter, my favourite!

The lake

View from our window towards the lake

The bridge leading to the island on the lake!

Dinner was a three course event with choices and usually there was two vegetarian options. The soups were wonderful and my main courses were great. Plenty of vegetables were offered, always enough for seconds! After wading through a dessert it was off for tea, coffee and mints!

The house had two other lounges as well as the conservatory, a restaurant, the ballroom and a boot/drying room, as well as an outdoor heated swimming pool, which my friend used once, with it's own changing hut and they even allowed you to use their towels for the pool. Everything ran efficiently and the staff were helpful and cheerful. I could not fault the place.

The day we arrived we were met by the leaders for the week who introduced themselves, found us our rooms and told us that tea and cake would be served at 4.30pm when there would be a little talk. We had time to unpack, swoon over our rooms and the view and head down to meet others over refreshments. The manager then told us meal times and everything else we needed to know about the hotel. After that two of the leaders offered a short guided walk around the grounds when we learned the history of the house and walked up through gardens and found ourselves with a beautiful view of the south downs. On returning to then house we had a short time before we met again at 7pm for a briefing on the first walk on the following day. This then became the norm which was followed my dinner at 7.15pm.

Looking towards the South Downs

There were three leaders plus a leader for the Discovery Tours which was a week long holiday running alongside our group. They met in a different lounge to discuss their trips. Each leader took turns in taking an easy, medium or hard walk each day. Each leader 'sold' his/her walk explaining where they would walk, what we would see, how many miles it was and how high the ascent. We then had to indicate on the list later that evening which walk we would like to do (but there was leeway to change this at the last minute, which happened when the weather deteriorated!).

After dinner each evening there was some entertainment put on my the leaders. While we were there they consisted of quizzes and a talk. The first evening we were given laminated sheets with pictures which formed a saying and each team wrote down what that saying might be. The next evening was about numbers - how many miles is the M25, how much did I spend on these three items etc. The team with the nearest guess received four little beans, the next three etc. At the end of the evening the team with the most beans won a prize. The following evening we had a visiting speaker. This was held in the ballroom and was accompanied by photos of places we may have seen on our walks or would be seeing. The speaker writes the walks for the area and then the leaders walk them to make sure they are suitable and then we walk them! The gentleman also had some books on sale which he wrote of walks in the area. It was really interesting.

On the last night the quiz was in categories. We had two boards per round consisting of actors/actresses, countryside, artists, logos and music. This evening our team won! I have to admit this was my favourite quiz because two of my favourite categories appeared (art and music).

The outdoor pool

Prize from the quiz on the last night!

We met lots of different people. When going into dinner we were encouraged to fill up the tables as we came to them so often you met someone new as well as when we sat having coffee or tea afterwards (these groups then formed the quiz teams). Also on the walks you would get one or two new faces as people switched between groups. Everyone seemed friendly and of course there were some people you met up with daily. We had lots of laughs as we got to know each other. Many people came on their own, especially women, but there were couples as well. On your own you would never feel lonely and I think that's why this holiday company does so well.

Now I have introduced you to the company, the accommodation, the general working of each day and our arrival, tomorrow I will talk about the first walk we went on - a six mile 'easy' walk.

The South Downs