Coming soon... perhaps
I've not touched this site for years, but retirement, moving to Sussex and the Coronavirus lockdown are tempting me to reactivate it, but in a new format, with a new, more local, focus. Pending that, I'm preparing 'Walking South' for archiving as a new sub-domain of jont.walk.org.
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Introduction
These pages are about walking in that part of England that lies to the south of London - Kent, Surrey, East Sussex, West Sussex and the eastern part of Hampshire, but also including London itself south of the Thames.
Roughly speaking this territory includes everything east of the M3 and south of the Thames, excluding the Isle of Wight. It represents my home walking range, everywhere being easily accessible from South London by public transport.
Long distance paths south of London
The territory covered by this site is rich in long distance paths. They generally run west to east, going with the grain of the geology. However, there are also a number of interesting north to south paths, cutting across the Downs and the Weald.
I’ve produced a list of long distance paths south of London, with links and notes. I think the list is fairly complete, but I still keep stumbling across ones I hadn't previously known about, and new paths are continuously created, so I update the list from time-to-time.
The southern hills
Alan Dawson, in his book The Relative Hills of Britain, dispensed with the common assumption that a hill must be 2000 feet high to be worth climbing. Instead he listed hills that are relatively high, compared to the surrounding land, rather than compared to sea level.
I’ve listed all the relative hills in the territory covered by this site with at least 100 metres drop on all sides. There are 28 of them.
Walks south of London
I have devised walks to visit all the relative hills lying to the south of London and now I’ve started (very slowly) to write these up.
Generally, I have only given enough information to allow the walk to be traced on the 1:25 000 OS map - experienced walkers won't need anything more.
In the background
One dictionary defines the word 'background', when used figuratively, as that against which anything is, or ought to be, seen. This section of Walking South is intended to introduce various topics that form a background to walking as an activity and which are, or ought to be, of interest to the walker.
About Walking South
This page gives brief account of why I started this site.
Walking log
I've decided to keep a log of my walking. Amateur blogs are usually rather dull, and of no great interest to anyone other than the blogger. However, my aim is to describe my walks, not to give opinions, so you might just find some ideas for walks, or get an impression of what a particular area has to offer the walker.
