I took the train down to Arundel on Sunday, which was a bright sunny and very warm day [25C]; as usual the train was late ;-). The purpose of the trip was to break in a new pair of boots, geocaching and some mapping too.

Once I arrived at Arundel station I proceeded to walk up through the town, past the castle, and down to the A27 roundabout before taking the first available footpath heading up towards Tortington Common. It was very muddy there; almost swampy in places. Once there I carried on through Binsted and Paine's Woods, before walking down to Goose Green and back to the station again, via Binsted Woods and Tortington Common once more. Parts of Binsted Wood were also very boggy and swampy in places. I managed to map many of the footpaths/bridleways in the area and plan to go back in the next 2-4 weeks and map other footpaths/tracks in the woods between Madehurst and the top of Arundel itself.

As usual there was lots of wildlife about; deer, rabbits, foxes, pheasents, lots of other more common birds too and some rather less common ones too such as yellowhammers and buntings. Didn't see too many people, although there were some youths camping in the far end of Binsted Wood.

Other walkers using this area should be aware that there are ticks about; found two wandering on my hands and arms, luckily I managed to remove them before they attached themselves to me. No I'm not squeamish, I just don't fancy Lyme Disease. Also, GPS reception is very patchy at times in these woods, even with a high sensitivity receiver such as a Garmin Etrex Legend Hcx. My other GPSr, a Garmin GPSmap 60c was losing lock very frequently.

The whole walk was 15 miles in all, oh and I managed to get some geocaching done too ;-)

Getting back from Arundel via train was a pleasent trip and allowed me to cool down before the final trudge from the station to home, by now my new boots had rub me raw at the top of the heel/ankle, I think that my new boots have now broken me in, rather than the other way round ;-).