Decided I needed a long walk today, so jumped on the train and was in Amberley at 07:15 and walked up the South Downs Way across Bignor Hill to Glatting Beacon. I was here for a good walk and also to do a series of caches [70+].

I arrived at the first cache at 08:30. Spotted some other walkers getting out of the car with their dog. As it happens it wasn't the last time I saw them during the day. The whole series (plus 3 other separate caches) took exactly 10 hours to complete; finishing at 18:30 at number 70 not far from the Car Park near Glatting Beacon.

Just before the 4th cache in the series I'd seen the walkers again and yes they were fellow geocachers. I then spent the first half of the series in a game of virtual leapfrog; I'd zoom off and they would occasionally catch up when the cache was proving to be difficult to find, until we parted after number 17, but I'd caught up with them again by number 20 which was proving to be elusive. I zipped on again and during the second half of the series we were closer together and from about 45 we were almost together the rest of the way.

The other cachers proved very handy, especially towards the end of the series as I was starting to seriously flag after 22 miles [I'd already walked over 4 miles before starting the series].

After the series I walked another 4.5 miles in the dark back along the South Downs Way from near Bignor Hill to Amberley; glad to have a train ride to take me almost all of the way back home.

The countryside is amazing with excellent views and lots of wildlife and flora too in and around this area. If you are a geocacher it is well worth the effort to try and complete the Sussex Amble series in one go.

I kept a steady, but moderately quick pace all the way round, so you should be able to make it round in one day with an early start and allow up to 12 hours to complete it, before it gets dark.

The geocaching series is just about 20 miles in length, but I ended up walking 28.5 mile during the day including the walk from and to Amberley station.

Oh and as to the mapping I added several paths around Heyshott and fixed a number of others nearby as well as more paths mapped around Graffham and Duncton too.

A wonderful if exhausting walk :-D