Introduction
It seemed that many people who I told that I was going for a walking holiday either got excited and asked me which far off climbs I was off to see, or looked in puzzlement as to why anyone would go on a walking holiday. A holiday walking? Surely that is the antithesis of a holiday which is meant to be relaxing and somewhere different? Well to me, this holiday was those things.
On the first count, it is true to say that the South Downs Way is not a far off climb. In fact the trail only runs about 8 miles from where I live in Worthing, West Sussex (which is coincidentally the approximate half way point.) Though I started some fifty miles away in Winchester, Hampshire — it was somewhere close to my heart. Whilst absence may make the heart grow fonder, I have found experiencing the South Downs as much as I can as regularly as I possibly can grows that love a little more each time.
On the second count, why would you go walking for a holiday? Why do we do anything we do? Why do we continue to get up in the morning and for some of us do jobs we don’t like? Why do we have the interests we have (football, cars, photography, reading etc.) — why do we do anything? The answer isn’t always clear. But we usually know ourselves, even if we cannot put it into words.
Why did I want to walk the South Downs Way? Because I wanted to, I wanted to be free for a week from all those usual modern shackles. All I wanted was myself and my pack carrying what I actually needed (and a little of what you strictly don’t need, e.g. a camera) and to set off and do my own thing. I guess if anything you can take some inspiration that in a world where adventure seems to increasingly mean taking a trip to a foreign country thousands of miles away and scaling one of the tallest mountains in the world for example, that an adventure can be had on your own doorstep. After all, if you can find freedom in your own backyard, I think you’ll find it anywhere you go.
Victoria JK Lamburn
March 2009
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