Walking and Climbing

Hi All

I'm planning on walking the South Downs Way at the beginning of June in two 4 day blocks with a weekend off, and an England World Cup game, in between.

So, as the title says, is there a better direction in which to walk the path? I can get to either end reasonably easily, Eastbourne is closer as live in North Kent. Never done a long distance walk so is it better to walk towards the setting sun?

Thanks

Michael

If you walk east to west then you'll have the Channel and the Severn Sisters to look forward to at the end of the walk.

Also walking eastward means that any rain is more likely to be on you back rather than in your face.

 What Mr Sw said.

Also

What's more, there's something of the tradition of heading towards Canterbury in this walk. I would certainly do it east to west.

thanks guys, I will go in that direction then - (I think you both mean west to east?). I did think that finishing with the Seven Sisters would be better, the South Downs Way website-national trails one, says start at Eastbourne though which I why I asked. Just need to have a fun weekend out sorting out accommadation.

Thanks

west to east is best for doing it as a lump. you need the wind at your back on the seven sisters or it can beome very hard work. and there's an inland loop from eastbourne to alfriston which is very pleasant too. this can be turned into one long day or two shorter ones by walking the whole loop from eastbourne inland and back along the seven sisters.

West to east is def better. I've done the stretch from Eastbourne to Brighton and was against a strong wind the whole way. Far more tiring than it should have been, and a nice windburnt face! Not a drop of rain, always 20+ in the day time, but one hell of a wind. Doesn't need to be raining to worry about wind direction.

Also done alot of the area between Brighton and Worthing and never once noticed a wind from the East (there probably has been one whilst I was out and about, just never been stong enough to notice)

the western end is just different. i did the last section into winchester so that i could spend the rest of the day looking around the place being a tourist. no point going that far without taking a look see i thought. it's a nice town and worth a few hours.

you could do mid point to west and then mid point to east (eastbourne).