Borde Hill Gardens + Balcombe

BORDERING ON THE RIDICULOUS!
Clatchat suitably dressed for the weather . . .a lovely summer's day in May!


Below: TB modelling the Find of the Walk

Balcombe viaduct

Venue: Borde Hill Gardens

Walkers: Farty, TB, Clatchat, 12 legs, Wendy Nohills and Mrs Provincial

Distance: 7 3/4 miles - felt like further!

Weather: Lovely and sunny to start - hurrah we thought, summer has arrived at long last! However, started to cloud over and as can be seen by Clatchat's attire, turned somewhat chilly later on

Find of the walk: TB's stylish shirt! Found abandoned by the wall of Balcombe viaduct by Farty. TB didn't look too keen on modelling it until it had been through the washing machine!

We set off from Borde Hill only a little after 10.30 - down the path from the car park, only to have to retrace our steps as realised the road was quite narrow with traffic passing at speed. We managed to cut a little of the road walking off and were soon "off piste". We crossed over the railway line where we all decided to act like railway children and wave at the train who kindly toot-tooted back. A bit of speculation about the extra track which we think is an unused spur of the Bluebell line , and we believe there are plans afoot to reopen it at some point.

So, talking of bluebells, we were soon in the most glorious woods and fields where the blueys were a stunning sight. We had an early break as found a pretty spot by a stream where there was wild garlic in abundance - Farty kindly helped yours truly pick loads of it, Clat provided carrier bags and Miss Nohills remembered the recipe for wild garlic soup!

We then arrived at Balcombe viaduct which Clatters hadn't seen before - we think she was suitably impressed by the view "underneath the arches"! Much hilarity as all us girlies tried to get a leg up (!) onto the walls for a photo shoot - 12 legs first up, obviously the fittest of the bunch, followed by a very undignified haul up of Mrs P, and a slightly less so one of Ms Nohills. Farty and Clat decided to take the easy and sensible option of a lower wall . . . and all the while TB acted as David Bailey . . . This is where we found the Find of the Walk - a very fetching checked shirt abandoned by the wall - we didn't like to think how come it found it's way there - best not to think too hard about that one!

Onwards we wended our merry way - another brief stop while TB gingerly tried on the shirt and posed for a picture. We passed a group of ramblers coming the other way and hoped we didn't look a old as they did! A few gentle hills today but not too bad as Wheezy Windy Wend managed without too much complaint! Finally, 7 3/4 miles later we ended up back at Borde Hill. We had lunch at their restaurant/Tea Coffee shop, Cafe Elvira, which being Borde Hill was really quite civilised. Lovely setting, good menu, difficult to decide what to have as it all looked yummy, and it didn't disappoint. We sat in the garden pretending not to be cold! A lovely friendly waitress got talking about her pussycat - no, I won't make any jokes! - called Colin the Cat who was giant size and a real beauty - we even got shown the photos. Apparently her other cat is called C4 as in C for Cat! Scores on the doors: 4 for each category making it 16/20.

12 legs left us after nosh and the rest of us went for a look around the gardens. The nice lady on the cash desk took pity on us and let all 5 of us in for the price of 3 as we only had an hour and a half 'til the gardens closed. We loved the gardens, the rhodis and azaleas were stunning and in full bloom. Much curious interest in the various statues scattered around the place ( an exhibition is on this month). Some OK, others strange, all expensive! We decided it was time for us to leave after Clat was overheard by a very sensible couple talking about touching up a lovely smooth exhibit - they looked definitely Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells types! Much to their discomfort they then found themselves sitting at the next door picnic table to the one where we retired after leaving the gardens . . at that point hysteria was setting in and we were all in need of a glass of wine! However, sadly since everything was closed we decided to call it a day - but not without seeing off the D's of TW who decided to make a quick exit from us motley lot!

Next walk: next Tuesday 25 May at Leonardslee gardens, Lower Beeding, Horsham RH13 6PP.

See the gardens before they close to the public for ever! See you there!

PS Am having my usual problem of uploading more than a few photos to the blog, so will try to publish the missing ones on a separate one. Apologies!