Walking in THE AIR

A sense of space and sweeping panoramas inspire a feeling of awe in Tanya Pearey as she walks the South Downs Way

- TANYA PEAREY

The Downs… too much for one pair of eyes.’ That’s what English author Virginia Woolf wrote in her diaries some 100 years ago. Standing here now on the breeze-kissed chalky ridge, looking down on the village of East Meon glinting in the sun from a nest of green fields, I feel a similar overwhelming surge of joy for the English countryside.

The South Downs haven’t just stirred the hearts of literary folk like Woolf, Jane Austen and Rudyard Kipling, they’ve captivated fellow travellers for centuries. Our ancestors have walked this ledge and settled along it as far back as anyone can record. Stretching between Hampshire’s historic city of Winchester and the dramatic cliffs of Eastbourne, East Sussex, the 100-mile South Downs Way takes in Iron Age hill forts and Bronze Age barrows, as well as picturesque villages.

This ancient route is the only national trail that lies entirely within a national park – England’s newest one, in fact. South Downs National Park was created in 2010 and it’s my intention to walk the length of it with my family – thankfully, not in one go! With lockdown restrictions lifted, we base ourselves near Storrington, roughly halfway along the route. Every morning, we depart in two cars, leaving one at our destination and driving the other onto our starting point. Then we simply walk the SD Way from car to car.