Groombridge to East Grinstead

Along the Forest Way - Groombridge to East Grinstead 

It was a typical UK dreary winter's day - low cloud cover and heavy dampness that occasionally turned to light drizzle. However, we had to try and reduce that Christmas and New Year tummy and as the wet winter denied all hope of any cross country walking, we took to this trail as its previous existence had been the railway line between Tunbridge Wells and East Grinstead.
 
History of the line here  http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/e/east_grinstead/index.shtml
 
This meant the path was well drained; the path was mostly hard packed gravel and it didn't have any hills! As it turned out it was the right walk for the weather and although not inspiring from a scenic point of view we were able to push on and keep warm in the damp conditions.

 
We parked up at Groombridge and the plan was to walk to Forest Row about 7 miles away and find a pub for lunch. This we did, reaching Forest Row at 12-30 a perfect time to search the local hostelries and found The Chequers, an old coaching inn dating from 1452.
 

 
 The original plan was to catch the bus back to Groombridge from outside the pub but suckers for punishment that we are we decided that we should at least attempt to walk-off the lunch, so we picked up the trail again and carried on another 2.5 miles to reach East Grinstead.

East Grinstead is a historic town on the main road between London and Eastbourne.

 
Stats for the day were ...

 

 

Date	Steps	Distance (mi)	Time (min)	Calories	Average speed (mph)	Elevation gain (feet)	Elevation lost (feet)	Max speed (mph)
07/01/2013	19,236	10.3	217	1,287	2.8	1,017	780	8.0