On the road again - 11 - The South Downs, part 5 - Kingley Vale

I turned out of the parking area and headed straight for Chichester where I found a supermarket. Along with the groceries, I bought a new padlock. There didn’t appear to be anywhere that I could resolve the issue of the hasp.* I decided that I would make do continuing with the screwdriver for now. So, I then headed back to a B road for a village called West Stoke.

I continued through the village. A short distance on, the road bears left with a junction ahead. I took that road. Within a hundred yards or so a car park is on the right. It was immediately clear that I was never going to be able to make use of the car park. Besides anything else, it was busy. Fortunately, I managed to pull in close to a farmers fence, leaving access to the gate, despite it being clear that the gate had not been used for a long while.

There was a coffee vending van in the car park. I went over, grabbed a coffee and got talking to the vendor. He reassured me that I was fine to park where I was.

The next day, I went for a jaunt into the woods. The path leads from the car park; a fairly straight line over a little under a mile, I would guess. At the end, one enters Kingley Vale, one of Europe’s oldest Yew forests. There is a nature trail that leads through the forest. It is a lovely walk. Along the walk , I was taken aback by the most interesting knarled tree I had ever seen. Behind which was a beautiful glade of thirteen ancient Yews, all well over a thousand years old and some known to be at least 2,000 years old.

On the way back along the path from the woods, I was met by Arian.

The following day, I was about to leave, when a constable appeared. I wound down the window to greet him. He was amiable and polite. He asked me whether I had had any problems. I assured him that my stay had been quiet. I did have a snooty nosed woman pass by at one point. The funny thing about it was that she almost lost control of her horse due to not paying attention while she was goading me. The constable told me about a good layby close by that I might prefer to the tight spot that I was in. He then asked about the direction I was heading. I told him that I was heading East. He asked whether I would be visiting Arundel. I said that I probably would. He then proceeded to give me directions to a road close to town under the castle where I would be able to park unhindered. I thanked him for the information and parted with a smile and a fond farewell.

In all fairness, I wasn’t quite ready to move too far just yet, so decided to have a look at this layby. It wasn’t far. I continued along the road to the end, turned sharp left and then within a couple of hundred yards the layby appeared. I pulled in and relaxed there for a couple of nights.

*see entry On the road again - 11 … … 4 - Harting Downs