Day 168 – Shoreham-by-Sea to Littlehampton: 15.8m: 5.5h

Helen joins these two days of the walk, but her and John’s rail travel plans are scuppered by the continued closure (currently scheduled until June) of the Nuneham Viaduct bridge between Oxford and Didcot. Instead, they have decided to drive to Sussex and to park their car at Barnham station. Perhaps not the most obvious location, but a very sound choice. Not only does it afford a short rail link to Shoreham for the start of today’s walk, but it can also be easily accessed by train from Bognor which will be convenient for our return journeys tomorrow. Anyway, notwithstanding their revised travel arrangements, John and Helen arrive in Shoreham about half an hour before Mike, Ben and Gary. This gives them the opportunity to pre-fuel at a café before the whole team assembles and makes the short walk back to the north bank of the River Adur from where we set off at 11:10. Having crossed the ferry bridge, we can see the coast only a few hundred yards further south. However purity of course dictates that, to reach this point, we have to walk eastwards along the south bank of the river to reach Shoreham Fort at the end of a narrow peninsula and then turn back west along the sea front. And so, at the end of the first hour, we’ve walked almost 3 miles to reach Shoreham beach which is less than half a mile from our starting point. The remaining miles are largely unremarkable and incident free. Just a pleasant, straightforward twelve miles in warm weather with a gentle following breeze alongside Lancing beach, through Worthing and Goring-by-Sea, and on towards Littlehampton. The only question which arises is whether to follow the official coast path when it occasionally moves inland onto lanes and paths which are parallel to, but not far from, the sea front, or whether to walk along the beach. Ordinarily, this wouldn’t be an issue. Beach action would be enthusiastically embraced. However, on this stretch of the coast, most of the shoreline beaches are shingle for which there is distinctly less enthusiasm. Accordingly, when a choice is required, a decision to follow the coast path is pretty unanimous….until we reach East Preston, just beyond Goring and some 3 to 4 miles away from Littlehampton. We have just concluded that we are sufficiently close to our destination that, should we happen upon a hostelry, a refreshing pit stop wouldn’t unduly affect the rest of our walk. We’re going along a lane through East Preston and it looks as though the coast path will turn back to the sea front in a few hundred yards, but John and Ben take an earlier turn in the hope that they won’t find any problems if/when they get to the beach. Mike, Helen and Gary continue along the official path and almost immediately are rewarded with the welcoming sight of the Tudor Tavern. Gary and Helen go to order some drinks and sit at an outside table, while Mike goes to inform John and Ben of the pit stop discovery. However, by the time he sees them, they’ve reached the beach, have crossed the shingle to some sand by the sea and, despite the prospect of a pint of cider, aren’t minded to struggle back over the shingle. And so, when Mike gets back to the Tudor Tavern, he finds Gary and Helen at a table with not only a gin and tonic and two pints of London Pride, but also two unnecessary pints of cider. These are returned untouched to the bar when the threesome leaves 15 minutes later. It takes another hour or so to reach Littlehampton. Our overnight stop is the Arun View Inn on the east side of the River Arun and, just over half way along the riverside path, Mike, Helen and Gary find John and Ben sitting outside a bar called the Empress with two bottles of cider. These have almost been finished, so it isn’t long before we continue the short distance to the Arun View where we arrive just before 5 o’clock. A very welcoming bar (with Harvey’s) greets us, so we have a couple of drinks and then check in to the four rooms available at the Arun View. We’re back downstairs for supper in the pub’s extensive dining room overlooking the river, and a very popular place it seems to be. A few nibbles to start with, followed by pies/burgers/fish ‘n chips, all go down very well as do the accompanying bottles, and with no fervent Liverpool supporter in our midst, there’s no pressure to find a TV showing their game at Elland Road. Instead, our evening comes to an end with relaxing double stickies – whilst fervent Liverpool supporters are no doubt equally relaxed watching a 6-1 victory against Leeds.