Sussex Walks: an Amble Around Arlington Reservoir.

the alltrails walk | starting point | dogs: on leads for most of walk

Having had a busy start to the year work wise I was keen to take a week where I was pacing the very nature of being self employed and having shorter days to make up for the eye watering early mornings the week before. But despite the shorter days and slower mornings I still found myself hitting a brick wall as the week went on and felt like I was just pushing a mouse round aimlessly. As ever when this happens, it’s counter productive to force it and I knew the best thing for me was to take an afternoon off and head on out and get some air.

A friend and I arranged to meet at a point in the countryside between us and I hit AllTrails for a nice, easy walk on a changeable Friday afternoon. That morning, instead of driving, I craved the train and Monty and I descended the hill I live on to climb the hill to the station. Hopping on the train with a few seconds to spare I leant against the rail to watch the countryside whizz by on the short 25 min journey to Berwick.

At Berwick, I met my friend and we fired up the navigation. Arlington Reservoir is a place I’d cycled by a few times but never really explored. It’s a 100 hectare nature reserve managed by South East Water created by damming the Cuckmere River which now channels to the east of the reservoir. The birdhide lies to the West of the reservoir entrance and from here you can often view the population of cormorants and other species of bird that reside here.

It’s a leads on affair with the dogs, which had I have known I may have chosen an alternative route (Monty is so much happier off the lead than on) but this walk does have some off lead moments. The reeds and rushes of Arlington are lovely and we enjoyed this easy walk and talk round the water and through some mostly flat and dry fields. All in all we were walking for around 1.5 hours and we parked ourselves on a picnic bench for a cuppa and chat afterwards. A delightful use of a skive.