Day 2 Hike Complete!

 Today's walk of about 13K took us from The White Horse in Chilgrove to The Royal Oak in East Lavant.

The hike started with a steep ascent up a road across from The White Horse.  We were all smiles starting out.

We then made our way through forest and past fields as we made our way to Kingley Vale.

Kingley Vale is within South Downs National Park.  There we found great views and more burial mounds - this time Devil's Humps as opposed to yesterday's Devil's Jumps.

At Devil's Humps we found a nice bench to enjoy our picnic lunch.

After lunch and a quick stop for a man to do what he has to do . . .

. . . we continued on heading for the yew forest.  Along the way, we were again greeted by great views.

As we entered the yew forest, we were concerned about encountering rodents of unusual size but, spoiler alert, we didn't see any.  The yew forest was amazing, maybe the highlight of the day.  The yews cannot be dated but some are believed to be 500 years old or as much as 2000 years old!

Eventually we encountered the granddaddy of them all which we believe is called the Grandfather Tree.

After the yew forest, it was a fairly long trek through countryside and past fields until we arrived at civilization in East Lavant.  There was always the opportunity to pick a wild blackberry.

The Royal Oak was a welcome sight.

The weather cooperated with mainly sunny skies and temperature in the upper 60's. All in all, today's hike was very good though we feel that yesterday's may have been more interesting. But the hot shower and cold beer afterwards were just as invigorating! 

Tomorrow is another circular walk of about the same distance.  We'll see if the old folk can keep it up!

Peace and blessings,

Linda and Larry