Shoreham by 8am today for our pick-up and drive to Hillbarn Farm in Cocking. 
The farm was located north of Chichester and accessed via the A286 a beautiful drive into the downland countryside. No obvious parking spot for coaches here so we decanted as quick as possible and within minutes we were gently climbing uphill and across Cocking Down. We knew
it was to be a long day today and sun was already warm even though we had started just before 10am. 
There were to be far reaching views today across the weald and also out to Portsmouth & the Isle of Wight today but we were also promised woodland stretches that meant a break could be madein the shade, where needed. As the SDW turned left after what was a pretty straight section a plaque marking the Devil's Jumps tempted us to read the history of these ancient barrows and a gate also allowed those whom wished to walk the 100 yards or so, to sit down and take in the atmosphere of these mounds. We shared ours with two girl friends that were on our coach each day and we had also seen from time to time along the way. All the other mounds were equally occupied by resting walkers. 
Back tracking to the SDW and on the trail again passing Keith & Sally in red shirts standing on a sharp bend where, should you not spot the acorn and turn left, you would find yourself at a pub in Hooksway, Keith said, with an obvious degree of knowledge! We resisted and turned right as we still had a lot of miles to cover and several hills before a decision has to be made at Beacon Hill.
Do we take the winding bridleway, now marked as the SDW, or, despite health & safety warnings from Keith this morning on the coach, go straight up and over, pausing only for breath and the views from the old fort at the summit. We decided the latter as we like hills......up, anyway! Not so keen going down as we zig-zag to save the knees, thanking our walking poles for helping us out, again.
It must have looked a bit odd from a distance if you didn't realise what we were doing, but we learnt this tip from our walking guide on a holiday in the Spanish Pyrenees who said he chose poles and zig-zagging to save his knees for sound commercial reasons!
Just a mile on and our ice-cream girl was already dishing out the tubs and quite a crowd had gathered to sit on the hill overlooking Harting, we joined them and soaked up the view before the last leg today with the track following besides the road but in a delightful wooded area before eventually becoming a narrow road called Forty Acre Lane.
A flat-ish walk of almost 3 miles along a country lane seemed only to be used by tractors and SDW walkers today. Our feet were getting tired now as we had yet another hill to climb up a track and into the QE Country Park. 2 more miles still of woodland tracks and remembering Keith's coach-advice today, "don't turn off, follow the acorns." We shared the last woodland section with a lone lady that said she preferred to walk with others in woods so we nattered while the paths seemed to be endless at this late stage in the day. This is the beauty of this walk, walk on your own, or walk along with others, the choice is yours.
The cafe in the woods beckoned at last as the red-shirts welcomed us back with a coach pass giving us plenty of time for coffee, cake and a well earned rest in the outside garden area. The coach journey back was longer because once again the traffic on the feeble A27 around Arundel added half and hour, what's happened to the talk of bypass? Back in Shoreham we knew we had just the 2 days to go and tomorrow looked an interesting day with the promise of a nice couple of stops en-route.......but alas, no ice-creams!