The South Downs Way
Edburton Hill, Perching Hill and Fulking Hill

As Edburton Hill gives way to Perching Hill you get the rather surprising sight of a long line of pylons crossing the South Downs Way as marching their way inland from from Shoreham Power Station. This is a such an open, spare landscape that somehow they seem welcome. Conservationists have had great success in getting pylons in some parts of the south Downs buried to preserve some of the lovelier parts of the countryside.

Here they almost seem like an artery connecting the wild with the urban, the ancient with the modern, the industrial with the rural.

From a distance, depending on the angle of the sun you may catch the glint of cars parked at the Devil's Dyke - the popular viewpoint and playground of Brightonians towards which you are headed.

Rudyard Kipling's well-expressed notion of the Downs as being "whale backed" has become something of a cliche among travel writers.

But looking at Perching Hill from the viewpoint of Edburton Hill, you can see that Kipling got it absolutely right. All Perching Hill needs is a pair of eyes and a mouth to make it just like a huge submarine mammal, partly submerged in an invisible ocean of rock. This gigantic beast even seems to have a slight indentation exactly where its blowhole ought to be, 15 metres north of the track you are about to walk.

As you pass underneath the pylons there's a busy crossroads in the depression formed as the hills drop down momentarily. Farm traffic and walkers' boots have made this a very muddy spot, so take care here.

To the south the path stretches through a lovely downland valley towards the site of the lost medieval village of Perching. To the north the drop is steep as the bostal takes you down to Paythorn Farm and mid way between the villages of Fulking and Edburton.

You can see why it's such a busy place - at least relatively. This is one of the lowest places where the Downs can be crossed in this section of Sussex. Even the mighty pylons seem keen to opt for the easiest route when the opportunity is presented to them.

A little further along you might notice the ruined foundations of Fulking Isolation Hospital. Brighton Corporation established the isolation hospital at Fulking Grange in 1901 to keep patients suffering from infectious diseases, most notably smallpox, away from the healthy folk of Brighton.

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