DA Event - Arun Crossings

The last DA Event of the year is one of my favourites. The Arun Crossings is just that - several crossings of the River Arun - linked together by quiet lanes and sometimes challenging bridle ways. Although there are only so many places to cross the river, thanks to Colin we have a different route every year.

This year he led us north from the station, over the railway and then onto an old sunken track that climbed a sandy ridge and led us down to the old bridge at Stopham.

Click here for a 2 minute video

From here we climbed along the western side of the river, through Stopham, up and up and eventually out onto the road at Bedham Hill. 

Turning right onto a bridle way we plunged down the valley side and made our second crossing, shortly followed by a bridge over the canal (empty at this point). On reaching Toat Lane, Colin took a gamble that there was a route through to the northeast but we reached the end of the lane there was no route for us to use (my MAPS.ME app on my phone confirmed this), so we headed back and then took Pickhurst and Blackhurst lanes before using the bridleway north for our third crossing. We were now only a mile or so from Wisborough Green but a hissing sound announced that I'd got a puncture!

After replacing the tube I caught up with everyone at The Old Mill Café where we had our tea break.

Colin now took us north up Durbans Road and then right onto a bridleway that took us over to Fishers Farm. From here we headed east then north before turning onto another bridleway.

This collection of sometimes muddy bridleways now spat us out by the sports club at Loxwood where we had a short downhill before stopping at the Onslow Arms for lunch.

Like many pubs, the sunday menu didn't have any sandwiches/lighter meals but I found a tasty starter and had a pint of cider to wash it down. The sun was out and with about a dozen of us sat around a large table next to the canal, we had a good chat about various things.

After lunch we headed off along the canal towpath to Drungewick - here's a shortish video of this very pleasant part of the route:

Loxwood to Drungewick

Then a combination of lanes and bridleways took us over the river several more times as this video shows:

How many times did you see us cross the river (and canal)?