Many of us make New Year’s resolutions. Few of us stick to them. Fewer still turn their pledges into a truly transformative experience. Kate Schuler and Christopher Shoebridge went even further. In 2017, they made the bold decision to walk the entire length of the South Downs Way over precisely one calendar year, watching the seasons shift and change, taking in every path, landscape, building and peculiarity that caught their eye.
Better still, they decided to take us with them on their personal odyssey, and have now produced a book blending Kate’s lyrical and informative text with Christopher’s soaring and uplifting photographs, capturing the Downs in all their moods, mystery and majesty.
The couple’s journey begins at dawn, on New Year’s Day, at Beachy Head, where they find the landscape solemn and subdued, despite the howling wind. As they climb the steep ascent to the rugged cliff-top, they pass the lifeless skeletons of last year’s teasel, rosebay willowherb and buddleia.
Kate, well versed in local history and topography, notes the ancient field systems and Bronze Age burial sites of our ancient forbears, easily missed by the casual observer. As they pause for breath, they look back over the groynes on the beach at Eastbourne, and out to Dungeness beyond. Ships float serenely on the horizon while the cries of gulls mingle with “elated whoops” from a paraglider.
This story is from the February 2020 edition of Sussex Life.
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This story is from the February 2020 edition of Sussex Life.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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