A Circular Walk from Peasmarsh

OS maps are perfect for planning walks whether on holiday or at home, and Swindon Central Library has an excellent range of laminated maps. The laminated maps are essential when walking in the rain which we did on the first day, thinking Peasmarsh to Rye is only a short walk along the High Weald Landscape Trail we attempted to walk it in what turned out to be torrential rain. Unfortunately we took a wrong turn half a mile away from Rye, ended up in fields bounded by water on the marsh, and couldn't find bridges to get us out and so gave up and walked back to our cottage, soaked to the skin.
The next walk took us north of Peasmarsh along the River Rother along the Sussex Border path
thinking it looked very easy to follow along the river, and we could attempt Rye to Peasmarsh rather than the other way round.

 It was idyllic beside the river, I think we counted 7 other people on the whole walk, I thought I'd include a photo of Tim enjoying himself beside the river.

 Walking is always fascinating, there's so much to see. This is a sign we saw when crossing Iden Lock, built in 1808 it linked the Royal Military Canal to the River Rother and the open sea, effectively turning Romney Marsh into an island. The canal was capable of carrying large bodies of troops, stores and equipment more quickly between Kent and east Sussex.

 Below a view of the canal cottage

 and the Royal Military Canal

 And here we are in Rye at one of the gates

 and from there to the Rye Art Gallery where I saw this gorgeous Art Deco window

 and a lovely small window of Edward Burra memorabilia

 I've photographed the portion of the map showing the route, apart from the right hand side where it hasn't quite been fitted in, then printed the photo, and drawn over it with an orange felt tip pen to show where we walked:

It's not very clear. Rye is bottom right, and you can just about see the start on the left, in Rye I asked the Visitor Information Point about the High Weald Landscape Trail thinking it would be good to be able to locate the start from Rye. They had nothing on it and had never heard of it despite the fact it starts in Rye. It turns out the beginning of the trail is by Rye Windmill where I've stayed before, so found it that way.

 This is the view from our cottage, taken on our arrival back from what was a 35k steps walk!!