Sometimes you just want to go for a flat, easy wander without bothering too much about navigation or effort. On those days you can’t get much easier than this walk from Chichester – just follow the canal and as long as you’re alongside the water you can’t get lost!

We started at Chichester Canal Basin – parking there is limited but there is plenty nearby at Chichester Railway Station and on the roads nearby. 

There is a centre here with a café and opportunities to hire boats and equipment – you do need a licence to use your own paddle boards and boats so check first!

On foot you’re free to roam, so we just headed down the path. It was a beautiful sunny day, and all life was here – there were plenty of walkers and cyclists along the canal path, boats cruising along, people fishing from the side, and stand-up paddle boarders and kayakers on the water.

It’s all very relaxed and harmonious and nobody seemed to get in anyone else’s way. The cute little families of ducks and ducklings and swans with their cygnets didn’t seem bothered at all.

At the end of the first stretch there was a very welcome sight – an ice cream van from local producer Caroline’s Dairy offering all kinds of treats from the traditional – chocolate, vanilla, mint choc chip and rum and raisin – to the more exotic.