the walks not that bad and a lot of people site it as a reason not to come to Bristol, its really not something that major. Walking down it generally takes about 30-35 minutes and its quite a good social thing. Some of my happiest times last year were walking across the downs (when it was sunny) with icecreams and jsut spending ages chatting, relaxing and maybe a spot of sunbathing on the way. Its also really nice to walk across the downs and feel that you are escaping the city and university, this is especially true is you grew up from in a rural area. Overal I love most things about Bristol (except the accent which i am starting to pick up damn it), there is so much to do and its a shame more people dont use all the opportunities here to the full