Cuckoos in the Rain

14th May 2009


I had to fit a walk into an hour this afternoon and I was trying to keep in the spirit of the Thursday Experiment. Fortunately it rained, so I had the opportunity to try out the Tilley hat and new waterproof trousers. Only I took the wrong trousers - I took my golfing ones, which are fine and work really well; they just don't have through-pockets to my cargo pockets where I keep everything. However, the pockets on my jacket have safety zips, so I used those instead.

I chose a route from Millyford Green that I haven't trodden before which goes south out of Holmhill Inclosure into Woosons and Holiday Hill Inclosures. As I wended my way to and over the ford in Holmhill there was a cuckoo calling ... and calling ... and calling ... The atmosphere of the Forest becomes quite eerie in the rain, although not unpleasantly so, and the cuckoo's insistent calling added to that quite different atmosphere. I have to admit to not having done a lot of walking in the rain. After today, I think I'm hooked and will look forward to rainy days again!

Having left Holmhill and crossed the road into the woodland beyond, a pleasant green path runs down into a narrow valley and up again. This must be generally a quiet place as there were deer grazing amid the new bracken. As I didn't know they were there I didn't take enough care to be quiet and disturbed them and off they went up the hill and through the trees.

There is a circular route of good gravel track within Woosons Inclosure with lots of interesting-looking pathways leading off, a lot of which have been churned up by felling operations. I do wish they'd find another way of getting around other than our footways!

As I walked along the southern stretch of the track I came across the incongruous carcass of a car. It looked like it had been there some time, and had been set on fire at some point, not very efficiently. I'd resolved to contact someone about this when I got home, then fortunately was passed by a New Forest ranger in his vehicle and managed to catch him up at a gate. He took the map reference and said he'd report it. I did a good thing!

Although this was not really in the nature of a true experimental walk, trying out a different area along unknown country ways, it was a lovely walk in conditions I haven't tried for a long time in gear that needed testing. The only very tiny gripe I might have is that I got a bit too warm, but the golfing trousers are lined and I had a hoodie on under the jacket as well as a base layer, so that would explain that. And I was walking quite fast.

And so back to the car to miss the rush hour and get home for work.

I did have to stop and sidle (not easy in a car, even a Ford Fiesta) past a foal that had decided the road was a good place to stand and have a rest. It jerked its head at me as I went wide around it but as far as I know it's still standing there ...

The best laid cliches and positivity

7th May 2009

Mice sleep, men (and women) stare glumly out of the window, and I spend hours poring over maps until the hours dawn on me and I cast the maps away.

Yes, it's a dull day that doesn't even have any rain to make it interesting. It's a bit breezy but nothing to really make the sea pound. It's one of those dull days that makes you thankful it's spring and there's a bit of bright green to alleviate the dullness. It isn't even gloomy or brooding; nor is there a touch of brightness, except something like a weak smile of sunlight that's swiftly gone. It's like the day is sulking.

However! I have at last put away my maps and waiting for the better rain tomorrow which will make the woodlands come alive with water. I've just acquired a new Tilley hat ...

... and Peter Storm trousers (they've been in their own pocket hence the fashionable crinkled effect) ...

so I'm looking forward to trying them out!

I've also aquired a photoprinter and have come to realise the difference between what makes a picture and what qualifies as a snapshot.

I have an idea for scrapbooking my walking life using my photos, plagiarising my own blog and getting a footprint stamp so I can stamp little ramlbing footprints all through the scrapbook.

So much for Experiment Thursday, trying out new walks and expanding my comfort zone. This is not an expandable day. It's just dull. Roll on the rain tomorrow!

Storms around Keyhaven

28th April 2009

Thursday is Experiment Day! Every Thursday I shall be trying out a new walk in Hampshire (or elsewhere) that is not in the New Forest. Should the "experiment" turn out to be unfavourable, there will be a consolation walk i.e. one I have done before and enjoyed. Given the vagueries of my work roster, Thursday may be titled "Third Day" instead; but it's the same thing

Unless you have a dental appointment that gets in the way, of course. And so this experiment took place on Tuesday instead of Thursday. Hopefully things will get back to normal soon.

This is another AA Walk and chosen because the weather forecast was so uncertain. Fine with showers, possibly heavy.

And this turned out to be another peach, with added cream, later washed down with buckets of water.

The environment itself is beautiful, marshland and mudflats with extensive views of the rolling Isle of Wight landscape ending in the great Tennyson Down and the Needles with their lighthouse. Sea and shingle beaches, a little marina and a Tudor Castle with World War II additions. And then the drama of the weather.

There are two free parking areas, as well as a pay and display near the waterfront. One of the free parking areas is quite small alongside the sea wall heading towards a dead end where the Solent Way starts off out on to a raised bank of gravel and grass around the marshes.

The other car park is at the landward end of the great shingle spit that supports Hurst Castle and a white lighthouse at it further end. The spit itself is still growing in length and is lined with poles that are measured from time to time to see how far the spit has shifted. The spit is also protected on the seaward side by defences constructed to resemble great boulders. I think they work; others may disagree.

Toffee crunch ice cream (with a flake) in hand, the walk along the spit to the Castle is about a mile and a half. With the waves of the Solent foaming on one side and the calm lagoon on the other, and the Isle of Wight rising up ahead, there is plenty to look at and admire and photograph.

Hurst Castle is run by English Heritage and costs £3.50 entry. To the east is Henry VIII's fortress, partially restored in the Victorian age and added to and patched with concrete during WWII. Charles I was also imprisoned here for a while. There is a display about Tudor fortresses in the Keep; the basement under the Keep is well worth a visit for sheer spookiness. The floor is black and barely visible.

If you fancy a different method of returning to the mainland, there is a little Ferry that shuttles back and forth between Hurst Castle (or the lighthouse when the tide is out) and Keyhaven every 20 minutes. The fare is £3 which you pay to the Ferryman. It is a very pleasant little journey between the mudflats and the yachts and the walk proper starts from the jetty.

Follow the seawall all the way around to a kissing gate on to the bank of the Solent Way and simply keep along it until just past the Dock Sluice at Oxey Marsh when the walk turns inland along a lane past Woodside Farm which peters out at a gate on to a byway/cycle path back to Kayhaven. As I was being closed in on by stormclouds from the east, I chose to curtail the walk by turning inland along a straight path leading directly away from an old jetty, just before Pennington Marshes. This path comes out at the gate to the byway/cycle path mentioned above. I had already chosen the lower inland path of the Solent Way as the dramatic skies, the forking lightning and thunderous rumbles from the east actually became too much for me. I think it was an irrational feeling of exposure on the higher ground with flatness stretching all around across marsh, mud and water and murderous black skies closing in.

I shall do better next time.

There are great views from the byway/cycle path across Keyhaven Marshes to Hurst Castle and the Isle of Wight. It was getting darker and darker as the clouds came ever closer overhead and all around, and the scene was changing spectacularly. For a while, hedges ran along both sides of the path bringing within their enclosure occasional clouds of midges.

At the end of the path is a gate and the end of the little road that contains the seawall-side parking area.

I still had to pass around the marina and out on to the Solent Way, another bank of shingle and grass, to get back to where I had parked my car. Just as I stepped out on to the bank, the black clouds parted and dumped water all over me, driven into my back by a sharp wind that was now blowing down from the north-east.

The scenery was no longer the warm, welcoming brightness of the sunny afternoon. It was becoming a grey, brooding early evening with the eastern reaches of the Island lost in thick mist and Tennyson Down now scowling over the Solent.

Eventually, with the novelty of the rainstorm beginning to wear off, I got back to my car and got out of wet weather jacket and boots. Wet weather trousers? Um, well, I hadn't taken the "possibly heavy" aspect of the showers as seriously as I should have and hadn't brought any. So although, yes, I got thoroughly soaked, it wasn't until I got out of the car back at home that the clamminess became all too apparent.

Next time, take wet weather trousers ...

Hambledon vs the South Downs ends in a Perfect Walk

23rd April 2009

Thursday is Experiment Day! Every Thursday I shall be trying out a new walk in Hampshire (or elsewhere) that is not in the New Forest. Should the "experiment" turn out to be unfavourable, there will be a consolation walk i.e. one I have done before and enjoyed. Given the vagueries of my work roster, Thursday may be titled "Third Day" instead; but it's the same thing.

It is a magical thing about life that very often something unexpectedly wonderful can come from something that can, at the time it occurs, spoil a whole day.

My original plan for this Thursday was to follow another AA walk around Hambledon, a pretty village nestled between two Downs a little north of Portsmouth.

It was another beautiful day. I didn't know anything about the area of Hambledon (I can describe it briefly now having driven through the village on my way home), so I decided I would take advantage of the weather and head out a little further east to the South Downs between Buriton and Butser Ancient Farm.

I will go back to do this walk on another fine day. The walk starts from the Queen Elizabeth Country Park car park (£1 charge for all day parking) and follows the chalk path of the South Downs Way alongside the bridleway that runs through the Country Park and brings you out opposite Butser Ancient Farm. Here, they have constructed an Iron Age Round House and built a Roman Villa. I have not visited the Farm since the Villa was erected, so I was really looking forward to this.

I will not weary you with the ridiculous details of what went wrong. Suffice to say, it did go wrong and it was ridiculous and my choices being now limited due to a freak in my nature, I decided to suspend this particular walk until another day. It is one I would still like to do but in a temper more conducive to such a walk in such surroundings.

Well, I said I would have a consolatory walk planned to offset any experiment that did not work out and so I did, and in doing so I found my perfect walk.

Rather predictably, I suppose, it's a New Forest walk and it has a bit of everything: woodland, Forest views, through gates, paths up, paths down, excellent cycle tracks, lovely forest tracks, over water, through water, across bridges, along river banks. It isn't a very long walk, about an hour and a half, nor is it exactly local, being a 20 minute drive to get there. But it is a walk for all weathers and all seasons. I have walked in this area a lot but this particular route I plotted seemed to work - well, perfectly.

Sometimes these things turn out for the best if you give them a little time.

Cheriton to Tichborne

Thursday 16th April 2009

Thursday is Experiment Day! Every Thursday I shall be trying out a new walk in Hampshire (or elsewhere) that is not in the New Forest. Should the "experiment" turn out to be unfavourable, there will be a consolation walk i.e. one I have done before and enjoyed. Given the vagueries of my work roster, Thursday may be titled "Third Day" instead; but it's the same thing.

This is a walk with directions to be found in the AA "50 Walks in Hampshire and Isle of Wight", another guide book I recently purchased. There is a good bus route to Cheriton (see below) and a few stiles.

Today was a lovely day and, after a slightly inauspicious start, this was a beautiful walk. When I do this walk again I shall probably use one or two diversions which I will add in parentheses as I go along.

Parking in Cheriton was easy enough today, on a little side road in the village near the post office just round the corner from The Flower Pots Inn as you approach the village from the south. However, there is a stagecoach bus service no. 67 that runs through Cheriton between Winchester and Petersfield every hour.

The walk goes past the post office and round to the right past the school towards some gates. The start of the Wayfarer's Walk is tucked in a corner between a cottage and the gates and climbs up out of the village and across fields. The scene is rural, all cornfields and cows.

Where the guidebook advises us to "turn left downhill and keep to the track to a lane by a barn", please be aware that today when I did this walk there were travellers' caravans parked in this lane accompanied by vociferous dogs. Fortunately these were strongly chained and the man who appeared very courteously escorted me past the dogs.

(There is an alternate route previous to this lane which follows the Itchen Way rather than Wayfarers Walk. This brings you on to Hinton Lane rather than Broad Lane later on (both greenways) which both come together later just before Prite Lane - another greenway. There is also the option to extend the walk slightly and keep along Cheriton Lane and then turn on to Alresford Lane (greenways again) to pass alongside the site of the 1644 Battlefield of Cheriton. You will need OS Map 132 Winchester New Alresford and East Meon to follow and complete these alternate routes)

The route continues past the barn and over a lane and then up alongside arable land, which is pleasant walking. In the AA book they mark a spot as a viewpoint, which is nice, but in my opinion there are better and prettier views to be had later on.

I had a bit of a directional problem across a brown field, as the waymarker points straight across, but the field had been newly ploughed and I wasn't sure of the way. So I went around the left edge of the field and came out on to a footpath between this and a cow pasture and turned right towards the next cropfield. Turn right along this field and come to a path that cuts through the crop. The farmer here is obviously sympathetic to walkers. Please respect this courtesy. Walk along this path to the gate and stile.

The path comes out of a copse into a field beside Tichborne House on the left. And here I saw a deer which cantered gracefully across the field to the fence and managed to squeeze through into the garden of the House.

There were pheasants and skylarks everywhere today!

There are now two more fields to traverse before emerging on to a bridleway. Pass Vernal House and over the River Itchen and across the road to a field and path rising steeply.

The reward for the climb is a seat placed at the top of the slope and the view to the north, over Vernal Farm and over New Alresford which can be seen to nestle in the Itchen Valley. The view is extensive and, in my opinion only, much better than the one recommended in the AA book.

After a bite to eat and a long drink, my legs were ready to tackle the next bit. More fields but with more interest to them as you pass beside a small bluebell copse and then along the right side of the next field with Tichborne Church's Norman tower positioned on a hill among a grove of trees before you, with the village cottages tucked down below it. This is Hampshire at its oldest and best. The church of St Andrews is 11th century. Tichborne House is to the left, and the manor has been the seat of the Tichborne family since 1135.

If you want a respite at the Tichborne Arms please note that the opening times are 11am to 3pm and then 6pm to 11pm.

There is a very narrow and long climbing lane from the road up to the church, with high hedges on both sides and tall trees ahead so that you can't see the church until you reach the end of the lane, which is entirely charming!

From the church come back down to the road and now walk along the road for about a mile, past cow pasture (there were new calves today) and alongside the River Itchen, past farms, and a cottage where I thought rather peevishly that it was a pity to have all that quiet countryside and then a blaring stereo. It wasn't. It was a group of, presumably, young people playing live instruments which somehow makes a big difference. On past this to Cheriton Mill and up a path past the Mill and a cottage on to what looks like someone's lawn. There were daffodils in bloom beside the river and beehives on the opposite bank.

This is the Wayfarers Walk once again and passes through large fields which were thankfully for me free of cows. There is a double stile to cross and then a single stile into a horse paddock with about half a dozen horses in it. I could have gone back. I didn't. There was a large white horse right beside the narrow zigzag walkers gate out of the field ahead, and it was blithely attempting to pull the wooden fence down with its teeth. It looked at me, but was more intent on destroying the fence that was keeping it from its tea. I had to get between it and the gate, and although it didn't move, it did let me pass.

And now I was back in Cheriton coming back down towards the little river where a drake was alternately trying to mate with a duck and fight another drake. Further on, past the post office to the village green, a mother duck was getting aggressive with another that had taken a peck at one of the former's ducklings (floating fluffballs!). I bought a Mars bar at the post office and returned to the car to finish my water and eat the Mars bar before heading for the A272 and home.