Day 175 – Southampton to Exbury: 15.1m: 4.9h

After comfortable nights for all, we meet outside Roost just after 7 o’clock. This gives us more than enough time to walk to Town Quay, locate the departure point for the ferry to Hythe and wait for the first service of the day to come across from the other side of Southampton Water. This leaves Town Quay at 7:30 and the crossing takes almost 15 minutes. The pier at Hythe stretches nearly 800 yards and we walk along this rather than catch the narrow gauge railway which connects the pier head to the shore. By the time we’ve then continued a short distance through the town, it’s almost 8 o’clock which is opening time at Adam’s Café. We arrive there just as the doors open and settle down for breakfast. Ben opts for a bacon sandwich (which arrives with a healthy looking salad and departs with most of it intact) while the rest of us choose what is advertised as the ”small breakfast” with a side order of black pudding. Suitably refuelled, and having been bid a fond farewell by the eponymous Adam, we’re under way again at 8:40. It’s another warm and dry day with a welcome breeze. Having walked through Hythe, we’re able to go along some country lanes and through woodland for almost half an hour before we reach the boundary of Esso’s Fawley Refinery and have to return to the main A326. Shortly afterwards, John and Ben take a turn off the main road whilst Mike and Gary continue along it. On this occasion it's the John and Ben combination who have chosen the longer route (included in the day’s official mileage) but, having returned to the A326, they are only 5 minutes behind Mike and Gary when the team reunites at a junction near Fawley village by the New Forest School. We walk into Fawley and through All Saints church, and reach the shore of Southampton Water to the north of Fawley Power Station. It’s low tide so we’re able to walk close to the shore as we pass the power station and get back to the Solent at Calshot Beach. Applying the pier principle, we decide that a left turn to Calshot Castle would simply constitute an out and back walk of half a mile each way rather than going round a promontory, and instead turn right to Calshot itself. Between here and Lepe, there are a number of private estates and permission hasn’t been obtained to continue a coastal route along this stretch. We therefore make quite a significant inland diversion, north to Ower, west through Stanswood and then back south to the coast at Lepe. This was where we were originally intending to finish, but it’s not quite 12:30 and we’ve only walked about 12.5 miles. And so we decide to continue another 2.5 miles to the next easily identifiable point for a cab pick-up, St Katherine’s church at Exbury. Initially, this involves quite a bit of shingle. It also involves chats with a guy who is in the midst of a continuous walk from Dover to Land’s End and, at one point, asks Gary whether the four of us are “ex forces”. An easy mistake to make! The final stretch is along a country lane into Exbury. John manages to order a cab, and we arrive at St Katherine’s at 1:15. John has asked the cab to take us to Southampton Central station. Ideally, both he and Mike would like to catch a train at 2:15 because it’s a direct service for them to get to Oxford and Reading respectively and the next service at 3:15 has been cancelled. Ben and Gary are more relaxed on timings because trains to London leave every half an hour. When the cab arrives just before 1:30, the driver says that we could be delayed by road works and traffic in Southampton, so suggests taking us to Southampton Airport Parkway which will avoid the city centre and from where trains leave nearly 10 minutes after leaving Central station. It proves to be an excellent suggestion. Not only do we arrive at Parkway in good time for John and Mike to catch their train, but Ben and Gary get an earlier train than would have probably been the case from Central. The only very minor downside is that we have no time, or indeed venue, for customary pre-departure beers/ciders.

Day 174 – Gosport (Stokes Bay) to Southampton: 17.6m: 6.2h

Because of the mileage to be covered – along with one or two uncertainties about our route into Southampton – today’s first objective is to get under way before 11 o’clock. Out of, perhaps, an abundance of caution, Ben and Gary arrive in Fareham at 8:50, and they have to sit outside the Harvester for several minutes until it opens for breakfast at 9 o’clock. Once inside, they’ve almost finished their eggs benedict and “classic breakfast” respectively when Mike arrives (from Taplow) just before 9:30 and tucks into a sausage bacon and egg sandwich. John walks in 20 minutes later and is slightly more restrained with his order of a bacon and egg sandwich. A taxi picks us up at 10:15 and takes us back to Stokes Bay from where, having precisely identified our June finishing point courtesy of Mike’s phone, we set off at 10:30. First objective duly achieved and our earliest start since leaving Pitsea at 10:20 in March 2022. The forecast over the last week has been for unsettled weather, but the meteorological gods seem to have settled on warm and dry – at least for today. So it’s a pleasant if unremarkable first couple of hours walking alongside the Solent, through Lee-on-the-Solent and Hill Head, and on towards Brownwich Beach at the entrance to Southampton Water. Shortly after this, the team divides. John and Ben decide to follow the shoreline despite shingle and the slightly increased proximity of the sea. Mike and Gary take a more conservative inland route, which proves to be a mistake. Not only do they get caught up in a maze of roads in the Solent Breezes Holiday Park, but it takes them a good half hour to regain the coast at a point not much further on from where they left it. They assume (correctly as it turns out) that by now John and Ben are some way ahead of them, so Mike decides that best efforts should be made to recover lost ground before Warsash and the ferry over the River Hamble. This develops into a full blown yomp during the course of which, again according to Mike’s phone, speeds of over 4 mph are achieved. As a result most, if not all, of the lost ground might have been recovered were it not for another navigational glitch. By sticking on this occasion to the shoreline shingle, Mike and Gary miss the turn off to a path which leads to Warsash and the ferry, and walk around a small promontory at the mouth of the River Hamble which, apparently, is also part of a nature reserve. When they get back to the path, John and Ben have almost reached the ferry and have ensconced themselves in the Rising Sun pub where Mike and Gary – the latter somewhat breathlessly – arrive around 10 minutes later having walked an extra mile (not included in the day’s official mileage). Their attempts to maintain that, under strict REW precedent (e.g. the case of the Pagham Harbour “Pier” at day 169) Mike and Ben should have walked round the promontory are met with a Bill Oddie type response about protecting the birdlife on the nature reserve. This had been drawn to their attention by a group of people at the turn off to the path and is now known, somewhat belatedly for precedent purposes, as the Nesting Plovers Exemption. After a swift beer, we get to the on demand ferry which has already been summoned from Hamble by some people at the landing stage. The crossing takes 5 minutes and brings us to the very smart Port Hamble Marina and Royal Southern Yacht Club. We then walk across Hamble Common before getting back to the east side of Southampton Water on the approach to Netley. From here, we’re able to stay close to the shore line all the way to the mouth of the River Itchen and then continue to the Itchen Bridge. This spans some 800 metres and reaches almost 30 metres at its highest point. Despite this, we manage to cross it without excessive concern although Ben keeps away from the edge and focuses very much to the front, and John feels that the absence of any barrier between the pavement and the road makes it slightly more difficult than the Humber Bridge. On reaching the Southampton side, we’re not too far from Roost, our overnight accommodation. However, we need to walk around the harbour and, because we’re not 100% sure of the route and distance, we decide to find out this evening rather than wait until tomorrow morning when we’ll have to time our departure to catch the first ferry to Hythe. The loop round the harbour takes about 20 minutes to complete and we finish at the aptly named Terminus Terrace, only half a mile from the ferry. It’s a short walk to Roost and en route we call in at The London pub. Having remained there for a second pint, we go round to the Oxford Brasserie to change our reservation for supper from 7:00 to 7:30, and then check in at Roost. Being a set of self-service rooms, this consists of keying in codes at the entrance and individual room doors. The only problem encountered is Gary’s room door which necessitates John obtaining a new code. This doesn’t delay unduly our departure for supper which is, however, preceded by wistful glances at the bar/restaurant on the ground floor. This looks as though it would be very welcoming were it not for the fact that it’s closed on Mondays. Service at the Oxford is friendly (but not particularly efficient) and the food is pretty good. It’s accompanied by just the two bottles of wine, but stickies are available afterwards at the Grapes pub on the other side of the road. John, Mike and Gary take advantage of the opportunity and return to Roost 15 minutes after Ben.

Day 173 – Hayling Island (Eastoke) to Gosport (Stokes Bay): 16.8m: 5.7h

After an early and filling brekker, we’re picked up by a cab (at the hotel entrance) at 7:45. The traffic this morning is quite heavy, and the somewhat puzzling route taken by the driver is eventually explained by his belief that he’s taking us to St Andrew’s Church in Havant. This doesn’t take us too far out of our way, but the ride back to Eastoke takes nearly 15 minutes longer than our journey yesterday evening and we set off from the correct St Andrew’s at 8:20. It's another warm day, and John, Mike and Gary are all kitted out in shirts of similar shades of pink – something which was agreed over stickies late yesterday in Ben’s absence, and which provokes comment this morning from a local resident who is walking her dog. She also provides a certain amount of guidance as to the route we should follow to get round the Sailing Club at the start of a loop which purity mandates that we have to negotiate in order to reach the southern shore of the island. Despite this, we take a couple of wrong turnings and, although these don’t delay us unduly, the end of our first hour of walking sees us pretty close to where we started and no more than 200 yards away from the Lifeboat Inn. We continue west along the sea front, through a large area of rough ground which passes a rather dilapidated amusement park and, briefly, alongside a light railway. Shortly before reaching Hayling Golf Club, we’re able to cross a narrow line of shingle to some reasonably hard sand and get a bit of beach action which takes us around Gunner Point at the south west corner of the island and then north to Sinah Beach and the landing stage for the ferry over to Eastney on the outskirts of Portsmouth. We arrive 10 minutes or so too late to catch the 10:35 ferry but don’t have too long to wait for the next one at 11:15 which is fortunate, particularly given that the Ferryboat Inn isn’t open. The crossing only takes 5 minutes, and we then make our way back south to Eastney Beach and along the waterfront towards Southsea. Just before reaching Southsea Castle at the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour, we have to move slightly inland because of construction work on the edge of the harbour. This takes us alongside the main coast road and then through a park, but we regain the harbour side just before the Isle of Wight Hovercraft Terminal where John takes advantage of one of the many retail outlets to purchase an ice cream. Continuing north, we walk around Portsmouth Point and, after a couple of wrong turnings, pass the Wightlink Ferry Terminal, go around the Spinnaker Tower, through a shopping precinct and under Portsmouth Harbour station, to arrive at the Station Pier just as the next ferry service to Gosport is about to leave. Fortunately, the crew member at the bottom of the gangway is prepared to delay departure while John masters the ticket machine at the top, and then to await the arrival of Ben who is about 100 yards behind the rest of us. As with our earlier ferry crossing, the journey over the harbour only takes 5 minutes and we disembark in Gosport at 1:30. It’s not possible to walk around the marina and Fort Blockhouse which are directly south of the ferry. Instead, we have to go south west along a series of unremarkable streets until we get to the Gosport & Stokes Bay Golf Club. At this point John starts to struggle with a painful right toe., but he hobbles on (see postscript). There’s a path across the course and alongside a lagoon which leads to Fort Gilkicker on Gilkicker Point. Having rounded the fort, we’re on the shore of the Solent and not too far from our finishing point, the Diving Museum on Stokes Bay. John orders a cab to pick us up from there at 2:45, but this proves to be slightly optimistic because we’re still a mile away at 2:30. Not a problem however, because the driver contacts John when he arrives, and meets us in a roadside car park shortly before we get to the museum. The drive to Fareham station (or, more accurately, the Harvester 100 yards away) takes 15 minutes. Ben and Gary have time for just the one pint of cider before catching their train back to Clapham, and also have time for a small bottle of wine each whilst waiting for the connecting service at Winchester. John and Mike both have time to supplement their intake at the Harvester before catching their trains home. Post script – John on his return home visited, as he describes, the hoof lady who removed a tiny splinter which was causing distress out of all proportion to its size.

Day 172 – Prinsted to Hayling Island (Eastoke): 18.0m: 6.4h

John was in London yesterday (watching Major League Baseball at the London Stadium) and has stayed overnight with Ben. They meet Gary at Clapham Junction to join Mike on the train from Victoria to Southbourne. From there it’s a 15 minute walk to our starting point in Prinsted which includes a visit to a conveniently located Co-op to purchase lunchtime sandwiches. It's a pleasantly warm day – warm enough to merit the first appearance this year of Gary’s shorts, but thankfully cooler than the high temperatures of the previous few days. We set off from the Prinsted scout hut at 11:40 to walk around the next bit of land jutting out into Chichester Harbour, Thorney Island (effectively a peninsula). The path sticks pretty close to the shoreline, and there are frequent notices instructing walkers to keep to the path. This is because there is a military base in the centre of the island and on a couple of occasions we need to press buttons on security gates in order to access the next stretch of the path. The other regularly advertised feature of Thorney is its birdlife and, at the end of the first hour, we arrive at a hide where we eat our Co-op sandwiches. Around 90 minutes later, and having crossed the West Sussex/Hampshire border, we’re back on the mainland and continuing westward through Emsworth. After another 45 minutes or so, we reach Hayling Island which is accessible via a road bridge. John’s unkind efforts to persuade Gary that there is an earlier (and very difficult to spot) crossing, plumb previously unchartered depths of Gary’s gullibility. Our objective today is to go down the east side of the island as far as Eastoke in the south-east. Most of the route there takes us through and around residential areas and keeps us slightly inland from the shoreline of the Emsworth Channel. One section is along the side of a field which backs onto the gardens of some quite smart looking houses. The well-tended putting green on one of the lawns distracts John to such an extent that he doesn’t notice the very large overhanging branch of a yew tree until his head cracks into it and he’s knocked to the ground. The rest of us implement a very rudimentary concussion protocol, consisting largely of asking how John’s feeling, but when Gary shows him two fingers and is met with a non-Churchillian response, we decide that we can safely continue. The final part of the walk does include about 15 minutes on the shoreline, but we then move back inland, alongside a boating lake, and into Eastoke where we finish at St Andrew’s Church. From here, it takes us less than 5 minutes to reach the Lifeboat Inn where we have the time for an unrushed pint before a pre-ordered cab arrives at 6:45 to take us to the Farmhouse Inn/Hotel on the eastern edges of Portsmouth. We’re dropped at the bar entrance, so have to walk through a series of corridors to check in at the hotel reception. However, it's not too long before we’re back in the bar for fish and chips, steak pies and a couple of bottles of wine. Not at all bad, and very reasonably priced. Ben resists the temptation of a double sticky to conclude the evening. John, Mike and Gary don’t