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.