Around Britain

My early train from London Waterloo to Bournemouth arrived only just after the appointed time. The weather was good but I faced a day in an extensive conurbation along the south coast. A longish hike meant I would need to keep to the most direct route along roads.

Initially I followed the A35. This was the day of the General Election but the sole evidence of this was the three Polling Stations that I passed. There were no politicians or activists, in vehicles or otherwise, addressing us through megaphones, and hardly any notices exhorting people to vote for one party or another. This may have been because the result was a foregone conclusion.

I went through Boscombe and saw Pokesdown Station just before crossing a deep railway cutting with high barriers on each side of the bridge to prevent suicides. At Iford I crossed the road bridge over the River Stour within sight of the old bridge still in use as a footway. Soon after that there was a rare piece of undeveloped land where I sat briefly to study the map.

At Purewell I left the A35 to pass Castle ruins by the River Avon. I walked briefly in gardens between the ruins and the river. Soon afterwards I joined the B3059 which took me to the junction of the A35 and the A337. I followed the latter through Highcliffe, passing a finger post indicating that I was 8.5 miles from Bournemouth and 8.5 miles from Lymington, my destination. Directly south was Hengistbury Head. I didn't notice the sea all day although I was closest to it as I went through Highcliffe.

I saw hundreds of shops during the day but not one bank. Being short of cash I went into a Post Office and used my debit card to top up with £50. Trainline had refused to accept payment from my credit card for my rail ticket. I wondered whether John Lewis had stopped my credit card, even though they had no reason for doing so.

Soon after the church in Old Milton I turned off the main road on a lesser road towards the town centre of Ashley. The streets were now swarming with children on their way home from school. I stopped briefly in a park to switch my socks between feet as I sensed the sole of my right foot was getting sore.

After the village of Hordle the lack of housing meant the end of the pavement. What I'd identified from the map as a minor road was extremely busy. For four miles I had to watch the traffic and, in narrower sections, I caused vehicles to slow down or even stop because my appearance coincided with oncoming traffic. No one hooted or gave other signs of impatience although the occupant of one car screamed loudly, perhaps to give me a shock.

When I reached Lymington the first building I saw was the Monkey Brewhouse, the pub where I'd booked a room. It had an excellent restaurant, well patronised by people not staying there.

Distance 15.31 (I saved nearly 2 miles by leaving the A337 at Old Milton); total 3856.94.

Monkey Brewhouse only had three rooms for guests so I had breakfast alone at 8 a.m. This information was imparted by the woman who cooked my breakfast. She said it was enough for her to handle. It didn't seem that arduous to me but I suspect that she cleans out the rooms as well to prepare them for the next customers.

I was away by 9 o'clock. Rain threatened most of the day but didn't come until the evening. I walked along the A337 into Lymington which looked prosperous, going by the houses on both sides of the road. I came to a Waitrose Superstore which confirmed the prosperity and supplied my newspapers.

I crossed the bridge over the Lymington River. On the far side I passed the assembly point for the Isle of Wight car ferry. It covered a large area to the south east of Lymington. The ferry went to Yarmouth on the island.

On a minor road I came to the village of South Baddesley. The buildings at a road junction seemed all to be connected to a Church of England Primary School. There was a notice that the cricket club had been founded in 1865. But I didn't see any people and only one house which looked inhabited. Soon after the junction I reached the church. Its notice board indicated services for each of four Sundays. These were for Matins at 9.30 a.m. except for one Sunday when there was a Choral Evensong at 5.30 p.m. instead. The graveyard looked full. The gravestones I could see were for people who'd died more than a century ago. Then I heard the distant voices of children from a playground. For a moment I wondered whether they might be ghosts.

The next village was Norleywood after which I reached East End. It did seem very much off the beaten track but a DPD delivery van called at one of the houses. I passed a property called Blacksmith's Cottage with two horseshoes displayed on a wall. On the gate there was the message 'Beware of the wife'.

I turned towards East Boldre and now began to see horses at the side of the road. The New Forest is known for its wild horses. It was good to see them but they left a lot of mess, particularly around Beaulieu which I came to later.

At East Boldre I came to a road junction by a church where I took the road called Cripplegate Lane. This brought me to the B3054 near Beaulieu. I came to the mill pond and saw Beaulieu village on the far side. It stands at the head of the Beaulieu River which flows into the Solent. This is Lord Montagu's estate which includes the Abbey, Palace House and the National Motor Museum. When I reached Leygreen Farm, I turned off onto a minor road heading north.

There were parking areas for visitors to the New Forest off the road. At a crossroads I turned right towards Dibden and Hythe. The Applemore roundabout on the A326 was so busy that I wondered whether I'd ever be able to cross as there were no lights to enable pedestrians to stop the traffic. Fortunately the traffic was so heavy that it came to a temporary stop and I was able to weave my way through the stationery vehicles.

On the far side I was soon walking with crowds of children on their way home from school. I resorted to Google Maps and reached my hotel soon after 4 p.m.

Distance today 15 miles; total 3871.94.

The rain poured down on the roof windows as I wrote up yesterday before breakfast. However, the weather relented and the showers more or less passed me by today.

I had a short walk to the ferry. A long pier stretching out into Southampton Water gave access to it. I spoke briefly to a woman also waiting at the closed barred gate. She was going to work in Southampton. A cruise company providing week long trips to Norway subcontracted the processing of passengers and she worked for the subcontractor. I asked her whether she got concessions on cruises. She didn't and wouldn't have gone on a cruise anyway.

The earliest evidence of this ferry dates from 1525. It has an ancient railway service to the end of the pier although one can walk as I and most of the other passengers chose to do. The cost of a ticket was £5.20. The woman I met expressed concern at the ferry closing down as that had been threatened from time to time. She and others living in Hythe relied upon it to get to work. In Southampton I looked for a cafe as I had a couple of phone calls to make. Whilst in the cafe there was a heavy shower.

I made for the Itchen bridge. This was a massive structure built high over the river, opened by Princess Alexandra in 1977. On the far side I followed the A3025 (the Portsmouth Road) for a while until I reached a small park next to two railway bridges. I then took a minor road through New Town. When it left the built up area the pavement came to an end. For over half a mile the road went through woodland before it reached Butlocks Heath. Here we had two areas of dense housing effectively separated from each other. Walking between the two was rendered dangerous by the busy, speedy traffic. We ought to encourage people to leave their cars behind and walk. This is not the way to do it.

I went through Hound and came to Hamble-le-Rice where the Pink Ferry took passengers across the River Hamble. Both ferry boats and a shelter on the opposite bank were painted pink. The ferry left the quay side just as I arrived so I had a short wait. The ferry cost £2.50 and the ferryman took myself and two other people across without waiting for any more passengers to turn up.

Warsash on the other side of the Hamble had featured in the D-Day operations. Landing craft had taken 3000 commandoes from here to the Normandy beaches including Lord Lovat and the piper.

I now walked to Titchfield along minor roads through residential areas. Then I relied on Google Maps to take me to my hotel in Fareham. After a short spell on the B3334 it took me along the A27. Once in Fareham Google Maps started to give me nonsensical instructions such as right on a road that actually turned left. By doing the opposite of what it said, I got close to my hotel and then relied on guidance from locals.

I arrived in time to see England's struggle against Switzerland in the European Championships. It went to penalties. Rather than endure the continued suspense, I went to the hotel restaurant for dinner. It was a large hotel with T.V.s in every bar. The exultant noise of the crowd left me in no doubt of the result.

Distance today 12.81 miles; total 3884.75.

I enjoyed an excellent breakfast at the Red Lion Hotel then set off under an overcast sky with the promise of rain. I chanced upon Quay Street where blue signs indicate a special route for cyclists and pedestrians to Gosport. I crossed the A27 onto the A32 but left that as I came to an arm of Portsmouth Harbour. The blue signs led me through back streets in Fleetlands but ultimately back to the A32. After a short spell on this I was lured away by an England Coastal Path sign which took me eastwards between a bus depot and woodland to the harbour side next to a fast flowing stream. A concrete structure took me half way across the stream to the prospect of a fallen tree and an abandoned supermarket trolley tangled up together in the water. On the other side there was a huge windowless shed and no sign of any path. There was a path but it led back in the direction I'd come from. Forced back to the A32, I discovered that the England Coastal Path followed the A32 for most of the way to Gosport. That's not my idea of a coastal path.

Heavy showers compelled me to take refuge in two separate bus shelters. Another shower forced me under the protective branches of trees only to share their shelter with the corpse of a headless dog, no doubt a victim of the A32. I was in no hurry as a sense of caution had caused me to book my train ticket on the 3.48p.m. from Portsmouth Harbour Station.

What do I think about on tedious sections such as the A32 to Gosport? One odd train of thought involves something going badly wrong and how I'd cope with it. For example, what would I do if the Gosport Ferry was suspended and I had to get to Portsmouth Harbour Station on a Sunday going all the way round Portsmouth Harbour via Porchester in the absence of any buses or trains. Gosport has no station and I didn't see any buses whilst I walked along the A32 so presumably they don't run on a Sunday.

Another example of this tendency involves arriving at my hotel late, tired, hungry and battered by the weather only to be told that there'd been a death in the hotelier's family and the hotel was closed to enable the family to recover. In this instance I endeavoured to strike a balance between sympathy for the family and insistence on my need for shelter that night, whilst accepting that no food or other services would be provided. I went through the various permutations in my head.

Such thoughts kept me distracted until I reached the Gosport Ferry. As the only easy means of travel between Gosport and Portsmouth the ferry was a fair sized boat, constantly making the trip back and forth across the harbour mouth with numerous passengers. As I waited I saw that one couldn't board without a ticket so I walked back until I found the ticket office. The cost of a return ticket (no singles) was £3.30 for over 65s and £5.10 for other adults. The journey across was spectacular. Portsmouth Harbour Station was next to where one disembarked. It was draughty so I waited for my train in the bus station nearby.

Distance today 5.63 miles; total 3890.38.