Monday 21 March 2011

Walk 57







Brighton to Eastbourne 24miles






Another warm sunny day greeted me on what was going to be the hardest day walking of my week away. It was nice and easy all the thru Peacehven, Newhaven and onto Seaford, it was at Seaford I saw a sight for sore eyes.....a HILL...a nice big un as well!!!!, once at the top the view to Seaford was fantastic(see Pic1), and yes that is a golf course at the top of the hill!!!. I travelled another mile or so to be greeted with a view to end all views(see pic 2)...the Seven Sisters, I had to stand there staring for several minutes just to take in the view :). The next task was to tackle these hills which wasn't too bad, up and down 7 times, easy peasy when you compare with some of the valleys I have had to walk in D&C!. The final part of the walk took in Beachy Head (see pic3) with its familier red and white lighthouse stuck out on a rock looking very precarious.

Friday 18 March 2011

Walk 56


Littlehampton to Brighton 21miles


A stong westerly was blowing today which worked in my favour on my way along the beach to Brighton, nothing much else to say about today other than ....Flat. Brighton itself was buzzing and very lively you can understnd why people live here. Pic is of Brighton pier.

Walk 55

Selsey to Littlehampton 20miles

A nice day greeted me today as I set off firstly to Pagham and then onto Littlehampton. The walk today was as dull as dishwater! I really can't say any thing positive about todays walk........Oh yea I walked thru Bognor, what a dump....... the whole day was flat and boring. A change of county today goodbye Hampshire hello West Sussex

Walk 54


Southsea to Selsey 20miles


Another glorious crisp sunny morning greeted me today, a short 2 mile walk to the Hayling Island ferry and I had it all to myself! the water was so flat calm it was like a scene from a horror film....spooky! :) Once off the ferry I had a really nice walk along the disused Hayling to Havant railway line which is now a nature reserve (see Pic) The next part of the walk was to Emsworth and then onto West Wittering, the rest of the walk toSelsey was along a shingle beach....ouch my feet hurt!!!

Walk 53




Southampton to Southsea 25miles




A short 2 mile walk took me to the Hythe ferry(1st of 3 today!) across Southampton water (see pic), the pier at Hythe has its own railway from the ticket booth to where the ferry leaves and apparently this was built in 1878 and is the oldest pier train still running in the world. A nice ferry ride across the bay was then followed by a not so nice walk thru Southampton (too much traffic), once out of the city I walked along the bay to Hamble which was very nice. The second ferry of the day was from Hamble to Warsash, this is where I nearly ended up on e "wrong" boat......I was ambling towards the ferry jetty when I saw a boat just about to cast off so I made a dash for it but just missed it.......t was a good job I missed it as it was not my ferry but a pleasure craft!!! I had visions aftwards of me leaping from the jetty onto the boat only to end up in the IOW!!!
The walk to the next ferry at Gosport was univentful and very flat, until I got to the army ranges at Browndown which were open so you could walk across, the only problem was that it was 2miles of shingle beach! I nearly got caught in the rush hour crush at the Gosport ferry as I ended up walking down the exit lane of the walk towards the ferry just as wall of commuters deposited of the incoming ferry! a quick leap over the chains dividing the lanes soon sorted me out before I was swamped!!!! Another trip thru a big town(Portsmouth) greeted me after the Gosport ferry....enough said. The second pic is of the Big sail at the mouth of the port at Portsmouth. A complete milage cock up again today as I thought I was only going to do 21 miles and ended up doing 25!!!! no wonder I was on my knees when I reached Southsea :(

Walk 52


Milford on sea to Southampton 21miles


A very cold raw north westerly wind greeted me today at the start of this walk and stayed with me for the duration! The first stop of the day ws Lymington (see Pic) very quaint with its cobbled streets and little shops. A short walk took me thru to Bealieu which was nice, it was then onto my final destination Southampton c/w huge oil refinery!!! Todays walk can be described as FLAT! and I had to do a fair bit of road work....sign of things to come....The B&B was great with free WIFI :)

Walk 51


Christchurch to Milford on Sea 9miles


I had to drive to Christchurch today and drop the car off for the week....I hope its there when I get back!!!! As I walked towards Milford I had to climb a hill to take the picture on this entry of my blog, this would be the last hill to climb for over 100 miles!. The view from the top of the hill was fantastic stretching all the way to Harrys Rocks. A ferry to Mudeford greeted me at the bottom of the hill and then it was a straight forward 6 mile walk along the beach into Milford on Sea, I crossed the county border into Hampshire today so farwell Dorset. As I arrived into Milford the IOW came into view and I had a great view of the Needles. I stopped in a nice B&B in Milford and in the evening decided to go out for a meal so I chose the closest to the B&B which just happened to be the Zaika Indian Resturant but to my horror they refused to serve me because and I quote " we do not have any tables for one".....so if your ever in Milford, you now know where not to go!