South Downs Way Day 1

Spring seems to have sprung with a vengeance, so, about time to pay a bit of attention to the UK rather than swanning off to the continent every weekend.  Time for some long distance walking in fact!  Now, last autumn I was looking around for somewhere to hike within range of London, and ended up in the Peak District... while that was good, it did later occur that there are some actual long distance paths in the South East - not least, the South Downs Way.  I guess I'd discounted it, along with other relatively nearby routes such as the North Downs Way and the Ridgeway, on the basis of having looked at these paths in the past, and having noticed a distinct lack of campsites.  But nowadays I can actually afford hotel rooms, so, time to see what these relatively nearby trails have to offer.

Winchester Cathedral

A shoe-in for best pub in Exton

The South Downs way runs for around 100 miles from Winchester to Eastbourne, so the start is only an hour's train ride from Waterloo, and even better I can stop at the parents' for a tasty bit of carb loading on the way.  My first time in Winchester, plenty of ancient buildings seem fitting for this former capital city of England.  It would be nice to spend a bit longer, at least until the pubs open... but I have 25 miles to go today, time to crack on.  The going is pretty easy to begin with, nothing like the Peak District or the Pennines here.  Rather a flat plateau, and it appears the whole route is a cycle and bridleway as well, so not much gradient to worry about, although it looks like the walking and cycling routes diverge at times.  A bit of a hill - and even a trig point - does turn up just before lunch, which I spend at the charming Shoe Inn at Exton.

Short cut!

A bit more up and down in the afternoon, the Way heads up Old Winchester Hill where there are bronze age burial mounds and an iron age hill fort.  The route follows an undulating chalk ridge, and is so well signposted that I think you could do it without a map, and I only really need my GPS to find pubs... speaking of which, after 18 miles I hit a bit of a dilemma.  A sign indicates I could get to the Inn where I plan to stay the night in only one mile, whereas the plan is to keep going on the Way and then circle back.  If I take a short cut now, I'd be faced with either over 30 miles to walk tomorrow, or with missing out 4 miles or so of the official route.  I'm sure that on the Pennine Way 12 years ago I'd have taken the short cut without a care - though that sometimes didn't work out so well.  But today I trudge on along according to the plan... be it OCD or whatever, I'm going to make all 100 miles.

Ye Olde George

In any case it's not too late when I get to Ye Olde George Inn at East Meon, where it appears my mum and dad have followed me, well, nice to have some company over a few beers and an excellent dinner.  Also nice not to have to sleep in a tent, as while it was unseasonably warm during the day temperatures are dropping towards freezing now.  Surprisingly mind you, I could have camped had I wished, though none of my maps mark it as a campsite the Sustainability Centre is full of tents.  I'd probably have to sit through lectures about recycling or some such though...

Photos to go with this post can be found here.