There's been a lot of talk lately on Trailwalker forums on Twitter and Facebook about feet taping, surgical spirit, compeed, stride oil and poles. Up until now there's been sore feet and a few blisters on the team but nothing that's stopped us from walking (touch wood!). Just recently I managed to acquire a set of poles and was planning to use them on the walk planned for Saturday 27th, but in the end, they remain unused!
We met up at the car park for the Royal Armouries Museum opposite Fort Nelson on Portsdown hill, overlooking Portsmouth & the Isle of Wight. The photo doesn't do it justice as it was actually a lovely day with a bit of a chilly wind at times.
The route took us around Fort Nelson (which although local, none of us had ever visited) and then across an empty field (thankfully there was a well-trodden path through the middle), down towards Boarhunt (pronounced Borunt).
We came across one other fellow walker (of only 4 out on the route), before turning west and heading downhill towards the Wallington River. At this point, I'd wish I had a camera recording everything we encounter (plus a memory to recall things), but as we passed a farm heading to the river, we had to bypass a couple of guys by walking on their field...'Gerrof my wheat' one old guy said, to which we wanted to respond, 'Well, don't bloody block the path by mixing cement on it!'. Thought better of it, farmers & guns!
We hoped that we'd avoid any puddles, mud etc, but were left struggling at one point where the path (and stile) were located in the middle of a huge puddle. No way around...all we needed to do was hop over the barbed wire fence. Easy when you've the leg length of Phil, or the elfish body of Clara, but you can imagine the comedic sight of me straddling the wire with the crown jewels threatened! Thankfully we came through virtually unscathed, poor Shaz managed to catch her knee on a barb.
Chance for a group shot just after that episode crossing a bridge over the Wallington.
So 6km in just over the hour was good going - we're aiming for a 27 hour finish overall in Trailwalker, so to actually be ahead of the plan means we're on track.
Pretty uneventful next few kms to be honest as the path wound through fields, past farms and skirting forests...until we emerged from a wood to find ourselves in a field of hay attached to a farm, but with no path in sight. Despite a 5 minute wander through the farm (and manure covered paths) we only came upon locked gates! So, eventually we grabbed the bull by the horns (not literally) and made our own path out of the farm. We all then questioned...who 'polices' when farmers block these paths?
Onwards and downwards, we decided on a slight detour from the original plan, which would have taken us along a fairly busy road. So after 10.5km we headed back west again through copses and forests to our rest stop, which was supposed to be halfway, but in the end we walked a little further to the picnic stop at Bere Forest West Walk - 14.5 km in 2h 35 mins, just under 6km/h average!
After a good 20 minute stop, which consisted mainly of cups of tea/coffee from the little store, peanut butter sarnies and a bit of sock/boot re-arrangements, we headed off through the forest on the Pilgrim's Way down towards the West Meon Trail. Having spent 20 mins around lots of people at the rest stop, it was great to get off the beaten track and into the real forest.
The West Meon Trail is a cycle & walking trail that follows the old railway line from Alton to Fareham, and runs from West Meon down to Wickham. A lovely walk (being flat of course and following a nice cuppa!)...and we were still walking at 6km/h after 4 hours - definitely the rest stops are a help, so thank god for the checkpoints along the way!
Now, I guess we're all ones for checking the weather before (and on) our training walks! We're no different and had been expecting rain at 1pm...but it had held off! HAD...being the operative word. As we made our way south and east back towards Fort Nelson, ominous clouds behind us threatened. Did we get wet? Well, actually not really! Why? Well, it DID throw a bit of hail at us for about 5 minutes, but that was it! Always better to have hard rain than wet rain! When the sun was out, it was actually rather warm (and it looks like we all got some good colour on our faces!).
As we headed further south, we came across the biggest group of walkers in our path. They'd obviously had a good day and were ready for bed!
We ambled behind them for about 5 minutes when we were able to sneak past and head back east towards Fort Nelson. We chose to follow the road back up the hill and retraced our steps around the Fort, arriving at the cafe (always a good finishing point) for a cuppa and a slice of cake! A great walk and it looks as though we're on track with our training...26.4km in 4h 41m at an average speed of 5.6 km/h. OK, there will be more hills on the South Downs Way, we'll throw a bit of hill training in soon!
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| Nope - we're not in Trafalgar Square! Who knew there were two of them? |
Thanks to all of our sponsors so far in helping get us to £1250 (still a little way to go though until we hit £3000) and to all those that have provided us with raffle prizes for our planned Charity Quiz (date to be confirmed). If you sponsor us, either visit our justgiving site or text TRUS99 to 70070 to donate £5 to the charities (Oxfam & the Gurkha Welfare Trust).
Keep Trailwalking all!
