Vole Explosion

Monday 4^th March 2024

HAYLING ISLAND TO HAYLING FERRY (PORTSMOUTH)

   In broad daylight it’s much easier to find my way back to where I left off last night. The footpath up the western side of the island is very pleasant, following the course of an old railway through a narrow strip of woods, with farmland on my right and the waters of Langstone Harbour on my left. This railway was called the Billy Line and it carried people from the mainland to the south of the island. Near the road bridge the remains of a causeway and swing bridge that carried the line across to the mainland can still be seen.

   Most of the coast here is now a nature reserve and I take my time on this stretch, seeing a good variety of birds. There is a mixed nesting colony of Black-headed and Mediterranean Gulls, all in their smart breeding plumage and already setting up their tightly-packed nests on a sand bar, courting and squabbling noisily. The Med. Gulls are recent colonists to southern England. They breed in very small numbers where I live in the east, but here on the south coast they are positively abundant – I estimate around 350 just this morning.

   At the northern end of the island I stop for coffee and a bacon and fried egg sandwich from a snack van, and then I finally reach the bridge again. With Hayling Island completed, I cross back to the mainland and re-join the Solent Way around Langstone Harbour. I have more opportunities for birding as the path circuits around the nature reserve of Farlington Marshes – a large stretch of coastal grazing marsh filled with wildfowl.

   As with everywhere along the Solent, there are noisy Brent Geese. In winter the Solent holds around 10% of the world’s population of the dark-bellied form of this small Arctic goose (around 25,000 birds).

   The trail continues west on a cycle path that runs alongside, but separated from, a busy dual carriageway. Turning south, it then arrives into Portsmouth. This is on another island, Portsea Island, but it nestles so snugly against the mainland, with numerous crossing points, that it isn’t immediately obvious.

   A nice walking path on a raised embankment is being created down the eastern side of the island, overlooking Langstone Harbour, but it isn’t finished yet and most parts are fenced off. I have to walk on the pavement along the road for much of the way until I reach the southern end. The weather has clouded over and turned cold and windy as the path briefly moves inland through housing, before eventually reaching the sea again at the mouth of Langstone Harbour. Unlike Chichester Harbour, which took me almost four days to walk around, it seems Langstone Harbour can be circumnavigated in a day.

   Before I reach the foot ferry back across to Hayling Island it starts raining. Lightly at first but then increasingly heavily. I don’t have to wait long for the ferry to arrive and it has a small indoor area. The boat is too small for cars, but it carries pedestrians and cyclists the 300m or so across the water in less than two minutes.

   Once back on Hayling Island I have about an hour’s walk back to the campsite in now showery weather. I stop off at a pub in town and stay long enough to dry off. Tonight they are hosting a local ukulele orchestra, which wouldn’t normally be my kind of thing, but I enjoy listening to their renditions of various 50s and 60s hits. By the time I leave the rain has stopped, so at least I don’t have to get in my tent soaking wet.

14.1 miles; 22.6km; 9.5 hours

The Oven Campsite, Hayling Island (£20)