Saturday 9th March 2024
HARDLEY TO HILL TOP (BEAULIEU)
I set off early today and catch the bus back to where I left off yesterday, stepping off into a light rain shower. Fortunately it doesn’t last long, but the day remains cold, cloudy and windy, apart from a few sunny spells.
I won’t be walking on the coast much today as most of it is private land. I start with a boring stretch along a busy road between a town and an oil refinery, followed by a more pleasant walk through a large park, and then on a footpath to the village of Fawley. I pass the church here and then, a few minutes later, I am in the New Forest National Park.
At the tiny village of Ashlett I reach the coast again. There is an old tide mill here and a pub that isn’t open yet.
The tide is very high and there is a choice of two routes for when the seashore is impassable. I risk the low tide route along the water’s edge and manage to get through ok.
I pass in front of a power station and then a yard containing some huge wind turbine blades, before crossing Calshot Marshes Nature Reserve where the ground is much wetter and I only just managed to squelch my way through.
Nearby is Calshot Castle at the tip of a peninsula – built by Henry VIII as part of his defences against expected attacks from France and Spain, and later modified in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Calshot peninsula later became an important military aircraft base in the early days of aviation from the First World War, through the 1920s and into WWII. With no land runway, the aircraft operating from here were seaplanes, both floatplanes (regular aeroplanes with the wheels replaced by floats) and flying boats (larger aircraft designed solely for water, with a fuselage that is essentially a boat’s hull). During peacetime Calshot was a venue for aeronautical races.
I spend an hour and a half visiting the castle before backtracking to the village of Calshot, where I eat my lunch and decide what to do next. This is the final day of this week’s walk and, with rain forecast for this afternoon, I could catch a bus back to Southampton from here.
In the end I decide to keep going and make as much progress as possible. Most of the walk from here is along quiet country roads away from the coast, but it turns out to be much more enjoyable than I expected, with a landscape of woodland and farmland, and the rain holds off as well.
The panicked sound of a pheasant draws my attention quickly enough to catch a glimpse of the bird flying through the trees with a Goshawk in hot pursuit, flying fast and low and appearing almost as large as its intended prey. My view of these birds is over in a couple of seconds and I don’t get to see the outcome of the chase, but any view of a Goshawk in Britain is a highlight of the day. These powerful raptors are rare and secretive here, and I’ve seen probably fewer than ten in my whole life.
The route briefly takes me along the coast again at Lepe Country Park. The road runs parallel to the sea here but I walk along the beach for a couple of miles until I can go no further and have to re-join the road as it turns inland.
The coast here is interrupted by the Beaulieu River, and this time there is no ferry to get me across. The whole of the eastern bank is private land, so I have to follow a more-or-less straight road north, away from the coast. This takes me through woodland, past the entrance to Exbury House and Gardens, and finally across some open heathland typical of the New Forest, where I see some of the forest’s famous ponies grazing on the heath.
My walk ends at Hill Top, just outside the village of Beaulieu (which, with the classic British inability to speak French, is pronounced ‘Byoo-lee’). There is no bus service here at the weekend so I have to walk an extra 3km (1.9 miles) to the nearest one. Instead of going all the way into Southampton I only go as far as Hythe to catch the little pier train and the ferry again. My return ticket from yesterday is still valid and I sail back to Southampton as dusk is falling.
Later this evening the rain starts, but I’m finished walking for now. I estimate that it should only take me two more days to complete the coast of Hampshire, but that’s for later in the year.
14.8 miles; 23.8km; 7.5 hours
Rivendell Guesthouse, Southampton (£43)
Vole Explosion 
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