721 miles walked in total (11.819 average)
After a mini lay in this morning, I was walking at seven fifteen. It's much hotter than yesterday and not cloudy at all.
Within half an hour of starting, I'd found Selsey windmill which has been turned into the centrepiece of a caravan park. After heading inland slightly to find a footpath, I crossed my first stile to be greeted by an angry looking horse, snorting and kicking his back leg. At this point, his front end was facing the path and he definitely was not going to let me pass. After a few minutes of cajoling and sweet talking, he turned round so I'd have to walk past his back legs. Not being very keen on this plan, I waited a couple of minutes before walking a few paces forward, at which point he moved off and let me pass.
The path crossed grazing land out to a road which led into a huge caravan site owned by Warners. The roads even had names and the caravans had numbered postboxes. Because I'd lost the path now, I walked for what seemed like miles, to get through the site and out to the beach, which I walked along. It wasn't too bad to walk on as the shingle was very well compacted.
I could see the nab tower, cross channel ferries, Freshwater Bay chalk cliffs on the Isle of Wight, Bracklesham Bay and Portsmouth in the distance. Fantastic views on a fantastic day.
Andy rang from Turkey as I was walking into Bracklesham - apparently it was "red hot" out there and he'd had to buy factor 30 suncream.
I'm less than impressed with the tea making facilities on this stretch of coast. I'd passed three lots of tea rooms which were closed before I got to East Wittering. We used to come here on holiday when we were kids and we camped at Scott's Farm campsite which is still there.
I've had lots of sit downs today as it's been very hot and I've been desperate to find pockets of shade. It was a relief to get onto grass footpaths after the difficult shingle walking around East Wittering, but the grass soon stopped and I was on soft sand, again quite difficult to walk on.
I took a chance at West Wittering to go and investigate a huge car park which was heaving. Success at last - a tea shop! I knew there would have to be one here because of the amount of people at the beach. Good tea too (unlike the gnat's piss at the Pagham Harbour Visitor Centre yesterday!)
From West Wittering, I followed a great footpath all the way to Itchenor, and stopped to chat to lots of people en route. I got caught up in an affray at one stage - an elderly gentleman (very elderly!) was trying to control his young dog, but five youths (who it would seem had been camping illegally and lighting fires under some trees on the path) were calling the dog who kept pulling the old boy over. A middle aged couple on bikes were trying to reason with the lads and, because they were blocking the path, I got caught up too. Because I hadn't seen anything and couldn't contribute anything constructive to the discussions, I sussed out a way to get past them - only to be approached by a young woman coming the other way who obviously knew the old chap and wanted to know if he was distressed in any way. The other couple had caught me up by now so I left them all to it.
The path was quite shaded which was a bit of a relief - it's been so hot today. It wasn't long before I got to Itchenor and took my first ferry! I know I started off vowing not to take ferries but Andy and I calculated that I'll be sixty-three by the time I finish my walk if I carry on at this rate. And, quite frankly, I don't think Andy will put up with it! I rather think he's got travelling and fishing planned for me. So I went over to Bosham Hoe, didn't bother getting off the boat and went straight back over to Itchenor. That way, I can start at Bosham next time around. And, apparently, that's not the weirdest request the ferryman's ever had!
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