Day 65 - Saturday 12 October 2002 - Langstone to Fort Cumberland

5 miles walked today

743.5 miles walked in total (11.438 average)

I parked in the Ship Inn car park at 9.45 am to start walking - a later start than usual because of a quick laundrette stop en route!

I walked over the bridge and took a right turn out to the Hayling Billy path.  This path is the old railway route from Havant to Hayling Island and the sleepers have now been torn up and used for the sea defences around Langstone harbour.

It started off very grey, but there were bits of blue sky and the clouds were very fast moving.   The sun soon came out and it was gloriously bright, despite being very blustery and cold.  I almost wished I'd brought my gloves with me.

The path had a slight deviation out to the oyster lagoon, one of only ten sites in the UK which is under close observation because of little terns.   The adults fly back from Africa each April and nest here.  As soon as the fledgelings are big enough to catch their own fish, it's October and time for them to go back to Africa for the winter.  I saw a lot of seagulls and I knew I could hear the familiar "peep peep" of oyster catchers, but I couldn't see them.  Time to get the binoculars out!  I sat down for a while and scanned the shore line and caught sight of half a dozen or so of them.  They're so distinctive with their long red beaks - lovely birds.

Amongst the non-flying wildlife I've seen today were horses, a dead rat and a hare which was quite exciting as it's only the second I've ever seen, the first being while walking the Suffolk coast.

I had terrific views over to Portsdown Hill, Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight.  I didn't need a map today, as I've already done this walk a number of times, the most memorable being after work a couple of summers ago with my friend, Vicki Wilkinson.  We took a picnic of bread, cheese and red wine and sat on the beach up by the bridge and watched all the lights of Pompey come up.  It was a bit tricky on the way back though - quite dark and difficult walking, especially carrying our glasses of wine!

The Hayling Billy path emerges from behind the Station Theatre, the old Hayling Island railway station, which has been taken over by the Hayling Island Amateur Dramatic Society.  I've seen a couple of productions there - I used to live on Hayling for a year when I first transferred down here from Norfolk.  It's been very surreal and very comforting walking bits of coast I know.  I'm still looking forward to the unknown though and walking parts of the coast I'm totally unfamiliar with.

From the theatre, I was on roads past Hayling's poshest houses out on to Ferry Road and down to the ferry over to Fort Cumberland, where I worked for two years before working at Havant, Cardiff for six months and then back to Portsmouth since Easter this year.

Taking the ferry was also a bizarre experience - I used to commute to work on the ferry!  It's a very busy boat - I counted ten of us on the way over to Fort Cumberland and seven of us on the way back.

There were lots of people out on their boats today.  There were also lots of people in the Ferry Boat Inn where I stopped for my customary pint of cider to finish a walk.  Not many miles covered today, but a great day nonetheless.