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.

Day 64 - Saturday 5 October 2002 - Emsworth to Langstone

3 miles walked today

738.5 miles walked in total (11.539 average)

We've had a fantastic day.  We had to do a bit of shuffling with cars this morning, leaving one at Langstone and the other at Emsworth, but ten o'clock found Andy and I in Emsworth having a big breakfast to set us up for the day.

We followed the footpath out from Emsworth past the ponds and saw thirty or so swans being given bread by a family.  This bread seemed to be a food source for the hundreds of grey mullet that we saw too.   Andy explained that you'll always find them around sewage outfall pipes, but, because water companies in general are having to clean up after themselves following EC regulations, the populations of grey mullet, together with mussels and prawns which also feed on sewage, will decline rapidly.

The path itself was quite interesting - it was great having Andy with me today as he's explained loads.  The path was concrete, but wasn't a dead flat surface - it was lumped together in small mounds, but in very regular shapes.   Apparently, that's because they'd never have got a concrete wagon down to the shore and so sandbags had been filled with dry sand and cement, piled up along the shore and, when it had got wet from the sea, had become concrete.  Excellent!  I was also shown the Gabian baskets, which are square shaped wire baskets filled with boulders.

Just past Emsworth, the path took a detour inland through a churchyard.  However, Andy declared that the water wasn't that deep and we could probably paddle around.  So we did.  For about half a mile in thigh deep water!   It was excellent fun though and provided some fantastic photo opportunities!

When we could, we climbed back onto the wall, over a barbed wire fence (which was a bit tricky) and then through a cowfield.  We managed to avoid all the cowpats - and there were lots of them! - to make it out to another barbed wire fence which we climbed over to get back to the wall.  This manoeuvre entailed clinging onto a tree backwards with all fours and hoping not to fall into the water.  I'm not bringing him again.

Just past this obstacle, we were on the path proper and not flouting any more footpath/ walking rules.  It wasn't far to the Ship Inn at Langstone where we had a well deserved drink and sat in the sun, trying to dry our trousers out.  The boots had no chance!

Day 63 - Saturday 7 September 2002 - West Chidham to Emsworth

10 miles walked today

735.5 miles walked in total (11.67 average)

Katie and I were walking at 9.20 am this morning, having parked by the Old House at Home pub at Chidham.  We had to walk a couple of hundred yards along the road until we found the footpath that led out to the sea and which then stayed true to the coastline all day.

At Prinsted, we stumbled upon a group of Sea Scouts with their compasses practising their triangulation.  It all sounded a bit complicated to me, but I think Katie knew what they were up to.  But then, she is an engineer!

The path around Thorney Island is very well protected.  The island itself is entirely Ministry of Defence owned and there are electronic gates to get on and off the island with a manned barrier on the road which runs down the middle of the island.  We pressed the intercom and were let in with no worries at all.  The cameras at the gate were trained on us though and we obviously looked like proper walkers and no threat to national security!

Halfway down the east side of the island is a small church with two quite separate graveyards.  The first one is full of 1940 graves and the names were all German.  The older churchyard had graves dating back to 1729 and one had a skull and crossbones on it, something I've not seen before.

Just past the church is the Thorney Island Sailing Club and we were hoping it would be open as we needed a loo. No such luck!  Katie suggested dashing into the churchyard but we didn't think that was a good idea, given the amount of cameras watching us!  Just past the sailing club, we found a youth hostel type place for the RYA (which we assumed meant Royal Yachting Association) and we nipped in there to use the facilities!

As we followed the path around the island, we saw a few twitchers - one tattooed chap with bovver boots on was cycling around, but kept stopping to make notes in his book.  He pointed out a peregrine falcon to us which apparently had "put the grey plover up" and we saw a swarm of dunlins along the shore.  We spotted lots of cormorants all day too.

We said goodbye to the man and carried on past a patrol vehicle with two chaps wearing all the camouflage outfit.  They could see where we were going and that we were heading out to the west gate along the path.  So, when we got to the gate and couldn't get through it, it came as something of a surprise that these blokes hadn't mentioned to us that the gate is no longer used.   I got on the intercom again and had quite an interesting chat with an MOD representative, but Katie took over when I began to get a bit overwrought and informed the man that I wasn't going to walk back to the east gate for another three hours.   We were told that there were signs on the east gate stating that the west gate wasn't in use.  I (politely) pointed out that there was no sign and, furthermore, if there had been a sign and we'd seen it, we would never have attempted to walk around the island.  Gggrrr!

Katie (who is much more of a diplomat than I'll ever be) asked the jobsworth if we could effectively trespass and walk along the tarmac track back to the middle of the island and join the road to get out to Emsworth.  After a brief pause, he assured us that this would be ok.  Humph!

So we followed the road off the island through Emsworth Marina and out to find a pub.  It was a shame about this slight altercation, although we did have a bit of a giggle about it as we carried on.  We really enjoyed the walk today around the island - it was very bracing and we felt completely invigorated from our exercise.

Roll on the next time!

Day 62 - Sunday 11 August 2002 - Bosham Hoe to West Chidham

4.5 miles walked today

725.5 miles walked in total (11.70 average)

Nicholas and I were ready to walk this morning at ten o'clock.  We'd planned to have a full weekend of walking, but things have not gone according to plan so far.  I had arranged to meet Nicholas' bus at Heathrow on Friday night at seven o'clock, but, due to rush hour traffic, he hadn't turned up until eight thirty.   And then, of course, we had to find somewhere to have tea and then go and buy provisions for our packed lunch for walking, so we didn't get to bed until gone midnight.  Which meant a certain young man didn't want to get up on Saturday morning when the alarm went off, even though I crashed around the caravan and made as much noise as I possibly could to wake him up!  By the time Nicholas did finally emerge from the sleeping bag, it had started to chuck it down and walking was called off for the day.

However, we had a fun day around Portsmouth - our adventure included the ferry over to Gosport, the Submarine Museum and Explosion! Museum (a converted munitions factory at Priddy's Hard at Gosport), pizza in Southsea and Austin Powers at the cinema at Gun Wharf.  Phew!  Action packed or what?!

Because there is nowhere to park at Bosham Hoe, we had to leave the car at Bosham, cross the causeway back to where I finished the last time and then back over the causeway to start!

We skirted the harbour and the church to try and find our path, which was very overgrown and the sign had even been hidden behind a garden hedge!  Our only option was to follow the road out of Bosham and find the path where it joined up a bit further round the coast - a very posh elderly lady wearing a poncho asked if we were lost and we showed her our map and said we wanted to get out to the water's edge.  She said we were very nearly at the path and congratulated us on our map reading skills!

The path was quite boggy and it wasn't long before Nicholas' trainers weren't white any more, but a very fetching greeny/ grey colour.  The path followed the water all the way along and we walked through farmers' fields by the waterside, where we saw all sorts of produce being grown:  cauliflowers; cabbages; spuds; marrows; beetroot; runner beans; spring onions; parsley and basil

Eventually, the path ran out and we were on road past a very big pond where we saw a heron.  After a short way along the road, we were back on another footpath past massive greenhouses towards the church, where we'd decided to eat our sandwiches.   After a short break at the churchyard, we covered the short distance to the pub where, true to form, the rain came down!   What a good place to stop!

We didn't get too many miles done today - I knew it would be a shorter day's walking because we had to get Nicholas back to Heathrow to get the bus up to Norwich.  However, it was good fun and I really enjoyed it.  Looking forward to the next time!

Day 61 - Sunday 28 July 2002 - Selsey Bill to Bosham Hoe

11.5 miles walked today

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!

Day 60 - Saturday 27 July 2002 - Middleton on Sea to Selsey Bill

14 miles walked today

709.5 miles walked in total (11.825 average)

Seven o'clock this morning found me walking along the beach at Middleton.  It was, not surprisingly, very peaceful and I'd planned to start walking at this time, if not earlier, because the weather forecast was for a scorcher.   Within only fifteen minutes, I got my first view of Bognor Regis which appears to have built its own version of the Millennium Dome.   Butlins of course!  I spied a chap behind the barrier fencing gazing wistfully out to sea - almost as if he wanted to escape!

Walking around the coast of Britain seems to be in danger of becoming a national sport.  I read in my walking magazine this week that someone else has done it (with her dog) and written a book about it, and I met a couple this morning who are doing it, anticlockwise.  They've walked from Minehead to Bridport so far, but are going to cut up through the New Forest and then down along the coast to Dover.  I'd better get a move on before everyone else beats me to it.

The houses have been either very grand or very cottagey today.  I much prefer the smaller properties with the wild flower meadows than the more imposing ones with the very formal, minimalist gardens.

Pagham had five very good looking pubs, which was a bit unfortunate as it was only nine o'clock!

I carried on, on footpaths around Pagham Harbour Nature Reserve until the sea wall finished due to emergency repairs to the sea defences.  This meant a detour - still on footpaths - but through fields to Sidlesham where yet another pub didn't open for ninety minutes.

I sat down on a bench overlooking the harbour for a while and, as I got up to go on, an elderly couple hove into view.  They'd overtaken me at Pagham while I'd been looking around the churchyard at St Thomas a Becket's, then I'd overtaken them on the path and they'd finally caught up with me again.  They lived in Bognor, but frequently came out to this spot to look at the birds.   I've seen loads of twitchers about today and wish I'd had one with me to identify all the different varieties I'd seen!

After a cup of tea and yet another sit down at the Visitor Centre, I was back on sea wall round to Church Norton.  Unfortunately, the path ran out just a short distance from the church and I got very muddy feet as I waded through the mudflats to reach dry land.  

There was a lot of activity in the graveyard which is huge considering the church is only tiny.  Three old dears, armed with rake, wheelbarrow and thermos flask, were buzzing around trying to organise each other.  St Wilfrid, whose church it is, was a seventh century missionary who ministered to residents of Seal Island - now Selsey - when it really was an island.  It still feels a bit cut off today, with only one road in and out. 

I was struggling a bit now with heat and hunger pains, having forgotten to pack any munchies, so I stuck to the road rather than heading along the beach.

I decided to stop at Selsey Bill and gave up for the day.  I had lunch and called a taxi to get me back to my car.  My driver was very entertaining and told me lots of stories about the local area.  I saw a sign for a fete at Sidlesham to be opened at 2.00 pm today by Sir Patrick Moore.  I was informed that he lived at Selsey - I think I already knew that, but had forgotten.   Apparently he does a lot for the local community.  I was told where he lived so I'm going to have a gawp tomorrow.

I told the driver that I was going to call in and have a look around Bognor Regis on the way back to Portsmouth but was advised against it "if you value your health" - it's Carnival Day!

Day 59 - Saturday 13 July 2002 - West Worthing to Middleton on Sea

11 miles walked today

695.5 miles walked in total (11.78 average)

I started walking at eight thirty this morning in bright sunshine.   I wasn't even sure that I would be walking today until I woke up, as the weather forecast wasn't great.  This, according to the Met Office, has been the wettest July for forty years.  But I awoke to glorious sunshine so my contingency plan of the laundrette, Tescos and a garden centre or two wasn't needed!

There were lots of people about today dog walking and riding horses along the beach.  West Worthing to Ferring is very peaceful with lots of big, well spaced houses and a lot of greensward between beach and road.  There are strategically placed cafes along the beach and I stopped at the Bluebird at nine thirty for tea and toast.  It was so hot by this time that I even elected to sit inside as I knew I'd be spending a lot of time in the sun today.

Kingston Gorse wins the prize for the biggest houses I've ever seen!   You could fit at least ten homeless families in each one!   However, one house currently being built was the ugliest looking residence I've ever clapped eyes on.  It was almost as if the owners had so much money that they were going to build the most imposing castle they could and had forgotten to incorporate the "tastefulness" element - yuk.

An old boy on a motorised wheelchair stopped me and another lady to ask if we'd sign his petition.  Arun District Council intend to build a fence with gated, stepped access to stop cyclists, but which would also stop wheelchair access.  The old boy asked for our views and, to be honest, I hadn't seen one cyclist at all so far.   And, in fact, the South Coast Cycle Route runs parallel with the greensward and is very well signposted along the road.  I couldn't see the point in putting the fence up so I signed.  The other lady (who was Dutch so knew a fair bit about cycling!) said our cycle network was one of the best she'd seen.  So she signed too!

Angmering didn't compete with Kingston Gorse on the size of the houses, but it won on "Englishness" - lots of cottages with roses and honeysuckle up the doors - lovely!  I stopped to sniff the odd rose en route of course

As I walked into Rustington, I was stopped by two policemen which was a bit scary.   They informed me that they'd been watching my progress and that I was getting noticeably slower and that I should get a move on!  Cheeky sods!  They were right though - it was very hot and I was afflicted by flies - in my eyes, my mouth, up my nose and in my hair - how I love the summer!

At Littlehampton, at Rope Walk, I walked past the chalet park where Sheila, Alan, Auntie Joyce and I had stayed during June 1988.    We were going to take Nan Rowland on holiday with us, but, sadly, she died in the March and the holiday was already booked - so Auntie Joyce stepped in.  I think that was the year I learnt to put up my first deckchair!

A footpath through the golf course caused more fly trouble.  Because golfers and walkers are sworn enemies, the golfers didn't want to see anybody on their course who wasn't wielding a long metal stick, so they'd created a very narrow path which was surrounded on both sides by hedges and trees.  That way, the walkers could go through undetected by players.  However, because the path was so narrow and no sun could get through the hedging, it was very muddy and full of flies  But just to make sure they knew I was there, I sang hymns very loudly.  Hee, hee, hee!

Past the golf course, the footpath then headed out to the beach and I was on shingle for the last stretch to Middleton on Sea.  I'd planned originally to stop at Littlehampton, but when I got there at eleven o'clock, I realised I needed a further plan.   I'd decided on Bognor as I could get the train back to Worthing to collect my car.  However, by one o'clock it was just too hot and I was desperate to find some shade.  But I was still pleased with the progress made and eleven miles isn't bad by lunchtime!