Sweltering South Downs Way Walks
Country: England
Place: The South Downs Way, Winchester to Queen Elizabeth Country Park
Visited in: July, 2006
Walking the South Downs Way in the hottest month of the year is not the best idea I have
ever had. But I have had plans to walk the South Downs Way for 4 years now, so it was with a now-or-never frame of mind that I took the first steps of the 159 km journey last weekend.
For anyone who might not know, The South Downs Way is a 159 km National Trail (former trader/traveller path) in southern England. The trail runs from Winchester in Hampshire through West Sussex to Eastbourne in East Sussex.
Sweltering heat and a scorching sun seem to have been the running theme of any walking I have done lately, but luckily I was not out there sweating on my own. Our small group of 3 planned to walk the first two stages of the South Downs Way from Winchester to Exton and Exton to Queen Elizabeth Country Park over two days.
Winchester to Exton
We headed out from Winchester at about midday after having parked one car in Exton and
driven another car to Winchester. We started off by crossing the busy M3, but soon we were in the peaceful countryside of Hampshire walking next to green and golden cornfields.
The odd Red Poppy and other wild flowers such as Daisies and Yarrows lined the path that took us past beautiful flint cottages, through fields and up rolling hills.
Just before our lunch stop close to Cheesefoot Head we passed what seemed to be some drive-a-tank event. For a brief moment I thought the military was coming for us, until I saw that one of the tanks had at least 5 people standing on top of it while they were being driven around a makeshift course.
After lunch we were aiming for only one thing - a cold drink. So we were very disappointed
to reach The Milbury’s only to find the door locked. Apparently the pub closes for about 3 hours in the afternoon. Very thirsty we finally reached Beacon Hill - the final hurdle between us and the longed for cold drink. Luckily we were descending the hill, which, even if it was a bit hard on the knees, was a lot easier than climbing it.
The Shoe, the only pub in Exton, was a very welcome sight, and soon we were enjoying a well-earned pint in their riverside beer garden. The heat had made it a hard, but enjoyable day and the tranquil atmosphere in Exton soon made me forget that we would be out there again the following day.
Exton to Queen Elizabeth Country Park
We headed out from Exton the following day, which turned
out to be even hotter than the previous day. We had already parked one car at the Queen Elizabeth Country Park, which would be the end of stage two.
We started by following a small stream through beautiful woodland. We passed a couple of dogs that were cooling off in the stream, but didn’t meet many others as we were walking along a dried-out chalk riverbed. It soon became apparent as we were climbing the Old Winchester Hill that most people were wisely limiting their activities to picnicking, kite flying or paragliding. I must admit, at times when I was most sweaty, I did wish we had done the same and saved the walk for a cooler day.
It was a beautiful walk though and we saw lambs, butterflies, larks on telephone wires, grey squirrels, rabbits and even a fawn.
It may have been the heat, but we did have to resort to our South Downs books a few
times at points where the path was not clearly marked. At one point between Hill Point and Whitewool Farm the sign even seemed to be pointing in the opposite direction of the correct route.
When we made it to Butser Hill, about a mile and a half from our car, we were once again very happy to find that we would be descending rather than ascending the hill. Unfortunately, when we got to the car park, we found that the café had just closed, so we were not able to get a cold drink before we drove back to pick up the second car parked in Exton.
We ended the day as we had ended the previous day by enjoying dinner and a pint in the beer garden of the Shoe in Exton.
The next stage
The next stage of our walk went from Queen Elizabeth Country Park to Cocking, which you can read about here:
Related articles
You can read about all the stages of our South Downs Way walk in these articles:
Sweltering South Downs Way Walks
Crossing the Greenwich Meridian
Eastbourne never looked sweeter
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