The Day We Earned The Name 'Hardcore'!

This is the first blog update by team member Jo – so please excuse if it’s not as entertaining as our ‘media mogul’ Gubb’s usual stories!

Sunday saw the turn of team members Julie and Jo to complete their weekend training walk, and we couldn’t have picked a worse day weather wise!

The route was just under 12 miles, starting from Winchester Train Station, on to St Catherine’s Hill, and then taking in the countryside between Twyford, Shawford, and Oliver’s Battery, before heading back down in to Winchester.

The rain had been teaming down all morning, which meant wet weather gear was in order – waterproofs on and hoods up!  Not a very pleasant day for a walk!

Having completed this route once before, as part of a training program for the Shine London marathon for Cancer Research, Julie and Jo thought they had the beginning part of the course nailed and so set off without looking at the directions.  Big Mistake!!  Without even walking a mile the team members already headed in the wrong direction taking the route that was supposed to be used for the return leg of the journey, proving that a sense of direction definitely does not run in the Davis ladies genes (a point that can be well and truly testified by support team member Jeff!).

However, having realised their mistake, Julie and Jo quickly headed back to Winchester Cathedral and picked up the correct route once again (after a good read through of the directions!).





Wet weather gear on, we stopped for a quick snap of the newest sculpture outside the cathedral



The beginning section of the route took in the pretty streets of Winchester, before heading down to the river, past the old flour mill (where a section of the old Roman Wall can still be seen), and then onwards alongside to river in the direction of St Catherine’s hill.

 

 

Nice weather for ducks - or swans!

St Catherine’s Hill is a dramatic chalk hill to the southeast of Winchester which can clearly be seen from the nearby M3 motorway.  The Hill, on the westernmost extremity of the South Downs National Park, rises steeply to a summit of 318ft and provides fine views over the Itchen floodplain, nearby Winchester and the surrounding countryside – or it would have it the weather hadn’t of been so goddamn awful!  The top of the hill is ringed by the ramparts of an Iron Age hill fort (much to keen archaeologist Julie’s interest), and is also home to the remains of the 12^th century chapel of St Catherine, as well as an interesting Mismaze, the origin of which still remains a mystery but it is thought to have been created in the 17^th century.

Not to be outdone by Gem and Gubb’s hilly walk on Saturday, Julie and Jo also encountered steps on the accent to the summit of the hill, along with a few stray cows which Julie had to heard onwards up the hill to continue along the path.  The ground was wet, muddy and slippery making for a pretty treacherous accent.



Mooooooooooove cows!



On reaching the summit, we bumped in to a pair of soggy farmers searching for said missing cows in the rain, so we were able to helpfully point them in the direction of the misplaced animals, and continued along the slippery, muddy path.

The hill descends on the other side down into Plague Pit Valley (Nice Name!), and we followed the kindly constructed wooden stairs down in to the depths of the plague pits, along the bottom of the valley in the direction of the farm land leading to Twyford.  At this point, after 2 hours in the relentless rain, Jo realised that her jacket was not fully waterproof when the water had soaked through to her skin!  A new walking jacket may be on the cards!  We also discovered you can never have enough pairs of gloves in wet and windy weather – we got through 4 pairs in total and could have done with a few more!!

Surviving the Plague Pits



Baby cow

Moving on in to the neighbouring farmland and climbing up hill once again, we came across a tiny calf sheltering in the ditch next to the path with no mother cow in sight.  Having spotted a sign on the way into the field with a number to call for ‘cow emergencies’ Julie ran back to the fence to make a note of the number in her mobile phone and we set off in search of the baby’s mum.  Luckily a little way further down the track we spotted her, and were able to press on with the walk safe in the knowledge that the calf was probably just sheltering from the weather!  Clever cow!

Our route continued to take us uphill, passing neighbouring Hockley golf course.  With the weather worsening by the minute, and no sign of any brave golfers on the course, Julie and Jo decided to take some shelter underneath a wooden porch on the golf course, which also provided a chance to stop for some ginger tea and chocolate eggs.  Luckily we did this just in time, as the next minute huge flakes of snow began to fall from the sky, and it quickly became, in the words of Julie ‘near blizzard-like’ conditions!

At this point support team member Stewart decided he would phone Jo and let her know that it was snowing at home, whilst he was snuggled up on the sofa under his blanket!  Grateful for this ‘update’ Jo informed Stewart that she and Julie were actually out in the snow on the top of a hill, at which point Stewart kindly offered to come and rescue them if they needed it!  However, we’re not called ‘Hardcore Four’ for nothing, and therefore decided that we would head on out into the blizzard!



Blizzrd on the hills!


On hitting the wintery conditions our journey changed from a walk, into a quicker walk, to a slight jog, then speeding up even more so we could get down off of the hills as quickly as possible in to somewhere more sheltered from the elements!  Jo would highly recommend her Meindl walking boots to anyone looking to purchase some boots for trailwalker, they are super lightweight, with good grip, and completely waterproof!  The walk this week definitely gave some serious testing of this factor!

We eventually arrived back down in to the valleys, passing Julie’s ‘ideal future home’, a picture of which is attached for support crew member Jeff’s reference(!), although it didn’t look quite as appealing as the last time we’d seen it in glorious sunshine back in September last year!  It was still pretty spectacular!



Julie and her house


The walk then picked up the path of the river Itchen once again, although following the continuous downpour of rain, sleet and snow; it began to become difficult to distinguish between what was the river path and the actual river!

 

 

Which ones the river?!

After wading through the soggy path for a mile or so, we eventually emerged at the Bridge at Shawford pub.  Now this pub has a showbiz history, having been the location for the infamous death scene of Victor Meldrew from One Foot in the Grave, in a hit and run accident! ‘I don’t belieeeeeeeeeeve it!’

 

 



Victor Meldrew's final stand

The Bridge also happened to be a few feet away from Shawford railway station which has direct trains back to Winchester…. Having been extremely tempted by this fact, cold, wet and hungry for cake, and having seen that the next train was due in 10 minutes time, Julie and Jo spent some serious time debating whether to give up on the walk and head back in to Winchester for some food…. However, being part of a team with the name ‘Hardcore’ has a lot to live up to so we decided to press on and finish the remaining 4.5 miles of the walk!

The next part of the route followed the village roads round through Shawford and onwards in the direction of Oliver’s Battery.  Strange name for a village but it is actually named after Oliver Cromwell’s siege on Winchester during the English Civil War. 

At this point the rain/sleet/snow had begun to ease slightly, and the fact that we could see Winchester Cathedral in the distance over the downs gave us some encouragment that we were approaching the final leg of the walk.

Just to prove any doubters wrong who may think we did cheat and get the train back, here is a picture of the Cathedral in the distance!!

We didn't cheat - we kept going through the elements!

We then picked up the route of the river again to head for St Cross on the way back into Winchester.  Now, the thought of the little café at the Hospital of St Cross had been what had kept driving Julie onwards during the previous 10 cold and soggy miles, as we had stopped there for a hot drink and some homemade cake on our last adventure on this route back in September, but alas, our luck had not yet picked up and the café was closed.

The Hospital of St Cross is actually a medieval almshouse founded by Henry de Blois, grandson of William the Conqueror between 1133 and 1136, and is the oldest charitable institution in the UK.  The Hospital still continues the tradition of the Wayfarer’s Dole which can be obtained by anyone asking for it, and consists of a small flask of ale and a hunk of bread.  If we hadn’t been so close to the end of the walk at this point, we could have been tempted by this ancient custom!

However, undeterred by the closure of the café and forgoing the Wayfarers Dole, we had a quick stop for one of Julie’s delicious homemade flapjacks and continued to follow the river back down in to Winchester, returning through the old cobbled streets to the Cathedral.

Our paced quickened considerably at this point at the thought of finally getting back to the cars and home for a nice warm bath and change of clothes!

One thing's for sure, we can only hope we don’t have that sort of rain or snow in July!!