Strong To The Final Furlong...

We had this Saturday marked in our diaries for some time. This was to be the biggest one to date (until it was prematurely eclipsed by Jo, Gem & Gubbs' walk along the Clarendon Way a couple of weeks ago). This was Stage 7 to the end, 25 miles.

With Gem still feeling some of the effects from the walk a couple of weeks ago, she decided to provide support team cover for us, and even managed to rope in friend Anna to assist and provide company for the day.

Our starting point was a lay by on the A283 relatively near the checkpoint in Botolphs. From here we were able to join the Trailwalker route by the river easily and proceeded on through Upper Beeding, before heading to the dreaded climb out of the village.

The hill that just keeps on giving

We knew what was coming after having done this stage previously. So we made ourselves comfortable, shedding the extra layers of clothes that we would no longer need for the climb, for this would really work up a sweat!

When you get to the top and look back towards the village, you see yourself how far up you have climbed.

We walked on after a quick viewing stop (aka breather). We were headed for Devils Dyke where our support crew would be waiting.

On this section we passed a number of 4 strong teams of young lads we presume were doing DofE, or a scout trip, or something. We passed many of them looking enviously at our light day packs compared to their heavy bags laden with camping gear. This was also when Jo revealed her competitive streak asking if it was just her or "do you just want to get past anyone who is walking in front of you?" We can only imagine the kind of pace Jo'll be looking to lay down on Trailwalker day with hundreds of teams out there!

Further along this section we were dodging the minefield of cowpats and cattle which led Julie to dub this Pat Land (though we thought there was no picture necessary for the blog...)

View from Devil's Dyke car park

As we approached Checkpoint 7 at Devils Dyke we called our support crew to let them know we were almost there, to find that they were not yet! This had us wondering what they have been up to the last two hours! Thankfully they arrived just before we did, apparently fresh from a hot chocolate at Marks & Spencer's and a stroll along the beach in Shoreham!

This is the first time we've had a support crew and we felt almost pampered at the service we were receiving. The car park at Devils Dyke was not too busy with just a group of motorcyclists riding up to catch some of the views.

Heading to Jack & Jill

After a 10 minute break we headed off again on the next stage, momentarily jumping out of the way of a group of cyclists heading down the hill. We had our revenge shortly afterwards though when tackling another incline. These boots were made for climbing, and their bikes (or legs at least) perhaps were better suited for downhill. We overtook the cyclists one by one (perhaps taking in some of Jo's competitive streak).

At the top of this hill we could see the Jack & Jill windmills which is the location for the next checkpoint. Gubbs' phone was chiming to indicate an email which turned out to be a notification of sponsorship! Thanks Elisa for the very well timed sponsorship which had us beaming as we walked on.

Julie's worked flint find

This downhill section towards the A23 crossing was also an unsuspecting place for Julie to make an archaeological find, but nevertheless, she picked up a piece of flint that had been worked into a tool. She explained how the shape on one side is only ever formed by the breaking by force and the claw like workings had also been worked out to form a tool. This was an exiting find, which required an excited picture at the checkpoint!

Unknown to us, Gem and Anna were watching from the windmills and they could just about make us out as we walked down the hill.

When we got to the checkpoint Gem and Anna had coffee and hot chocolate ready for us with a blanket laid out ready for stretches. What service! It wasn't a cold day but something different to drink from water and energy drinks was well received.

Nice view for a stretch

This was also our lunch stop and we tucked into the sandwiches and pasta made the night before and enjoyed the views from Jack & Jill car park.  We stretched a little and applied the sun cream at this checkpoint as the sun was quite strong.

We left our support crew after a 30 minute lunch break, probably our longest ever, and headed out on stage 9, the last unknown quantity for us on the Trailwalker course.

This stage's biggest issue is the distance and some interesting navigation when you get close to Lewes. Other than that it is mostly downhill, until a short sharp incline across a field after crossing the A27.

Say hello to my little friend...

Most of the stage covers open hill tops with some nice views in all directions, passing a couple of Ice cream vans on route, which proved particularly tempting, but we held off!

Part of the way through the stage we saw some horses being ridden around in a field and then we reached the racing stables, which is where we saw a great sight of little and large...

Going strong

We have heard many things of the Gallops area of this stage and so we kept a keen eye out for the sharp right turn that we'd need to take. Gubbs, ever ready, had taken to warning Jo and Julie that he had a feeling it would be very close, and this he claimed about 5 times in about 15 minutes, with no sign of it. In the end he decided to keep his feelings to himself.

As we headed towards the checkpoint at Kingston, which we could for most of the stage by spotting the white windmill without it's sails, we could see a couple of people in the distance with florescent jackets waving - this was Gem's attempt to embarrass Anna as much as possible.

Our support crew for the day

We stopped again for a snack, change of socks and chat, and the time just flew by. It was 25 minutes before we left again for the final two stages, which in total would be less distance than the last one we had walked.

It was also time to say good bye to Gem & Anna, for now, who would meet us at Brighton Racecourse to take us home.

Stage 10 we knew would be about an hour to complete, so pretty short. The only challenge with this one is the large hill on the way out of Kingston. This was a head down and pull yourself up it moment. With legs and feet a little tired after the mileage so far it wasn't fun, but had to be done. We know it will be worse in July after many more miles so little time to complain!

The sheds at checkpoint 10

After reaching the top there was time for another stretch and then onwards to the checkpoint. This we found though fields that were full of sheep last time but they were long gone looking at the growth of the grass. We had found the checkpoint from memory after completing this section previously.

Then it was the final stage which none of us are a fan of for the following reasons:

1. It seems to go on forever.
2. The scenery isn't as nice after about 3km following a track behind houses.
3. It goes on forever.
4. By this stage you are going to be knackered.
5. It really goes on forever.

We worked our way up the final hill of the day, conversation now was getting light, we were tired. There was some delight in seeing the racetrack followed by some confusion as we saw Gem and Anna drive towards us on not the road but the dusty track we were walking parallel with. Apparently they were just checking where we were, but they had no offer of a lift...

So as we watched them drive off towards our finish line we trudged on and on until we finally made it.

And as we did Gem & Anna were providing entertainment of their own giving commentary for the race to the finish!

Time for another stretch/flake, popping some ibuprofen tablets and then crowding into the car for the journey home with our semi-sunburnt faces.

Total distance 25 miles in a total time of 10 hours and 21 minutes, including 1 hour and 20 minutes on breaks at checkpoints (we may need to be a little stricter on that!)

History, Wildlife and Hamstrings

This week Julie went away for the long bank holiday weekend with husband, and support crew member, Jeff. So the remaining three of Jo, Gem & Gubbs decided to head for the South Downs again for some Trailwalker training... that was until we checked the forecast and decided that it looked a little drier West.  Jo & Gem found first hand last week that some of their waterproofs were not as waterproofed as they had hoped, so the idea of avoiding having to test them out again seemed like a good one.

Salisbury Cathedral

So a plan was hatched to hike the entire distance of the Clarendon Way, a 24 mile route starting at Salisbury Cathedral and ending at Winchester Cathedral.

Being pretty local we know that long stay car parking isn't cheap in the centre of Winchester so we left a car at the foot of St. Catherine's Hill (which featured on Jo & Julie's damp training walk back in early March) and headed for Salisbury.

We arrived at Salisbury just before 8am before any of the Saturday shoppers were out, so all was relatively quiet. We parked up, got kitted up, and headed for the Cathedral.

Salisbury Cathedral has the tallest spire in the country, contains the world's oldest working clock, and has the best surviving of the four original copies of the Magna Carta. Although there was no time for checking out all that history, we had walking to do.

We we set off from the Cathedral towards the main town which is where we'd follow the Clarendon Way East. We past the Saturday market in full swing and crossed a river on to a road which eventually ran into a track. Here we had left urban Salisbury behind us and could get into the full swing of our walk.

The remains of Clarendon Palace

Our first point of interest on the way out from Salisbury, are the ruins of Clarendon Palace, which sit in Clarendon Park. This is where the Clarendon Way get's it's name.

Clarendon Palace was once a royal residence and palace, these days though it just has the one wall of flint still standing above ground level, although you can see the foundations of the other flint walls. This is one that archaeology fan Julie would have loved.

We took some time here to read the information boards and walk around the ruins. To Gem's surprise when looking down on the Royal Courtyard she witnessed that it was now occupied by a pack of Llamas enjoying the lush grass. Cue photo opportunity...

Llamas at Clarendon Palace

We headed away from the ruins to the opposite end of the field, hoping to pick up the Roman Road path that would lead us towards our destination. As it turned out we realised had taken the wrong footpath forcing us to adjust our route.

We were a little distracted with the bluebells carpeted woodland and the yellow rapeseed fields. It was only when the map showed that we shouldn't be seeing yellow rapeseed fields at all, just the woodland, that we realised that we had our bearings a little out. We found the path again without too much hassle and moved on towards our first village of the day, Pitton.

Swings!

Here Jo & Gem took some rest time on the swings in a nearby park. Gubbs eventually got them off, reminding them that there was plenty of walking left.

The next village was West Winterslow, and as we approached we were met with loud calls from the crows sitting upon their nests in the trees overlooking the nearby Church.

We had struggled with the route between Pitton and West Winterslow. It seemed that we had been quite spoilt with the signage over the South Downs and we had come to expect the same quantity of signage on this walk too, but apparently this wasn't to be. Gubbs, today's navigator, had many map checking moments to ensure we were on track. The number of map checks probably caused a little anxiety for Gem & Jo, but Gubbs was keen to show the girls where we were on the map at every point. If nothing else it was to have someone else to blame when running off course.

The Church in West Winterslow

We reached Middle Winterslow and stopped for lunch. The route looked like we were supposed to be back on the Roman Road but the route we had been taking seemed a little too windy for a Roman Road, so we checked our phones to see our positioning using the GPS.

Where would we be without our smart phones?? ...probably Bournemouth as it turns out as we again were heading a little too South for this Easterly trail.

After getting back on track before leaving the village we found ourselves crossing the county boundary into Hampshire.

Now, we didn't get to a big sign saying 'Welcome to Hampshire' or anything, we just made some assumptions based on the signage. We can only assume Hampshire must have a bigger signage budget than Wiltshire. After moaning about the lack of signposts and arrow markers we were given more signposts and arrow markers than we really actually required.

A little further on in the path we hauled ourselves up a pretty nasty hill so we took a break at the top for some snacks and stretches. Unfortunately for Gem she threw her walking pole down on a patch of grass containing the only bit of dog poo lying around. Nice one Gem!

Time for soup

After cleaning off Gem's pole with a tissue and lots of anti bacterial gel, we headed on towards the next village of Broughton.

We then powered on to Houghton (a different one), crossing over the river Test and onwards to Kings Somborne, which contains some fantastic old cottages and houses. We stopped for some of Jo's delicious home made potato and leek soup (with added salt to replenish the stocks).

Onwards we went once more, this time knowing that the next sign of civilisation we would see would be the outskirts of Winchester.

The plaque at Farley Mount

There was plenty of walking to be done prior to that though. We climbed up up Beacon Hill (a different one), and reached Farley mount which is home to a monument for a horse. Yep, that's right a horse. But no ordinary horse as it turns out. That's right, this horse was special, for this 18th Century horse leaped into a 25ft chalk pit with it's rider still sitting on it's back during a fox hunt, and survived no less. The year later it won the Hunters Plate entered in the race with the name 'Beware Chalk Pit'. Nice touch.

...The strange things you find on these walks.

At the mount however the views were great, the sun had come out and we could get a good look to the South over Southampton, the Isle of Wight and our home town of Eastleigh.

Farley Mount

Anyway, this was now very close to Winchester, and after our mishaps with the navigation and also with the added walk from the car park to the Cathedral to start in Salisbury, we had already got to our 24 mile target. This and the fact that Gem's right hamstring was getting seriously tight (meaning she was using her walking poles almost as crutches!), meant that we made a change of plan to head straight to the car which was on the other side of Winchester, to the South, rather than go via the city centre to the cathedral. We had done the miles so we didn't want to anger our bodies any further.

The problem was Winchester had other ideas. Every time we thought we were getting closer, it seems like the city would move further away from us, the trek seemed to last forever on these last few miles.

Finally we got to the car on the edge of the river Itchen, after 28.35 miles and a total time of 11 hours 23 minutes.

Gubbs horsing around in the rapeseed field
(maybe he should concentrate on his navigation...)

All three of us have never walked as far or as long as this in a day, so we feel this was a real achievement, even if, it wasn't exactly planned on being as far.

We seem to have developed a knack of adding the miles when doing these training walks (especially when Gubbs is navigating, Jo & Gem are quick to point out).

We just hope we don't inadvertently add the extra miles on Trailwalker day.

Who Wants to Walk in the Rain Anyway?

Last week, with Gubbs off running around the countryside dodging paintballs on a stag day, the ladies of the Hardcore Four group headed off for some more training on the Trailwalker route.

The plan was to walk from Queen Elizabeth Country Park (QECP) through to checkpoint 3 at Littleton Farm, and then back to Hilltop Farm at checkpoint 2, where we had left our finishing car.

The weather was atrocious! The rain was teaming down and showed no sign of letting up.

Right is right.

Having walked these few stages previously, and having got quite badly lost on the first section, we were determined to get the route set in our mind so that we won't be likely to make any unnecessary wrong turns on the actual day.

The wrong turn we took previously is just on the route out of QECP and is marked by a fork in the path where you will find a bench on the right hand side which provides a viewpoint over the surrounding countryside, and a sign which warns mountain bikers to stick to the marked paths. Any fellow Trailwalkers reading this blog, please take note that you must take the right fork here, otherwise you'll find yourself heading off to the quarry which will add unnecessary time delays and extra miles to your journey - not something you want right at the start of the trek! The directions are a little confusing for this section, so just stick to the right fork, and you'll soon find yourself at the small car park mentioned on the directions on the edge of QECP.

The route briefly follows some metal tracks before heading off cross country again. The bluebells lining the path provided some colour on what was otherwise a grey, misty and dreary day.

Where did the path go??

When we walked this route previously we were able to have a clear view of Harting down, atop the hills in the distance, providing a guiding beacon for the first check point, however this time the hills were covered in mist.

The paths towards the hill were also more like rivers than the clearly marked nice dry paths that we experienced the time before! This proved to be a challenge as trying to skirt around the huge puddles without falling ankle deep in to the water or the sticky boggy mud was very difficult.

We found that our walking poles came in very handy here as extra props to balance ourselves on whilst we perched precariously on the sloping grass verges at the sides of the path.

On reaching the top of Harting down, we found ourselves surrounded by misty clouds.

Visability wasn't great

The rain still hadn't let up, and to give ourselves some sort of shelter from the continuous down pour, we crawled our way into a copse of trees, avoiding worms, creepy crawlies and low slung branches.  Huddled under the trees, we refuelled ourselves with some much needed chunky cookies and bananas (apart from Jo who hates bananas so topped up with an extra cookie!). We also knew that we had Gem's nemesis coming up in the next section of the walk... Beacon Hill!!  And even worse than that...Beacon Hill in the rain!!

We set off again on the route and soon found ourselves at the foot of the hill. After a few deep breaths and some motivating words, the team set off up the hill. And we made it!!! If we can make it up that hill in that rain, we can make it up there in any circumstances!

Hopefully this has helped Gem prove to herself that she can tackle her nemesis and it won't be such a hurdle in her mind on the day of the event!

The beautiful views from the top of Beacon Hill were sadly not as spectacular on a day like today as they will be be on a (hopefully!) sunny day in July, however, Jo did manage to take quite a dramatic shot of the stormy weather.

Onwards we plodded, getting wetter and colder and more uncomfortable. At this point, the thought of reaching the end of stage of two, and then moving on to stage three and back to stage two was a daunting and unpleasant. We had been trudging through the rain and mud for hours and our waterproofs we're starting to give out under the relentless lashing of the rain.

The view from Beacon Hill

It was at this point the team decided that rather than continuing on to stage three, and back to two, we would end our training walk at stage two where our car was waiting for us.

We knew that we were giving up on the target of that days training walk, however, we accepted that we had put in a good 12 miles in some awful weather and there was no point making ourselves more uncomfortable, pushing ourselves and possibly suffering an injury in the slippery conditions, for the sake of an extra 6 miles of misery.

So we admitted defeat, stripped off our wet clothes and piled in to the warm dry car and had some well deserved lunch!!

Who ever thought walking could be this dangerous!!

A little bit of a late post for this one, but worth the wait! A couple of Saturdays ago (21st April), Julie and Jo took a break from the South Downs Way, in favour of a planned 16 mile walk along the Brenda Parker Way across north Hampshire.

Bluebell Lined Path

The route took us from Winchfield to Tadley, and after a little trouble finding the car park in Tadley, to leave one car at the end of the walk, we made our way back to Winchfield station for the starting point.

This unfamiliar route also gave Julie and Jo the chance to practice their newly acquired navigation skills honed the week before on the training walk with support team member Jeff.

The start of the walk followed the footpath next to the railway line, passing a Second World War pill box (more on those later) and in to a bluebell-lined woodland path.

This one is a 7/10!

This route took us over a fair number of stiles (which past readers will know Julie loves to assess!!) and we passed a fairy usual and innovative version which used an old log as the base which provided a large platform for you to put your feet on whilst climbing over the fence. Tickled by this unusual find, Julie awarded this one a 7 out of 10!

Alice in Wonderland path

Following on from the stile, the route took us across a field and then onto a footpath which seemed to get gradually narrower and narrower, and more and more enclosed until we had to crouch down and make ourselves as small as possible to continue down it.  It really was something like Alice in Wonderland and we were expecting a white rabbit to hop out of a bush muttering ‘I’m late, I’m late, I’m late’ at any moment.

Managing to make it out of the ever enclosing footpath, we soon found ourselves in the shadows of the impressive West Green House. West Green House is an 18th century building and is famously associated with General Henry Hawley, also know as ‘Hangman Hawley’ because of the brutality he showed to the Scots after the battle of Culloden. Nowadays the house is more famous for it’s beautiful gardens which are opened to the public at specific times of the year.

Skirting around the gardens of the house, we followed the footpath, with the sound of gunshots in the distance becoming louder and louder the further on we walked.  And then we saw a sign ‘Caution Shooting in Progress’ propped up against a tree with a red flag blowing in the wind next to it.

From the loud bangs, it was clear that the sign meant that there were people with live ammo and guns in the vicinity, rather than Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie shooting a Hollywood blockbuster in the wilderness of Hampshire! ‘Oh no’, said Julie, ‘What shall we do, we don’t want to get shot!’.

Having convinced Julie that the clay pigeon shooters probably wouldn’t aim for a couple of innocent walkers as a couple of larger targets, we continued down the route and were stopped by a lady who came running out a porter cabin yelling that she’d have to stop the shoot in order to let us pass. We weren’t entirely sure exactly which part of the field we needed to walk through but the instructions clearly stated that we needed to walk past two pill boxes and then turn right across the field before the next hedge to the gate at the bottom of the field. With this established, and the shoot stopped, we set off around the edge of the field, with the sound of a few rude ‘hurry up’ shouts from some of the shooters! We passed one pill box and carried along the path in search for the other before we crossed the field. This meant passing and ignoring a footpath across the field on our right hand side, however, the instructions said to pass 2 pill boxes, and as we didn’t want to get lost, we stuck to them like they were gospel. Soon enough we reached the edge of the field… no second pill box.  We’d now reached the hedge and there was no where else for us to go except right so we turned in this direction and continued around the edge of the field. Eventually we reached the far end of the field, and then had to turn right again in order to reach the gate. Now this detour couldn’t have taken us more than 5 minutes, and in the meantime the shooters had started firing again, however, one man made a point of walking over to us and demanding to know why we hadn’t crossed the field using the footpath in the centre of the field as we had ‘held up their shoot even longer’ by walking around the edge of the field.  We stated that our instructions had instructed us to head that way and we had to follow them. Plus as this was a public footpath we had a right to walk around the field any way we chose to!! Bloomin’ cheek!!

Having shut that man up, we exited the field sharpish before we did end up as a couple of extra targets, and were met by a wall of young bullocks blocking our way.

Having been charged at by a couple of bullocks on a previous walk up on the Isle of Skye, we’re a bit weary of these fellas now and skirted our way around them, choosing a path across a patch of stinging nettles, rather than trying to push a way through the cows.  Once safely around the edge of the group we headed across the field and turned around to see the cows had all started to follow us! Our pace quickened on noticing this, and Jo decided to use her walking poles as a defence mechanism by sticking them out behind her as a kind of cow protecting prong. We practically flung ourselves across the stile at the other end of the field in to the safety of the neighbouring one, which was thankfully free of men with guns and gangs of meddlesome teenage cows! Phew!

The scenery on the next part of the walk was particularly beautiful.  The sun was shining and we were surrounded by field upon field of bright yellow rape seed flowers.

However, this glorious sunshine was not set to continue.  The next part of our walk took us in to the woodland surrounding the National Grid sub-station and the rain began to pour down.  Luckily we were under cover for most of this part of the walk, and the smell of the surrounding bluebells was lovely.

However, we were soon out in to the open again and had to brave the downpours. We passed through the meadows of the Natural England’s Church Lane Farm site which was full of playful little lambs and their mums. I don’t think there was a tree without a tiny little lamb peeking his head around to look at us.

At this point the rain had been pouring down for a good hour and a half and the ground was getting boggier and stickier and soggier.  And we were getting soggier and colder and more fed up!  It’s surprising how much harder the rain makes walking, especially when you have to put more effort in to avoiding puddles and thick sticky mud. The area we were walking in floods very easily and at points it was hard to find a way around the path without having to attempt swimming across! We did find that walking poles are a useful tool to help you balance around the edge of flooded paths without falling into the puddle and ending up in a mess!

Our walk was now taking us in to the historic ancient Roman town of Silchester (one of Julie’s favourite places!).  The town is a haven for archeologists, who have had a dig, run by the University of Reading, going on here since 1997 - which Julie has actually taken part in herself before!  The Roman name for the town was Calleva Atrebatum.  It was established in the first centuary AD and was built on the site of an ancient Iron Age town called Calleva.  The Roman amphitheatre and ancient roman walls that can be found here are some of the best preserved in Britain and are open to the public.

Time was getting on at this point, and our directions also became quite confusing.  This resulted in a bit of tooing and froing backwards and forwards until we could make out where the directions wanted us to go.  We eventually found the path we needed to pick up and continued the last part of the journey on to Tadley. We finished the walk, cold, wet and tired in 8 hours 20 minutes, with a total distance of just under 20 miles. It appears that all the avoiding of the mud and flooded paths, and also taking the time to navigate the paths we needed to take and using the map to help us added considerable time on to our walk, so we completed it in a much longer time than we were aiming for.  However, we did managed to add an extra 4 miles on to our route (somehow!!?) so we have now pushed our training walk distance up to the next milestone.


...meanwhile Gem & Gubbs had a weekend off Trailwalker preparations, with Gubbs' parents, Lil and Steve. They did manage a small walk up to Chanctonbury Ring however (so kind of Trailwalker related...), and also spent time exploring Arundel Castle, which we'd recommend doing if you've not been there before.

Chanctonbury Ring was looking almost volcanic with the clouds gathering above...