The Last Team Training Hike

This weekend we planned our last full team walk, dropping the mileage by almost half of last week's 31 miles. We also fancied a change of scenery after the recent weeks on the Trailwalker route, so we settled on the medieval route of the Pilgrims Trail, a route that takes walkers from Winchester to Portsmouth, and if you are really keen, on to it's final destination of Mont St Michel in Normandy.

It was a sunny, but chilly start in the car park at the foot of St. Catherine's Hill, just south of Winchester, at 7:30. We set off on our planned 16 miles walking through a valley named the Plague Pits to a crossing that took us over the M3, and then on to Twyford Down. We became quickly aware that the paths were to be wet and muddy. This was not a good day to ditch the gaiters, but ditched them we did.

This early part of the walk covered some of the same route that Jo & Julie did on their walk back in early March, where they experienced a range of all weathers. Today though we were thankful it was just sun with the occasional cloud cover.

We skirted around Hockley Golf course on to our first checkpoint destination today, Owslebury, a village that sits not only on the Pilgrim's Trail, but also the Monarch's Way (a 615 mile footpath that approximates the escape route to Shoreham taken by King Charles II in 1651 after being defeated in the Battle of Worcester), and also a Roman Road that works its' way to Portchester, which we were also to walk along for some distance today. It can also boast at being the highest village in Hampshire.

Here we met support crew Gem & Anna on the lawn in front of the medieval church for some snacks and stretches. On the menu today was Gem's pecan chocolate brownies and peanut butter fudge, very tasty.

Erm...which way?

After a short break we set out again, through the grounds of the church and on to a field that was home to a motocross track. This was a navigation test, as the instructions for the route did not specify a direction and so we crossed straight over said motocross track, which involved climbing to the top of the incline. With no sign of the path at the top, Gubbs remembered that he had a map as well as the instructions, which showed the path quite clearly that we should have followed the edge of the field. Opps, so we headed to the edge and that's when we saw the Bull watching us.

He was sitting down so we felt comfort that we'd have a little notice if it had decided to take offence of our presence. Also we were right by a fence we could leap over if push came to shove...

Turns out we weren't as interesting for him as he was for us and we left the field through the electric fence in the corner. Josh decided to jump over fence not realising there was a handle to open it up without the need for such athleticism.

Watch out for the caged animal

We survived the bull run and Josh decided to tell us about the time he peed on a electric fence, unintentionally of course (well the peeing bit was intentional, the on the electric fence bit not so much). He described it as painful. Ouch.

Shortly afterwards we entered a copse that was surrounded by a large fence and gates. It looked like something from Jurassic park. Julie begged the question, what are they keeping in... We luckily didn't find out as we made it out in one piece on the other side without seeing a single T-Rex.

Hardcore Four coming in to land

We then crossed over a field which happened to have a wind sock at one end of it. Yes, that's right, in-between the crop, there was a grass airfield. Lucky for us not in use while we were crossing it.

The paths became narrower and narrower and we got the feeling that perhaps this isn't a well travelled route. With plenty of scratches we made our way through. We did get a little lost on the way to Bishop's Waltham though. Crossing over another field - we were learning that open fields were not our best friend for keeping on route. We did find our way however with just a little extra distance.

Bacon rolls coming up

Gem & Anna were making bacon rolls and were asking us for a number of ETAs (after each one past). They had already had their own rolls and they were starting to get peckish. This was now a race against the hunger of our support team. If we were much longer we'd have to go without!

I am happy to report that we did make it and lunch was served up. The menu today was bacon rolls, potato salad, boiled eggs and chicken bites... as well as more of the treats from the first checkpoint.

With topped up stomachs, we set off on our final 6 miles of the day. Hay fever was taking it's toll again with a couple of the team suffering the effects of being through all these fields.

The final part of the walk was completed without the navigational issues of earlier. We finished the route in 100 acre wood near Wickham. No sign of Winnie-the-Pooh or Tigger though, but there were a number of groups of heavily laden DofE students, and families enjoying in the woods today, and most importantly our support crew which signalled the end of our walk.

We completed the walk in 7 hours 1 minute covering just under 17 miles. Next time the whole team will be together will be in three weeks on Trailwalker weekend. Looking forward to it.