Re-posted from 08 October when RMT rail strike prevented walk going ahead.
Length: main walk19 km (11.8 miles) Circular walk 15 miles
Toughness: main walk 3 out of 10 Circular walk 5 out of 10
London Waterloo: 09-50 hrs South Western service to Salisbury CJ 09-57; Woking 10-16 hrs
Arrive Whitchurch: 10-51 hrs
Return
Andover to Waterloo: South Western services at 06 & 38 mins past the hour
Whitchurch to Waterloo: South Western services at 14 mins past the hour up to and including 19-14, then 19-50 and 20-53 hrs
Rail ticket: main walk - buy a day return to Andover
You have a choice of walks today. Both share the lovely morning leg through open countryside, at times beside the River Test, where those in the know can tickle trout. You head for the village of Longparish, where you stop for lunch at one of its two pubs. The Cricketers Inn has a nice beer garden if the weather permits, and the recently reopened community-owned Plough Inn at the other end of the village has an interesting menu and should be worth a try.
It's decision time now. Some walkers are "sniffy" over the afternoon leg of the main walk, which takes you through a pig farm on forest tracks. Others enjoy this contrast to the morning leg of the walk. The latter should follow the main walk directions all the way to Andover. The sniffy folk should plot a route back to Whitchurch via the pretty village of St Mary Bourne. For this at least one of you should bring along OS Explorer map 144 - Basingstoke, Alton & Whitchurch.
Whichever walk you choose today - enjoy !
T=1.48
Walk Directions - for the main walk are here: L=1.48
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Legs n=11 alighted from the train for today's adventure in Hampshire. We experienced mixed weather today, with w=sunny-spells-before-lunch-then-light-showers-mild-to-warm-humid-later but never unpleasant for walking.
The morning leg in the open, often beside the River Test, always delights. Plenty of plump brown trout were spotted in the crystal clear waters of the Test. Leaf colour was glorious with oaks and beech trees coming on nicely, possibly a couple of weeks earlier than usual this year.
We arrived at the Plough Inn in Longparish bang on time for our reserved tables, with five walkers lunching and one being joined by relatives living in the village. Food, drink and service excellent. Two of our picnickers joined us for a drink. The picnickers found a nice spot in the churchyard for their sandwiches.
Post prandial two walkers (picnickers) armed with the OS map set off to return to Whitchurch via St Mary Bourne - I invite then to post a supplementary report on how they got on and if the route they followed is worth writing up in the Directions - in which case I will oblige.
The remaining picnickers set off before the lunchers on the afternoon leg of today's walk. I had warned the group that the pm leg of this walk is Marmite - you like it or hate it. Fortunately, most on the walk today enjoyed the complete contrast to the morning walk - woods and forest paths instead of open countryside. Arriving in Andover without mishap my group of five found a nice coffee shop in Upper High Street which stayed open for us. Tea in pots, and nice cakes, were enjoyed, although we rather rushed tea in order to catch the 17-06 train back to London, which we duly did, being joined by three of the picnickers at the railway station.
A lovely day out in delightful SWC company - it was so nice to attend one of my posted Saturday walks after my long enforced absence.
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