9.45 train from Waterloo (9.52 Clapham Junction) to Petersfield, arriving 11.11
Buy a day return to Rowlands Castle
This always makes a lovely summer walk. After a flat start across fields, you are technically in the South Downs, but this is not so much classic downland scenery as undulating hills, fields, woods, and some nice distant views - a pleasant mix of scenery. It is usually good for wildflowers and butterflies.
For lunch, the Five Bells in Buriton has a charming garden, but usually considered too early in the walk at just 2.5 miles. It starts serving food at midday. The option more usually preferred by walkers is the Red Lion in Chalton, 6 miles in, which conveniently serves food all afternoon and has plenty of outdoor seating. At the end of the walk Rowlands Castle has several pubs
Trains back from Rowlands Castle are at 29 past the hour to 19.29, then 20.45, 21.45 and 22.46. All these trains call at Milford after 52 minutes: so eg the 18.29 from Rowlands Castle gets to Milford at 19.21
3 comments:
What about to Portsmouth or Fishbourne?
Good ideas, Marc, but I had a specific request for a walk in this area (though as you can see I have chosen one slightly further away, since with only one train running an hour it doesn't make much difference)
Nine off the train (crowded, but not terminally so) at Petersfield, to be met by a downpour. We huddled by the ticket barriers and waited for it to pass, and were met there by two who had come by car, one of whom got soaked walking from car park to station.
Then the rain stopped and off we set under sticky cloud. What a novelty to walk through damp countryside for a change. (Those who had come in sandals had to make kit adjustments…). There was far more birdsong than there ought to be for the time of year and as the weather slowly brightened, increasing amounts of butterflies.
We whizzed through Buriton. Up on the downs yours truly took a wrong turn. I walked a mile along a private driveway to get back on the footpath. Don’t tell anyone.
The Red Lion in Chalton seemed cruelly empty compared to former visits - the weather? the cost of living crisis? They were super friendly and super efficient. All pubs should be this way. We sat in the garden and were rewarded with a slight shower. But this was the only other rain of the day. Walker number n=12 joined us here, having just missed the train at Waterloo and caught the one an hour later. She reached the pub not long after we did: a sterling effort.
W=In-the-afternoon-the-sun-came-out - for a time, anyway. There were big golden fields of ripe barley, some fine views and even more butterflies. We meandered along, stopping to look at this and that. As we approached Rowlands Castle the skies got more threatening, but after a drink in the dog-filled pub by the station we got the 18.29 train just before more rain arrived.
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