From Clapham Junction get the 9.57 to Salisbury and change at Woking (arrive 10.15, depart 10.25)
Buy a day return to Rowlands Castle
There is a certain degree of uncertainty about the weekend weather as I write this post. Maybe we will be dodging lightning and downpours... But in the event that the weather gods decide to be kind, this is the perfect summer walk, a pleasant little stroll through interesting and not massively strenuous scenery, which is worth taking at a dozy pace. Hell, you might even sit down on the hillside at some point and enjoy the view.
If the weather is bad on the other hand, it is not a particularly exposed walk as far as I can recall. But other opinions may be available and you should consult your own Independent Weather Advisor before attending.
Last time we did this walk there was one point early on when there was a locked gate on a housing estate that should not have been locked. Hopefully this has been resolved, as a public right of way is a public right of way.
There are two lunch pubs on this walk. The Red Lion in Chalton, six miles into the walk, is a capacious chain pub with a big garden and serves food all afternoon, so in many ways is the better choice. But the Five Bells in Buriton just 2.4 miles in is very charming and olde-worlde, though its website says it is currently only doing evening takeaways (maybe they have just not updated their website?).
If the Five Bells is open and you lunch there, the Red Lion makes a super mid afternoon tea stop. Otherwise pretty Rowlands Castle has several pubs, if you can resist the urge to rush for the next train which in my experience almost no one ever can....
Trains back from Rowlands Castle are at 45 past the hour
T=swc.18
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Thunderstorms! Torrential rain! Flash floods! Severe weather warnings! Given the strenuous efforts of the BBC weather forecasters to put us all off, it is a credit to the fortitude of SWC walkers that n=16 turned up on this walk. One of them was a newbie, which is a credit to the fortitude of newbies.
We started in a very humid and sticky drizzle, but it soon stopped and by lunch time there were some bright patches. After lunch w=we-walked-south-into-sunshine and so it remained for the rest of the day.
There seemed general agreement we would lunch at the Red Lion in Chalton (I am not sure, indeed, that the Buriton pub was open.) They had a wedding on at 3pm, but were not vastly busy at 1.30pm when we rocked up. We could order drinks at the bar and food at a nearby till. Oh the heady pleasure of this! I felt giddy as a child.
Perhaps it was the sunshine, but the afternoon of this walk seemed particularly pretty. There were hazy views of the distant sea, fields full of small white butterflies, and an impressive selection of arable weeds. At one point my attention was held for over a quarter of an hour by a gorgeous patch of spear thistle that was dotted with bees, hoverflies and butterflies of various species: the very quintessence of summer. Towards Rowlands Castle the wheat fields were golden and there were some lovely little downland sections. About a mile from the end in Ferndean there was a country pub with a sun-drenched garden which unaccountably no SWC-ers had stopped in.
I got to the Castle Inn in Rowlands Castle to find that much of the group had - there is no nice way to say this - got the 4.45pm train. On such a sunny afternoon!! Five others were still left, and we had tea and drinks in its garden and got the 5.45pm. Still too early….
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