This month's AAC southern area walk was a one-way going from Rowlands
castle to Petersfield - up the Staunton way (western route) to the South Downs
way, then down to Buriton, and along the Hanger's way to Petersfield.
Bertie and I arrived at the car park in Petersfield in plenty of time to
casually walk around the station (the car park we ended up in was the closest
to the by-pass, but everyone else used the other side!) and eat our bun
before anyone else arrived. There was an overtime ban or "work to rule" by
ASLEF and the train drivers so we had all arranged to meet here and catch the
train just in case it was delayed or cancelled. I had my Wellies on as all my
walks recently had large quantities of mud.
We caught up with everyone joining here (4 others) as an earlier train pulled
through, and waited for ours. The remaining 2 people were on the train just
another compartment so it was not until we gathered on the platform at
Roland's castle that we were complete for today.
From the station (after we had crossed the tracks on the footbridge) we looped
around through the housing estate and joined the Staunton way (also the Sussex
border path here) just as it went into the fields above the village. After
crossing the crop fields we followed the back road down into Finchdean where the
SW does a zigzag before climbing up the slope to Oxleys Copse.
As we got higher we cloud look over to the church/ chapel -
St. Hubert's
- on the far side in its isolated field. There was much searching for details on
phones etc. as we paused for a coffee break.
Once up on the top f the ridge on this side the walk continued on the top and
down the end towards the village of Chalton. We passed through the church yard
and onto the pub opposite (the red lion) where we had a table booked for lunch.
Luckily for Bertie this time we had a table outside the restaurant and he could
join everyone else to scrounge leftovers.
Once the elongated lunch stop (it always seems to be on these walks food
preparation time is lengthy!) We continued along the SW as it climbed once again
alongside rape fields up tot eh edge of the QEII country park
In the park we meandered around through the trees to pick up the SW on a chalk
track (sometimes muddy and others dryer). we continued on this until it met the
car park where the South Downs way crosses into the park.
Over the back road and the SDW to descend through the chalk pits and down to
Buriton
Coming out at the village pond opposite the church. Around the village roads
until we could leave the village now on the Hangers way.
This is where the real mud started - up to now there had been surprisingly
little. There were parts of the path where it was one large mud wallow, and my
wellies came into their own. A brief respite as we walked down a farm track,
however this ended in a very soggy pasture field.
Through the field untilthe surprise at the end - an exceedingly muddy track leading up to the last field. This was a full width quagmire, and everyone paused at the top to clean off their boots in the puddles beside the track.
Now in the outskirts of Petersfield we went through the caravan park and into the residential areas, along the pavements as the route meandered along and back to the station.
We left everyone there as we separated back to our own ways home. Bertie had to be rubbed down before getting into the car for the journey home.
