Monday 24 July 2017

South Harting - Petersfield: 7.59 miles - 16,613 steps

A new walk and a free bus ride! I caught the 54 bus from a stop only a few hundred yards from home and since it was after 9:30 am I was able to use my bus pass! The bus route is Petersfield - Rogate - Nyewood - Harting.

We've been to South Harting many times, taking the girls to the recreational ground which features two ponds in which there are large fish and many Mallard ducks - we enjoy feeding both.

This day, however, I had time to walk through the village and look into the church which is, unusually, dedicated to St Mary and St Gabriel.

From South Harting I walked past the ponds onto the South Downs Way which is a good track here, though recent rains had left lots of large puddles. As this is one of the well known long distance paths I was not suprised to meet quite a few walkers. At Buriton I walked down through the old chalk quarries and stopped to look at the railway crossing that we used to use to get from Buriton Pond to the recreation ground. Despite protests from local villages this crossing has now been closed, even though in 150 years of use there has been no accident there.

Approaching Buriton I took note of the chalk quarries that had played an important part of the village in years gone by - I would recommend the two leaflets produced about the chalk pits - click on a link to download a copy: The Natural History and The Industrial History. The route home from Buriton I know well and it too was muddy in places - and I saw some beautiful cattle in an adjacent field.

Click on the photographs to see a larger image and use the arrows at the left and right of the larger images to scroll through them. Try the 360 degree video!