Thursday 3 August 2017

Rowlands Castle - Chalton - Rowlands Castle: 11.7 miles - 25,616 steps

This is was a reconnoitre for a proposed walk by friends from Portsmouth College of Education (PCE) - we meet together every Christmas time and have often talked of having a summer get-together and, prompted by Steph, I've come up with this walk.

I often think of this walk as the Railway Walk since it follows the route of the Portsmouth to London route and trains can be seen and/or heard throughout the walk. I have walked from Rowlands Castle to Petersfield but this time wanted a circular walk: Rowlands Castle - Chalton - Rowlands Castle.

The outward, northward route, east of the railway line follows the Staunton Way; from Chalton, the southward route, west of the railway, follows the Sussex Border Path. The northward route was about six miles, the southern, about three and a half (the total distance noted above includes walking to and from Petersfield railway station from home!).

It was overcast at the start of the walk and there were a couple of light showers; later the sun came through and it was very windy. It was about 17C so quite pleasant walking. It rained all afternoon and evening yesterday and I was amazed to see that the paths were not very muddy.

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