Warnford to Buriton

This was a delightful day's walk on a dry though not particularly warm day, with some sunshine, especially in the afternoon. It started with the discovery that although the heel of my right foot was still painful when I first got out of bed, the pain eased off once I'd been walking on it for a while; that was a relief! We had a lovely breakfast at the George and Falcon, their full continental breakfast arrived (with little croissants and pastries) in addition to some bits of the cooked breakfast that we ordered. Having just the continental breakfast would have been more than adequate, and cheaper since we were on a room only rate, but we were on holiday...

The George and Falcon is right on the route of the Monarch's Way and almost opposite the pub, the route left the main road onto a more minor road (though still with some cars about) which climbed steadily. We crossed an old railway then turned right onto a track which, somewhat irritatingly, lost some of the height we had gained. It was attractive countryside though, a somewhat horsey place with a number of paddocks around Lower Peake Cottage and Peake Farm.

As we rejoined the South Downs Way, there were separate SDW and Monarch's Way signs right next to each other, almost as if neither likes to admit to the other's existence. It is also the case that the correct walkers' route to the top of the hill is not clear; the cyclists' route skirts to the south of the summit, but where were we supposed to go? We just headed straight ahead, now on open access land, and thus it was that we reached the summit of Old Winchester Hill, with views to the the coast and the Isle of Wight. The guidebook waxes lyrical about the cowslips on the South Downs way and there was certainly an impressive display here, on the earthworks of the Iron Age hill fort.

We had commented on the climb up Old Winchester Hill how quiet it seemed, especially given that it was a Saturday, but that was about to change. After crossing the earthworks we reached a picnic bench with good views to the north and we stopped here for rest and refreshment (i.e. we each ate an apple!) being passed by lots of people. We then swung around to a broad grassy area running parallel with a road (on which there is a car park, which might explain the fact that it was suddenly much more busy than it had been....); we'd expected to have to walk along the road, but in fact when the signposting took us across it, there was then a good path on the other side.

As we walked north, close to the road, there were good views over a valley to our right (including a large herd of cattle) and our route soon doubled back and descended. down towards a valley. We were overtaken by a group of cyclists, but there appeared to be a problem with one of the bikes, so we soon overtook them again...and so it continued - apparently the bike was borrowed and had a bent wheel frame; memories of attempting to explain that "la bicyclette de mon mari est cassée" on a cycling holiday in France. I now know that sentence to be grammatically incorrect, but languages were never my strong point!

We reached Whitewool Farm ("Meon Springs") and walked around the buildings, then over a little stream and fishing lakes, where anglers of various stages of competency were practising. We turned right onto a minor road past some farm buildings and noticed a check point/feeding station for a run of some sort. We didn't register the detail at this stage, though Richard noticed that runners reaching this point would have done about 16 miles and had a similar distance still to go. Wow!

We continued through a wooded area with more nice houses and emerged above Hyden Cross. The map caused us some confusion at this point; our route was a short distance to the south of a road junction on the map and we'd assumed we'd be on a path. However we actually on a road, it's just that you can't see the road underneath all the other colours on the map! There were views from here down to East Meon, reckoned to be a pretty village though we didn't visit it, and the onward route was extremely attractive, along a track through woodland, with views over Hyden Hill and then Tagdown Hill to the north. By now, some of the runners passing us were only going slightly faster than we were.

The track became a surfaced drive and emerged at a three-way road junction. A man was just parking his car here (perhaps to avoid paying to park at the Queen Elizabeth Forest Park?) and he enquired whether the temperature was such that he would need a jacket for walking; a difficult question to answer today. We turned left towards the large radio mast on Butser Hill and, about a kilometre further on, at a car park, we entered the Queen Elizabeth Country Park, still walking towards the radio mast. There were quite a lot of people about, and a wooden hut (perhaps a refreshment kiosk?) was visible through the scrub to our left.

Our path veered to the right and descended, away from the radio mast and towards the busy A3 and, just beyond, the trees of the Queen Elizabeth Forest. Down and down we went, passing family groups out for a Sunday afternoon stroll. There is a visitor centre icon shown on the map to the west of the A3 (i.e. the side we were on) but there was no sign of it on the ground and I wanted a cup of tea; I got rather moody about the fact that we had walked past the refreshment kiosk (and the guidebook, which I hadn't read properly previously, confirmed that this is what it is). However, thankfully, the visitor centre at the bottom of the hill is there, just on the other side of the road and somewhat to the south of our current location.

An underpass took us to the other side of the A3, and another flurry of runners passed us - I'd almost forgotten them! I asked one man where the run ended; Eastbourne he said. Not today, surely! (no, not today, but we were still left confused by what he said, and only slowly did it occur to us that this might be a multi-day event). We turned right for the visitor centre, which turned out to be not only a source of tea and coffee, but also of pasties for tomorrow's lunch (it being a Sunday tomorrow, we were - rightly on this occasion - not sure where else we would be able to buy provisions).

From the visitor centre, the path took a delightful route through the Queen Elizabeth Forest, on route shared in places with several other named paths including the Hangers Way (which runs for 21 miles from the Queen Elizabeth Country Park to Alton Railway Station, through a series of steep-sided wooded hills known as hangers), the Staunton Way (20.5 miles from the Queen Elizabeth Country Park to Staunton Country Park near Havant) and the Shipwrights Way (50 miles from the Alice Holt Forest to Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, following the route of the oak that was used for shipbuilding in Tudor). Note that we don't think that the route of the South Downs Way is exactly as shown on the map through the Forest, it certainly doesn't share the same bits of its route with the same other paths in the same places as shown on the map; it didn't matter though, our route was well signed (and we did encounter all of those other paths at some stage on our walk through the Forest). Given the descent on the other side of the A3 I'd expected another steep climb, but it was all very gentle. We were passed by the final couple of "runners" of the day (these were definitely walking).

We had both wondered when the next check point for the runners would be and as we emerged from the Queen Elizabeth Forest to a car park above Buriton, there were the same sort of "motivational" signs that we had seen at the feeding station near Whitewool Farm, and the check point itself followed soon afterwards. We stopped to chat to the man and woman who were just waiting for the final two participants to come through and they confirmed what we now expected, namely that this was an 'Extreme marathon', in which people were either running or walking (fast!) the whole of the South Downs Way in three days. This particular event is organised by XNRG who specialise in running events like this "to help people challenge themselves and break through their mental and physical barriers". Credit to those who undertake this sort of event, but it's not our style - although I am very proud of what we have achieved on our walks in the past 11 years, an ideal individual day of walking is one where we potter on, at a speed at which we are comfortable, with the journey (and points of interest on the route) being at least as important as getting there.

We parted company with the South Downs Way and followed the Shipwrights Way (also the route of the Hangers Way) through the Buriton Quarry, underneath the railway line, and down to Buriton. We emerged just by the pond, in front of the Church; it was delightful, a picture postcard sort of village.

We walked along to the Village Inn, where we were staying. Chris showed us to our room, "Mulika", which had obviously been refitted very recently and which was extremely comfortable if a little unconventional in layout, with a roll top bath, sink and toilet in a little archive, then the rest of the bedroom. I wouldn't have put the bed where it was (which left Richard having to crawl into bed) but otherwise it was all lovely. We'd booked a table for 7pm, and when we went down to eat we asked how long they'd been open - amazingly, the answer was just three months. They were busy and deservedly so; it's a nice place and the food was delicious.

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