A South Downs Way Story
Segment:
© 2004 by
|
|
|
|
| |
||
Having learned my lesson about Buriton’s inaccessibility, I took the train to Petersfield and then a cab to Buriton to begin this segment of the walk. I started in the morning mist walking through the solemn woods in Queen Elizabeth Country Park. Eventually the Way crossed the busy A3, broke free of the forest, and followed the hedgerows to the HMS Mercury naval station. It continued through rolling hills, woods, and farms for some miles. Just below the Iron Age fort on Old Winchester Hill, I heard a sudden horn call and galloping hooves, saw a flurry of red, and then the local hunt went charging by me, splattering me all over with mud in the process. I heard that hunting was outlawed shortly thereafter, which seemed to me to be a fitting punishment. The farm lane down from Old Winchester Hill to Exton was pretty but it got wetter and wetter. To discourage walkers from leaving the path, there were signs warning of unexploded World War II ordnance littering the hillside nearby. Eventually the farm lane turned into a river and I had to jump from hummock to hummock to try to stay dry. Exton itself was cut off by the flood so I caught a bus directly back to Petersfield.
Buriton-Exton
12.5 miles
25 January 2003