July 2023 - Walking to Winchester

July was a strange month for me, I had finished at work, and had planned to head up to Hadrian's Wall at the end of the month. It was a strange month because I'd not really planned anything, it was almost like being in limbo. That being said, being off work was rather nice, not having to get up and spend all day trapped in the building while working! One of the first things I did was to spend a day walking to Winchester along the Itchen Navigation Way.

The Itchen Way is one of many walking paths set up in the UK, that follow routes taking you through cities and countryside, other examples are the Hadrian's Wall Walk, and the Borders Abbeys Way (both of which I've since walked, and I will be posting about on the blog soon, so keep an eye out!). Although the Itchen Way starts near Sholing, I picked up the trail on the riverside, and this was the first picture I took, of the mail centre where ironically James was picking up a parcel that day!

Along riverside in near Bitterne Triangle, its very flat and paved over, and with plenty of people running and walking about, and with many screaming children about too. But it didn't seem to phase this black swan or her chicks too much, or the pigeons that were hoping for a tasty snack from me! But I was travelling light, with just a bottle of water, a sandwich and some sun cream. The day had started off cloudy, with the sun shining through in intervals. 

On a slight side note, I'm sure we never used to get black swans here, or at least I never saw any. I first saw them when I travelling in Türkiye, and I was captivated by them. And ever since then I've started noticing them on local rivers and waterways more and more. Are they following me, or is it just getting warm enough for them?

Further up into Riverside park, this gaggle of Geese swam past. I wonder if they were going the same way I was going?

Several different trails join and split from the Itchen Way, the Bargeman's trail, the walk to Santiago di Compostela & the Itchen Navigation Way all share the route, albeit with very different end destinations! The idea of walking to Santiago di Compostela really intrigues me, one day I will have to do it! I'd just have to make sure I had enough money to do it! Parts of the Itchen way are well signposted and looked after, other areas the maintenance is less frequent, and the path is partially grown over alongside the motorway and just before the tunnel was particularly bad. Good job I was wearing long sleeves and long trousers, or else I could have been scratched to pieces!

After the section alongside the motorway, the landscape opens back up again, and you're surrounded by lush greenery and blue skies. Once I was far enough away from the motorway, you started to hear the birds singing & the trees rustling in the wind, and it was a nice place to stop and take a breather for a moment.

It was July, but the blackberries were starting to appear, another month or so and you'd be able to eat a full meal while walking the route!

All the while you are walking, you are never far from water. The Itchen flows past you in a constant fashion, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, often you can hear it running beside you. What I like is that it feels wild, the trees overhanging, areas of the path that go right to the water's edge, the occasional glimpse of fish. There is a serene and calm feeling to it.

In places along the walk, you see remains that point to the history of the walk. The river has been used for years, and was the main transport routes between Winchester and the port of Southampton until the railways came. Indeed, records indicate that use of the Itchen for trade can be dated back over a thousand years, back to when Winchester was the capital of England! Major works began on the river in the 1600 & 1700's to create a more navigable channel, with dredging & lock building taking place. In the picture above, you can see one of the walls that was built to create a towpath alongside, where horses could pull the barges, laden with coal, leather goods & foodstuffs to and from Winchester. It's even believed that stone quarried in Caen, France (where we had just visited) was brought to Winchester for use in the cathedral along the Itchen. And here's me, almost a thousand years on following the same path! Just without the enormous blocks of stone! 

One of the way points on the walk, my sense of distance is terrible, am I at the halfway point yet?

There are many different types of wildlife along the route, fish, dragonflies, birds and even llamas. I had to do a double take when I saw the llamas, I thought maybe I was becoming dehydrated or suffering from heatstroke. But no, definitely llamas. I mentioned it to James when I got home and he explained there was a llama farm there who also rescue llamas. That made more sense!

The river changes in shape multiple times through the walk, at times it's small and narrow, other times it's wide and open like this. This was a really nice section to walk along, I'd not met many walkers so far, just the odd other person, but here I was the only one, and it was really rather blissful! This was around the Bishopstoke area, where the river runs through the village, and you have to cross the road and suddenly there's people, dogs and traffic noise again!

But you've only got to walk a little further, and you're back on your own again, alongside the river and this rather magnificent swan that was swimming upstream. The terrain throughout the walk is fairly flat, without too much up and down, which made it a rather relaxed style of walking.

Heading up past Otterbourne, I found this rather sad looking railway viaduct, suffering from years of water leaking through the stones, as far as I'm aware it carries the main line from London & Winchester through to Southampton. This part of the walk was a little more tricky, we sort of diverted from the river for a bit, and walked alongside a gravel track. This section was weird, you were sort of walking on a narrow strip of land with barbed wire fences (I'm assuming it was private land) for a section, before coming through a couple of fields, where I was greeted by some rather curious cows!

They were interested in me, and I petted one on the head, but as soon as I tried to take a photo, they went back to eating the grass and pretended I wasn't there!

I also decided to stop and have a little break in Shawford, where by crossing the road and heading a little to the right, you can find somewhere to eat. There's a little café in the train station, or you can do as I did and pop into the The Bridge Inn. It was 5ish, so I didn't get anything to eat, but I did grab myself a large lemonade and enjoyed it sat in their garden there. The food looked good that people were eating on the table next to me, so I think I will head back at some point and try out the menu!

Also Shawford Rail Station is infamous known as the place where Victor Meldrew died, after being hit by a car in the TV show One Foot In The Grave. Despite it's morbid title, it's actually a comedy, and one of the funniest shows I've ever seen. If you like a dark comedy, it's one to watch! You've never heard of it I hear you say? I don't believe it!

Feeling a bit more refreshed & having cooled off a bit, I continued back down the road and back onto the walking trail. Here, the river seemed to split and re-join multiple times with different little branches and locks appearing and disappearing as you make your way through the meadows. With it being so flat at this point, I'm assuming this is all flood plains. But the path I was on took me over this pretty little bridge, an almost imitation of the famous Hockley railway viaduct that's just outside of Winchester!

Now this, but is where I'm going to make a bit of a grumble. The Itchen way reaches a large junction, where cars are coming and going and feed onto the motorway. No problem with that. But this is where the slight mix up occurred. So the path running alongside the river through the meadows suddenly split, with a narrow overgrown path continuing alongside the river, and another, wider and more maintained split away across the meadows. Thinking this was a possible diversion (there had been a slight one earlier where some of the path had been flooded and you were directed into a field and then back around to the path) I assumed this was the case again. There was no markers or wayfinders to direct you. So I followed the newer, more maintained looking path, and ended up on a road, and following the road led me to this junction. I have no idea how drivers can cope with it, because even for a pedestrian like me, I was very confused, there was no markers on any of the lampposts or street signs, and I had to cross several times using a mixture of pedestrian crossings and sheer luck to get to the other side. I then discovered this signpost, laden with various different signs, but only one path leading from it other than the road. I was planning to walk on the Hockley Viaduct, and assumed the path would lead me there, so I continued on following the yellow arrows.

To my surprise, I ended up at St Catherine's Hill, and realised I had completely missed the Viaduct. By this point I was getting tired, and wanted to try and get up the hill before I collapsed, so I decided I would return another day to visit the viaduct. As I was building up the courage and sending strength to my tired feet, Biddy (my Nan) randomly rang me asking me if I wanted to meet her for lunch the next day. I said yes, chatted for a bit, before finally starting the walk up the hill. I'm a modern man, why do people still ring me? Send me a text or an email! (I can hear my Biddy's voice telling me off for never replying to her messages!)

Anyway, this was the view form the top of the hill once I was able to breath again and not at danger of collapsing. You can just see the Hockley Viaduct & the motorway in the distance! 

Coming down the hill was actually harder, as it felt like several times my knees were going to give out, but I made it safely, and followed the trail into Winchester city centre, pausing to say hello to this duck and her baby on the way.

I decided to catch the bus home, for the pure reason that the bus station was closer than the train station! I grabbed myself a drink and a celebratory chocolate bar from the newsagents while I waited for the bus.

I couldn't believe I had done it! Well half of it, the rest of the trail runs to Hinton Ampner, but that would be a walk for another day. According to my Garmin, I had walked 31,816 steps, and my god, did I feel every single one of those steps, as I sat on the bus going home struggling to keep my eyes open! Luckily I got home to find dinner made ready for me, before I had a quick shower and collapsed into bed. I don't think I actually told James anything about it that night!

I really enjoyed it though, it was a lovely experience to do, and unless you're super unfit like me, it's a relatively easy walk without too much rise and fall. Worth doing in the summer when there's lots of tree cover and the path is drier. I've promised James that we will do the walk together one day, so keep an eye out for when we do the second half to Hinton Ampner. Gosh, I feel tired just writing about it!