On the Downs

sandy saunders said:

Another walk from St Roche's Hill (The Trundle) north of Chichester,
starting out from the car park, just north of The Trundle, at 0715.

[Snippage]

Quoted message said:

Murky most of the
time, the odd bit of blue sky, and finished with some rather 'wetting' misty
rain. However, it was quite mild ...... and the start of summer as I had my
first outing in shorts.

You got off lightly with the rain. We walked the SDW from Winchester to
Exton yesterday. It was a bit mizzly in the morning, but after lunch we
had steady wetting rain which lasted all afternoon.

In article <[email hidden]>, sandy saunders
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Another walk from St Roche's Hill (The Trundle) north of Chichester,
starting out from the car park, just north of The Trundle, at 0715.

Headed north down to Singleton village, then along paths and woodland tracks
up to Cocking Down to join the SDW. Headed east along the SDW to Graffham
Down, then south to eventually arrive at Charlton village. A short walk
from there to Singleton was followed by a gentle rise uphill back to the car
completing a rather nice 15 mile hike. Saw 3 groups of Deer in the first
hour, so that added a bit of excitement to the walk. Murky most of the
time, the odd bit of blue sky, and finished with some rather 'wetting' misty
rain. However, it was quite mild ...... and the start of summer as I had my
first outing in shorts.

Slideshow from along the route at the address below.

Another excellent "Production" may I say.

Well done Sandy.
--
Bill Grey
http://www.billboy.co.uk

Mike K Smith said:

You got off lightly with the rain. We walked the SDW from Winchester to
Exton yesterday. It was a bit mizzly in the morning, but after lunch we
had steady wetting rain which lasted all afternoon.

I'm curious. This is a walk that I'd like to do, but the logistics of
it have defeated me so far. As far as I can tell (from the distance of
east Surrey), there seems to be no (or almost no) public transport to
or from Exton. How did you manage it?

Peter.
--
NewsGuy.Com 30Gb $9.95 Carry Forward and On Demand Bandwidth

In article said:

Mike K Smith said:

You got off lightly with the rain. We walked the SDW from Winchester to
Exton yesterday. It was a bit mizzly in the morning, but after lunch we
had steady wetting rain which lasted all afternoon.

I'm curious. This is a walk that I'd like to do, but the logistics of
it have defeated me so far. As far as I can tell (from the distance of
east Surrey), there seems to be no (or almost no) public transport to
or from Exton. How did you manage it?

Peter, I managed to do the walk between them, but agree that the public
transport is fairly poor! From East Surrey I would suggest doing the walk
in reverse (Exton to Winchester) to avoid a potentially long wait for the
bus at Exton (though there is a pub if you do have to wait!)

The bus to Exton is Solent Blue Line route 17 and you can find the times
at http://www.solentblueline.com/timetables/sbltt/17.htm

As you can see it is not especially frequent, and stops on the A32, rather
than going down into Exton, but it's only a few minutes walk to the village.
It goes to Petersfield Square, although it does also stop at the railway
station in Petersfield too. From Petersfield you can get trains to
Guildford (and south to Portsmouth).

Petersfield to Winchester is a long journey by train though, as you have
to travel north and change at Woking, which also makes it costly.

If you're driving you could park in Guildford (or use the park and ride)
and take the train to Petersfield to connect with this bus to Exton.
Returning from Winchester you can either take the train to Woking and change
there for Guildford or there is an hourly bus from Winchester back to
Guildford. I would suggest the latter as if you purchase an Explorer
ticket from the driver of the bus to Exton (currently £6) it is also
valid on the Stagecoach service between Winchester and Guildford.
The timetable for this is at
http://www.stagecoachbus.com/timetables/64_Timetable31102004.pdf

The journey is quite long and fairly difficult whichever way you go
however and you'd be spending a lot of time on buses. To continue the
SDW east I walked from Petersfield to Exton and took the bus back and
was the only person (well other than the driver of course!) on the bus
the whole way from Exton to Petersfield so sadly I don't see the
service improving with the usage that low.

If you're travelling with someone else getting a taxi would be much
quicker and could well be cheaper.

I have some photos of the walk here if you are interested:-
http://joncombe.fotopic.net/c267366.html

Jon.

Peter said:

On Sun, 26 Mar 2006 12:13:00 +0100, Mike K Smith
<[email hidden]> wrote:

Quoted message said:

I'm curious. This is a walk that I'd like to do, but the logistics of
it have defeated me so far. As far as I can tell (from the distance of
east Surrey), there seems to be no (or almost no) public transport to
or from Exton. How did you manage it?

We cheated, sort of.

Some friends of ours are in a walking group. One of their members is
organising a series of walks over the Spring which will cover all of the
SDW. There were a couple of club members who didn't fancy walking
yesterday but were happy to base themselves in Winchester for the
weekend and drive down to Exton in the afternoon to pick up the walkers
to ferry them back to Winchester.

The only sadness is that when we arrived at The Shoe at about 16:10 it
was firmly shut. It wasn't worth us walking on to Corhampton to find an
open pub as the drivers were en-route to collect us, but we had a fairly
miserable 10 minutes waiting outside a closed pub waiting to be picked up.

On the other hand, our lunch stop at the Milbury's (SU 569 250) was
excellent.

On Sun, 26 Mar 2006 20:29:54 +0100, Jon Combe <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I'm curious. This is a walk that I'd like to do, but the logistics of
it have defeated me so far. As far as I can tell (from the distance of
east Surrey), there seems to be no (or almost no) public transport to
or from Exton. How did you manage it?

Peter, I managed to do the walk between them, but agree that the public
transport is fairly poor! From East Surrey I would suggest doing the walk
in reverse (Exton to Winchester) to avoid a potentially long wait for the
bus at Exton (though there is a pub if you do have to wait!)

<snip>

Thanks very much for the extremely helpful advice. Longish journeys by
public transport don't worry me, so that isn't a problem from my
perspective. It'll take time, but should still be an enjoyable day.
Must take a book and/or iPod for the trains/buses, though!

Peter.
--
NewsGuy.Com 30Gb $9.95 Carry Forward and On Demand Bandwidth

Mike K Smith said:

Peter said:

How did you manage it?

Quoted message said:

We cheated, sort of.

<snip>

Didn't you just! Sounds a good arrangement, but wouldn't work for me
going solo.

Peter.
--
NewsGuy.Com 30Gb $9.95 Carry Forward and On Demand Bandwidth

Quoted message said:

You got off lightly with the rain. We walked the SDW from Winchester to
Exton yesterday. It was a bit mizzly in the morning, but after lunch we
had steady wetting rain which lasted all afternoon.

Your right! Quite luck, although I was out at 0715 so back at lunch, and
the forecast was for rain moving in by PM. Wet yesterday on a walk from
home though, started and ended in the rain.

--
Sandy Saunders @ www.thewalkzone.co.uk

'Mountains or Mole Hills .....
summiting still brings the
same excitement'

Quoted message said:

Another excellent "Production" may I say.

Well done Sandy.

Thanks very much Bill. Bit short on the words, but I feel maybe long TRs
might bore the backside of people. I like the slideshow as it gives a nice
feel for the walk. Another one coming up this weekend. Might get back onto
the Dorset coastal path around Kimmeridge area.

--
Sandy Saunders @ www.thewalkzone.co.uk

'Mountains or Mole Hills .....
summiting still brings the
same excitement'