On 11th August our fifth walk was a mixture of urban walking and country rambling that mostly follows the Basing Trail - a Heritage Trail around Basingstoke and Old Basing.
The weather was excellent! Quite warm but not humid with a refreshing breeze. I think this helped boost numbers as we had ten people on this week's walk.
We started the walk at Basingstoke railway station and walked through the town to the War Memorial Park.
From there we headed off past the sports fields and through the smaller park at Black Dam into the Crabtree Plantation - a strip of park land sandwiched between the A30 and M3.
After that we crossed the A30 into Basingstoke Common and on to picturesque Old Basing. We stopped for our picnic lunch at the site of Oliver's Battery before continuing to the Millstone pub for a drink.
We headed back following the River Loddon as far as the Tithe Barn, then cross country past the Amphitheatre and back into Basingstoke.
On the way back to the station we passed through Eastrop Park, with its miniature boating lakes and crowds of people enjoying the weather. We stopped there for an ice cream before the last leg of the walk.
One or two of our number departed before we reached the station to take advantage of the shopping centre.
Now I've got the hang of my GPS receiver, I've been able to record the route we took. See the route on Google Maps.
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