Bank Holiday Monday 27th May saw sunny (but windy) weather - much better than the predicted rain. This may explain the turn-out of 30 people for this joint walk with the Berkshire Walkers 20s & 30s group.
We set off from the station walking through Hook, past the shops and the war memorial before leaving the village for countryside. We followed a footpath through Owen's Farm, heading west towards Newnham, but before reaching it, we turned south to King's Bridge, crossing the railway and emerging from woodland beside a hotel on the A30.
Crossing the A30 we continued south along a lane that bridged the M3 motorway and took us through more woodland down to Eastrop Bridge over a disused stretch of the Basingstoke canal to the west of the Greywell Tunnel.
The tunnel was closed in 1932 due to the collapse of the roof, and has since become home to a number of species of bat. During the restoration of the Basingstoke Canal in the 1970s the inhabitants of tunnel were left alone and the tunnel was designated as a nature reserve.
Most of the canal to the east of the tunnel is now navigable except for a few hundred metres leading to the east entrance of the tunnel. The canal to the west of the tunnel was not restored and this is part we were crossing. We followed the approximate path of the tunnel on footpaths through the woods above it, taking a small diversion to walk down to the west entrance of the tunnel and have a look.
We left the woods for fields on Greywell Hill where we were slowed down by a herd of cows congregating by the exit of the field. Gentle persuasion was required to move them away from the gate so we could continue our walk.
After crossing the road through Greywell, we joined the towpath along the canal at the east entrance to the tunnel. The water was quite clear here and we could easily see the bottom and the plants growing from it. There were a number of ducks and a pair of swans with their signets.
We continued along the towpath, passed the aqueduct, where the River Whitewater passes under the canal, and then we stopped to look at the ruins of King John's Castle (also known as Odiham Castle). After looking round the ruins we stayed there for our picnic lunch.
After lunch we carried on following the canal until we reached the swing-bridge, where we turned off and followed a quiet road that forded the Whitewater. The road is now blocked off by the ford, probably due to too many cars coming to grief in the deceptively deep water. We used the footbridge next to the ford!
Crossing the B3349 road that goes through Hook and North Warnborough, we traversed a field that was shared by the Whitewater and a nesting swan, who eyed us suspiciously as we passed. We exited the field, passing under the Odiham by-pass road and onto the service road for the Newlyns Farm shop.
We followed this road away from the farm shop and toward the Lord Derby pub on Bartley Heath, where we stopped for a drink. The young barman was somewhat unnerved by 30 people turning up at once, but was relieved that we weren't also ordering food!
Tearing ourselves away from the relaxing environment of the pub garden, we followed a footpath to the north through the woods and over the M3 on a footbridge. I made a slight navigational error as we left the pub and led us down the wrong path to start with, but we soon found our way onto the right one.
Continuing on footpaths through Bartley Heath, north of the M3, we emerged on the southern edge of Hook village, by the business park. It was a short walk from there back to the railway station car park, where we'd started the walk four hours earlier. See our route on Google Maps.
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