Ten of us met up at Fleet Railway Station on Saturday 2nd August for a 7 mile walk around Fleet Pond, part of the Basingstoke Canal and the surrounding woodland. This was a repeat of a walk I led last year but with the route reversed to make it feel like a new walk. [I've given away a trade secret!]
Setting off from the station, we followed the footpath that traces the western shore of the pond. This has a few jetties allowing a better view of the pond and its wildlife. We stopped at one of the jetties for a look and were greeted by Canada Geese, including some inquisitive juveniles.
We followed the edge of the pond to the southern-most point which the locals call the beach on account of its high sand content. It's not the sort of beach where you'd go paddling as the only swimmers we saw were dogs and wild fowl.
There is a stream that feeds the pond from a sluice on the Basingstoke Canal about a mile south. We followed the stream through woodland until we emerged at the sluice gate on the canal. From there we followed the canal towpath heading west towards Fleet. Along the way we saw a family of Moorhens preening themselves on some water-lilies.
We left the canal by the A323 road bridge and followed a long straight path through the Forest of Eversley. Stopping in the woods for our picnic lunch, we found a convenient fallen tree to sit on. After lunch we went straight to a local pub. Well, we actually went straight past the pub to start with until I corrected my navigational error!
Suitably refreshed, we left the pub to be confronted with another group of walkers just arriving. Obviously this is a popular spot for walkers. Anyway, we headed north-east along another forest path, which brought us out onto a large roundabout on the A323.
We crossed the Basingstoke Canal again, this time heading north, and then back into woodland at Pyestock Hill. Following a well-made path through woodland and open heathland, we made our way north toward the railway line, where we turned westward and headed back toward Fleet Pond.
On reaching the north-east corner of the pond, we followed the path across the northern edge of the pond back to where we had started the walk. See our route on Bing Maps.
I'd chosen this walk because I thought the amount of tree-cover it offered would be helpful in this spell of hot weather. (Last Saturday we had temperatures of 28°C.) However, the hot weather seems to have abated and we only had a high of 21°C today. We also had a few showers so the shelter of the trees came in useful after all.
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