On Sunday 28th May, Emma led her second walk for the BWW group. Again, it was one of my walks that she had recced with me, and felt confident enough to lead it herself. I did the opening speech, describing the route and making sure everyone had enough water as it was a warm day and the walk would be 12¾ miles. Luckily my blether went on long enough for a couple of late arrivals to join us before I'd finished.
We set off on the Wayfarer's Walk along the top of Cannon Heath Down, following the gallops to Watership Down. We soon reached the spot where an ancient beech tree once stood, which featured in the 1972 book Watership Down by Richard Adams.
The tree blew down in 2004, but a replacement was planted on the same spot about ten years later. We stopped to exchange memories of the surprisingly violent children's book and film about a group of rabbits looking for a new home after developers destroyed their original warren at nearby Sandleford.
Our path now diverged from the Wayfarer's Walk and headed south. To our right we got views of Beacon Hill and the Hampshire downs. To our left was more of the rolling Hampshire countryside, including the tall and slender TV mast on Cottington's Hill. This mast could be seen on many occasions throughout the walk.
After several miles, we turned east onto the Harrow Way, an ancient (pre-Roman) trackway that connected Devon and Kent. The path was lined with mixed woodland trees and a lot of common hawthorn, which was in flower. Hawthorn flowers are usually white, sometimes with a hint of pink, but several times we came across some that were an incredibly rich pink - almost red.
We stopped for lunch on an embankment in a small clearing in the wood. There had been a rope swing hanging from an old oak when we did the recce, but someone had tied the seat end onto a high branch, well out of reach. No swinging for us today.
After lunch, we continued on the Harrow Way, which followed a couple of quiet lanes before becoming a woodland path again. During that time, we passed Ashe Warren Farm, which had strips of crops with white, pink and red flowers. Very striking! Sadly, none of us had the knowledge to identify them. There were Flanders Poppies in a nearby field, which I could identify.
Soon we were at Patchbourne Wood, where there was an intersection with the Wayfarer's Walk. We joined this path, heading north-west, through woodland that had been brimming with bluebells during the recce, but they had all finished now.
Crossing Freemantle Farm, we reached North Oakley, where we left the Wayfarer's Walk. Next we crossed a wheat field and into a narrow strip of woodland. The path through this was winding and quite enclosed, with woodland flowers lining the path. It popped out quite suddenly onto Hannington Road, which we followed as far as The Vine pub, stopping there for some welcome refreshment.
After a pleasant rest in the beer garden, we finished our drinks and continued through Hannington village. Taking a footpath by the church, we left the village through a field and on to Meadham Lane, heading west and then north through woodland.
A long, straight lane now took us to Cottington's Hill, where the Hannington TV transmitter mast stands. It looks very imposing as you walk straight toward it. Stopping at the foot of the mast, I was (quite easily) persuaded to tell the story about a mysterious event in the 1970s when the sounds channel of ITV was briefly hijacked by an alien voice. (See Walk 569 for the full story.) Unfortunately, I told it with the technical explanation first, which rather ruined the mystery and suspense.
Leaving Cottington's Hill, it was a gentle downhill walk through fields back to the White Hill car park. See our route on Google Maps. Having been sunny all day, it was just turning overcast and feeling a bit humid, so we'd had the best of the day.
Thank you to Emma for leading this walk.
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