Apologies for the lengh of time to publish these next blog posts. I did write them up within a few days of walking, but then got “publish-itis” (had to put a dash in there!!) which seemed to stop me hitting the Publish button. I’ve had therapy and am hopefully over it now :) .

When writing this up, it seems I’ve taken a long break from walking the Coast Path, but in reality I haven’t had any time, which I think is a good thing. After all, it just a project to keep me busy. Anyway, a lot has changed since my last walk out in February, most notably the weather. My pack was pretty light today as I discarded hats, gloves, warm clothes etc, but due to the weather forecast had to replace them with sun cream and extra water. I don’t think my pack was lighter! The other big change is the clocks have gone forward, which means it is much lighter in the evenings and the pressure of finishing in the dark has gone, making off-peak train travel more acceptable. I caught the 9:09 train from home, and was walking out of Portsmouth & Southsea station well before 11:00. I had previously finished my walk at Portsmouth Harbour Station, and starting at Portsmouth & Southsea leaves about one kilometre of busy dual carriageway un-walked. I did consider walking back to my previous endpoint, but feel sure I will cover it in the future, either at the end of todays walk (I didn’t) or when I start the next leg (I promise). That brings me nicely to the fact that today’s coastal path walk is circular (which when you think about it, as a coast path should be! It is a complete crcumnavigation of Fareham Harbour, fom Portsmouth to Gosport, with the Gosport Ferry returning me to Portsmouth at the end of the day.

I must admit to not really looking forward to this leg, it on the map it seemed to be pretty urban and was going to be my longest coast path walk yet, dictated by the obvious start and end points. Anyway from the station I headed off, across Victoria Park. It is a really nice park with an aviary in the middle (containing giant rabbits, presumabaly to stop them flying off!) and lots of monuments to various ships and crew, across the ages. I didn’t have time to read many of them, but have found this website which gives good background to each one (which is sort of missing when you see them in the park).

The park was going to be the last bit of greenery for a while, as I headed north along the dual carriageway passing all the Naval Shipyards, Ferry Port and various industrial units that blocked the view of the sea. I think it was over five km until I got a glimpse of the sea (or rather Fareham Harbour). Before then the route included walking down quiet streets of terraced houses. I still get the feeling of “bunking off” when walking down streets like this during the day, it must be the conditioning of many years at work, and school before that. It is a nice feeling.

I got to the sea wall overlooking the harbour, and the motorway feeding into Portsmouth. I think there has been a lot of work building up the sea walls as Portsmouth is one of the most at-risk cities in the UK due to sea level rise. That said, the de-risking has provided a nice promenade with plenty of people enjoying the warm sunny day. There were large groups walking the opposite way in red tee shirts bearing the logo for the British Special Olympics team. I guess fundraising for the team. I had to look up the Special Olympics and whether they were different to the Paralympics. The Paralympics are for athletes with physical disabilities, while the Special Olympics are for athletes with intellectual disabilities. I always seem to learn something new. It wasn’t the most interesting walk, with a busy road just across the water, but it was well landscaped and had some nice features like a very simple bird hide, which worked well.

As I approached the furthest point north,  where I could see and hear the vehicles on the M27 motorway charging east and west. I could see a strange arrangement of wires over a lake behind the sea wall. Initially I thought it might be aerials and something to do with naval radio operations. However, it was a water-skiing drag lift – thing, and I’d perfectly timed my walk to see someone on it. Unfortunately, and despite it appearing like it might be their first go (based on the level of instruction they were receiving) they were quite good and didn’t fall off in spectacular style. It was a bit disappointing really, or watersking is much easier than I’d ever found it (just being dragged face first through the water)!

If I’d thought walking through Portsmouth was urban, the next stretch took it up another level. Footpaths alongside busy roads, in the lee of the M27. A variety of office complexes, small shopping malls and out-off town retail parks. I took the only benefit I could find here and had a McDonalds lunch.

After lunch, and crossing back under the M27 the route improved considerably and I could actually imagine that I was walking on the England Coast Path, and not just randomly wandering through streets. A nice long stretch of promenade, followed by some wanderings between lots of boat building yards, which despite being urban ate interesting. I saw a couple of huge drums but have no idea what they are – comments welcome – my best guess is some form of wrapping machine for wrapping up new boats in plastic!

The section down to Portchester Castle was great. I was totally unaware that such a large, fairly well preserved, Castle and walls existed here. The village of Portchester was really quaint with some lovely cottages, and a big pub. I was so entranced by it, I managed to take the wrong road and added a fair bit to my walk, all through suburban houses.

Almost as soon as I got back to the coast path, I found the way blocked due to high tide and had to take an alternative route, all through suburban houses, again. Although to be fair, the next section following the river into Fareham was really nice (but a bit indirect!). After leaving the busy roads behind I think my senses to birdsong had been heightened and it was really nice walking with the birds accompanying me. The town of Fareham was appearing on the opposite bank, but it was still a very long walk to a bridge and then back again, just to be 100 meters across the river. If only I could swim!

I did consider finishing in Fareham, as it had been the Warmest April day for seven years (about 30°C) and I haven’t walked this far for ages. I was certainly tired but it felt like the right thing was to continue as there is a certain symmetry with walking all the way around the harbour. The walk out of Fareham was a series of linked up parks following the river and was good walking. However, after turning inland up a creek, the path just followed a busy road for miles, well at least an hours walking. It was necessary due to MoD establishments (Defence Munitions) on the coast front. It was a really tiresome walk, helped only by a petrol station shops and racing with the rush hour traffic queues.

The most interesting thing on this section (and maybe the whole walk) was a manhole cover!! Which, if you are observant, like I am, has the Thames Water logo on it. Gosport is so deep into Southern Water territory, I have no idea what is going on. Is someone pinching the covers to save money or is there some sort of outsourcing – its is a real mystery. Again if anyone has any ideas?

Eventually I reached Gosport, and after a short section of seafront with great views over Portsmouth.There was a row of rather nice terraced houses, interspersed with the occasional nice looking pub. This was short lived and I found myself back into industrial areas. This is where I saw a very sad sight of a Saab 900 completely trashed on the back of a truck. It got better after that with walking through some fine historical naval buildings,  including the Explosion Museum, which must be worth a visit in the future and the Powder Monkey Brewery in an old munitions bunker, which was unfortunately closed.

After a nice footbridge and more historic buildings I reached the Gosport ferry for a quick ride across to Portsmouth Harbour Station and a train home. I’d really forgotten how tired walking 30 kms can make you. I really enjoyed the relaxing trip home on the train, although it was less pleasant hobbling the final few streets home.