I’m getting so far west, that these are becoming quite late starts.I arrived at Southampton Central Station at 11:30 and headed off through the town centre. The most important thing was that I’d remembered to use the toilet on the train, and I wasn’t going to be caught out with a couple of hours of urban (treeless!) walking (unlike in Gosport!).The walk wasn’t as bad as I’d been expecting, as it initially went through some quite nice streets (with a One Stop Shop which provided lunch) before hitting the A33.

Even this section wasn’t too bad, with views of the massive container port through the fence, and occasional businesses. It was mainly on a nice wide shared path, with next to no cyclists, set back from the road. It passed all the car main dealers, and perusing their forecourts kept the mind busy.

On the other side of the busy dual carriageway,  I noticed my second “Greggs Outlet Store”.  I’ve not seen these before, except in Woolston, the east side of Southampton. The Greggs website says they are set up in more deprived areas to sell unsold food at lower prices. Despite this, I didn’t risk life and limb crossing the dual carriageway and headed onto the bridge over the River Test.

I was hoping the walk would improve from here, but it was still alongside a dual Carriageway, the A36, but the shared path was narrow and right next to the road. While the previous wide path had no cyclists, this had loads. It just goes to prove that it’s not just providing any new cycle path, they need to go to where people want to go. On the cycle path there was a mini traffic jam with a double pushchair backing the bikes up, while on the other Carriageway was a proper jam with cars and lorries. Which, later in the day I had forgotten about until I was stuck in it.

After a short while I could turn off the busy road into quieter streets. It is worth mentioning that I’m not following the coast path, as the official route takes the (non-functioning) Hythe Ferry. This route is just my work around. I’m taking the closest footpath, or small road adjacent to the coast, but using some pragmatism when passing the large industrial or military areas in this part of the world. I was on small roads for this section, and passed through Eling, with its quaint Toll Road over the old tide mill – free for walkers – and picturesque church. Although there was no forgettting how close I was to a really big port.

I had intended stitching together footpaths to make a straight line route, but the first one was nowhere to be seen. I did retrace my steps and pretty sure I hadn’t missed it, but with a long day ahead I couldn’t mess around for too long, which meant it was small roads all the way to past Pooksgreen. I was fearing it was going to be road the whole way, until the road I turned off in, was closed by a nice Southern Water excavation, which meant a car free section which was bliss.

From here, there was a nice section to Hythe  on footpaths through lovely fields and woods. It had taken a while to get here but it was definitely worth it.

I had my lunch on a bench in Hythe, with lots of holidaymakers, with  view of the long ferry pier (which is the reason the ferry is not running) and the space age Woolston Sewage Works on the otherside.

The Coast Path signs restarted here, and initally the path went right down to the coast and normal service had returned with views of Netley Hospital and Castle, that I had walked past on the last leg (the castle does look a bit more “castlely” from this side).

This was very short lived, as the path headed inland to bypass the massive Fawley Oil Refinery. Initally, it was on nice by-ways, with only the occasional hum from behind the trees to alert you to what may lie beyond the trees.

But eventually I ended up alongside a busy road. I had timed it perfectly so I was in at the same time as the secondary school was turning out. There are two schools of transport thought, firstly there were long queues of cars with a single pupil in each car (I really felt like shouting “only one pupil per car” when I saw two or more kids being carried – such a blatent saving of resources!), and secondly big groups of kids walking about the same speed as me (slightly slower obviously). This meant the roads were busy, and the pavements were busy. This made overtaking the pavement kids difficult. At one junction, I decided to shortcut the path by cutting across the road and roundabout. This left me walking on a very busy road, with next to no verge to walk on with petrol tankers thundering by. I couldn’t believe that this was the coast path. After a few hundred metres, a gap in the bushes revealed a lovely path screened from the road, my short-cut had missed the entrance to this.

On the school kid front, there was one teenager who was walking a good distance in front of me all the way to Fawley. I reckon his commute was nearly an hour walking each way, I was impressed – but I’m sure one of the single (pupil) occupancy cars would have been headed this way and save him a huge walk. From a distance, this chap actually saved me from a navigational error, as well as showing me the best way across some of these busy roads.

The route bypassed Fawley, passing a very nice church located right at the entrance  to the oil Refinery. Leaving the Refinery behind I headed to Ashlett Creek, another of the drainage plans I remember working on, and by the smell could benefit for a bit more investigation!

The unspoilt coastline was short-lived as the disused Fawley Power Station appeared. Its a vast building that looks like it is being demolished. I’m pretty sure it had a big chimney but there is no sign if it now. The path skirted around the front of the station. A sign warned that a bridge may be open and impassable, but luckily it was closed.

My target of the day was getting larger on the horizon. Calshot Fort is on  a spit of land poking out into Southampton Water. As I got to the sea front a large cargo ship was coming in with three tug boats (that I could see, there may have been two more on the otherside) bringing it in. The tug at the back was clearly the brake, and seemed to be steaming in the opposite direction based on the smoke from the chimney.

Calshot is a big sports and outdoor pursuits centre. It’s located in a number of big hangers that are all left over from a long seaplane heritage. The thing I wanted to see was the velodrome. I think it has one of the steepest banking around. The banking is upto 45 degrees, but it looks so much steeper from above. There were some kids taking gentle steps in pedaling around the bottom. I was treated to one of them falling of the banking (quite low down) when he was ignoring the instructions to go faster.

It was a short walk to the bus stop, and I walked slightly further than necessary to make overlapping the route on the next leg a bit easier. The infrequent bus came on time, and the 50 minute bus journey back to Southampton took over 2 hours, thanks to the traffic jam on the A36 (which I had seen and forgotten all about earlier in the day).

I got home bt 11pm, which shows I’m stretching how far west is possible by public transport. I may have to start planning multi day trips.