Chilbolton

What a beautiful day we had for our walk this week. The sun was shining and it was even quite warm. A bit too warm for how we were dressed as we were obviously erring on the side of caution, but definitely an improvement on previous wet, cold and windy walks.

We headed to Chilbolton, near Stockbridge. Even the drive was picturesque as we went through the village of Wherwell with it’s abundance of thatched cottages, before reaching the West Down carpark in Chilbolton.

Our route took us down a tree lined path which skirted around West Down Nature Reserve.

There were a few glimpses across the field towards the Chilbolton Observatory.

We had a slight encounter with two vans as we crossed the road, both coming from different directions with one appearing suddenly over a hump backed bridge. Not sure who was most surprised, but luckily they both stopped until we had all safely crossed.

Continuing on we had glimpses of the River Test through the hedgerows.on one side and some lovely gardens on the other.

Unfortunately we hadn’t gone far before we found mud. The footpath was like a swamp and there were some interesting sucking sounds as we slowly and carefully made our way through, while hanging onto the barbed wired fence for dear life.

Obstacle overcome, we continued towards Cow Common, a site of Special Scientific Interest. Unfortunately we hadn’t gone very far when we reached our second swamp. One brave soul tried to get across but with each step she sunk deeper into the mud. Much as we don’t like to, on this occasion we had to admit defeat and turn back.

We managed a better view of the river and even spotted a family of geese on a little island.

Back across the road, luckily not meeting any vehicles this time, we made our way onto West Down Nature Reserve. Apparently large parts of the site were used in World War II by the air force and bunkers can still be seen in the woodland. We didn’t find any, but there was a lovely view from the top of the hill.

Making our way back to the carpark, we had a little diversion just to get another glimpse of the river before making our way to the Leckford Estate, which is a 2,800 farm and country estate owned by Waitrose and Partners and includes a lovely garden centre and cafe. Unfortunately, our second disappointment of the day, the queue for the cafe was out the door, so we headed back to one of our favourites, the Honesty Cafe at Dummer Down Farm for lunch

A bit of a mixed day today. Lovely weather but not quite the walk we were expecting, but we still had fun. Perhaps we’ll leave the riverside walks for a while.