Yesterday I walked 14 miles with friends Derek and Sarah (actually Derek only came for a short while, well 2 hours!) from Queen Elizabeth Park just off the A3 to Old Winchester Hill and back. It took just over 5 hours not counting a couple of breaks.
For anyone not familiar with the South Downs, it is a long ridge of high chalk land in the South of England. It has a path ,’The South Downs Way’ that is approximately 100 miles long from Winchester to Eastbourne. There are other paths that intersect it and together these paths have been used for 8000 years. It was probably a safe route in times gone by and there are a number of hill forts and tumuli along its length to remind us of our ancestors. I think it’s one of the most beautiful places and strangely less busy places to walk on this Island.
Many Neolithic, iron age and Roman artifacts have been discovered on the Downs and currently it still has one very precious artifact, my tooth! Which I carelessly left while cycling on it last September!
Sarah planned this walk and we started up Butser Hill, I just love this wide grassy mound of chalk Downland. (I have a rather vivid memory of Richard from my first proper blog, hurtling down this hill on his bike). I hope I don’t lose my memory as that’s a lovely one!
Today it was full of wild flowers, bugloss, harebells, and marjoram.
We walked the South Downs Way westward then took a turn north off the main track and down into the Meon Valley towards the the source of the Meon River. This was a marshy spot under an old bridge where the springs are.
We walked at the edge of farm land and came across the most amazing sight. I’m pretty sure these are small white butterflies (Pieris rapae) having a drink!
I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many in one place!
We stopped for a cuppa at White Pool pond. Here they appear to provide fishing lessons and have a sort of refreshment area and shop. The pool itself is very pretty and here we saw a kestrel with what I think was a dragonfly in its talons. There were plenty of dragon flies and damsel flies darting about.
Carry up and on towards Old Winchester Hill. The views are fantastic, to the south is Portsmouth. The Iron Age Hill Fort earth works are visible and the area is a Nature Reserve and a site of scientific interest. Also it’s the site of a bronze age cemetery apparently!
We stopped and had our lunch. Sarah lay down, hat over her face dozing in the sun. It was still and very warm with insects careering over the grass and flowers.
Our journey back took a slightly different route past the Sustainability Center. Then onto the Way again. Returning down Butser Hill and looking out to the Isle of Wight and the sea.
My legs and little toes are feeling it now but not too bad, think I’ll be Okay for Ben Nevis when I get there.
The Travelling Bee 
Bet you kestrel was a hobby. Gizz alone is probably enough. Kestrel is a falcon and hovers takes prey from the ground, usually small mammal. Hobby is a falcon and takes prey in the air usually large insects and small fast moving birds, feeds on the wing.
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Thanks Dad. We saw something earlier not behaving like a kestrel, so perhaps that was a hobby too! We never saw its face!
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