There has been a hiatus in my travelling and therefore blogging, this is because I have started working again for the next six months. I’m working so I can fund my next lot of travels abroad, wherever that may be.
I am lucky, I know this but, oh my goodness I’m tired and because Winter is on its way I definitely don’t feel there are enough hours in the day.
The other thing that is impacting on my walking is the weather. It’s been truly appalling, it seems like rain every day! So I have decided to snatch a walk when I can.
In early October my friend Heike and her two lovely dogs took advantage of a warm blustery day to walk around Thorney Island and it was brilliant.
I have set myself some parameters for coast walking:
1, Walk as near to the sea as I can safely do without trespassing. There are trails but often not really on a coastal walk as such.
2, Include islands with a bridge to the mainland. I did note that one walker would only walk island if there was a different access and egress. I’m not going to be that picky!
3, Check the tides (on my previous blog).
4, Try to pick up where I left off even if it means a bit of back tracking.
Anyway we started where I left off. The smell of the sea was very exciting for the dogs Pepper and Vita. Walking with dogs is slower because there are so may things to sniff. Pepper carries a ball that she is occasionally wants you to throw and as my aim is not too good she ended up in the sea rather early on our walk! If she hadn’t been game I would have had to go in, as I wouldn’t want to be littering!
We made along the Sussex Boarder Path onto Thorney which was once a proper Island but now with land reclamation only has a narrow tidal channel rather strangely called The Great Deep and on this occasion looked rather muddy.
The island belongs to the MOD but you can still walk the perimeter. Once you cross the ignominious ‘Great Deep’ on a small footbridge you must press the buzzer for access. Then you enter the Island that time forgot. Lots of warning signs for guard dogs and not to trespass inland.
As this island has been in the hands of many military organisations since the 1930’s the environment seems pretty much untouched. You catch glimpses of the airstrip and buildings. The coast itself is a haven for wildlife and we are still in what is technically Chichester Harbour. As we walked down the eastern side of the island we came across a village called West Thorney (clearly the original locals had no sense of direction!) and here there is what looks like a Norman church and a small village and sailing club, all with a forces quarters feel about it.
We have to stick to the path (It’s the law!) so we carried on towards a spit of sand dunes called Pilsey Island. We passed a couple of bird watchers looking toward a large bird of prey. I could just make it out flying low sending the waders up in a cloud. It was a Marsh Harrier and apparently a regular on the island.
At this point as we rounded the southern end of the island the wind picked up and we made for a very odd bird hide. It’s a pillbox (blockhouse) with a very narrow entrance, in fact a struggle to squeeze through with a backpack. It didn’t afford much shelter so we sat outside and ate our lunch.
We continued up towards Emsworth and marvelled at the strange container homes or deck houses as they are supposed to be called, they look really modern but apparently were built in the 1960s and worth a bomb!
We made our way past Emsworth Yacht Harbour and back towards Nutbourne and time for one last paddle for the dogs…..in the mud! I don’t think Heike thanked me for that!
The Travelling Bee 