Coast 7 – Gosport to Weston

The next leg was about 25 miles and starting from Gosport (via train and ferry).
Much of this was built up and really busy. I followed the Solent way through Lee on Solent which is paved or road and occasionally I had to walk. There were some notable areas, At Seafield there was a bus rally being held, I stopped and wandered across, it was bizarre seeing all these buses in the middle of a field.

Further on in places I found it hard going as the path is on the pebble beach and I had to walk. I was quite disoriented because although I have driven to some of these places my veiw has been limited from a main road. I didn’t realise Southampton water is also fed by the Hamble (for some reason I thought it came out in the Solent) and the Farley Refinery dominates everything.

As long as the water was on my left, I was going the right way, well that’s the theory!

At Warsash there is a sweet little pink ferry but much to my annoyance it only took cash and I didn’t have any! This meant I’d have to travel along way in land to cross to Bursledon. Well things happen for a reason and I would have missed one of the loveliest areas had I caught that ferry.

Bunny Meadows does not relate to rabbits, it’s the name giving to culverts that allow drainage to the marsh on the right had side of the embankment. I so enjoyed this part of the ride. It was quiet with lots of birds. I crossed the Gamble to Bursledon and again I always thought this to be a suburban area and I could not have been more wrong. It is a very old village as is Hamble Le Rice.

It began to rain, so rushing on over Hamble common, past the Victoria Country Park that I know so well from a past life, whizzing past Nettly Abbey that was just closing as I went by the gate.

The rain was by now torrential, so at Weston I thought enough is enough and I headed inland to Sholing Station to get the train home!