Day 21 Kings Somborne to Winchester: Wet Wayfarers

Wayfarers at the Hospital of St. Cross

For an OS map of today's walk click here.

We awoke to an unpleasant surprise. Despite the forecast for nothing but sun for the foreseeable future, it was raining hard. Our host told us that the weather forecast on the morning news, which they had just watched, said mainly sunny everywhere. Ken guessed that we weren't "mainly."

We armed with our raincoats, gaiters, and pack covers and set out in the rain for Winchester. Sue (the host) said,  "Rain before seven, gone by eleven." We definitely had rain through to eleven. We saw several red deer in a field. Susan later said that the deer must come out when people tend not to. We stood under a tree for quite awhile waiting out a particularly heavy shower. We did hear thunder a few times, but it was far away. We were glad that even though it was raining, sometimes heavily, the paths were in fairly good shape since the weather had been so good for several days before.

Statue of King Alfred the Great on Winchester High Street

We ended up doing quite a bit of road walking, which was quite hard on Susan's feet especially; she was developing blisters on a couple of toes. But in that weather it was best simply to get to Winchester by the clearest and quickest way. Nearing the outskirts of Winchester, we passed a huge field full of sheds that looked like binoculars, housing hundreds of pigs. As we passed by, a pig on the other side of the hedge squealed, startling us all. Susan joked that it gave her a burst of adrenaline to power her up the hill.

As we walked through the southern parts of Winchester, the rain cleared and the sun came out by the time we reached the Hospital of St. Cross, a medieval home for pensioners that is still used for the same purpose today. We claimed the "Wayfarer's Dole," another ancient tradition. We received a free morsel of bread and a cup of ale, and the cheerful porter took our photo. The porter joked that Susan should ask for her kidney back because we were making her go on this difficult walk. But she is really enjoying it, despite the pain! The dole heartened us all, and we looked at the church and then walked into Winchester via the water meadows of the River Itchen, which were just as beautiful as we had remembered from 2004. (Literary note: Anthony Trollope based part of his novel The Warden on Winchester and the Hospital of St. Cross.)

Panorama of the Hospital of St Cross Quadrangle

We learned that we couldn't stow our packs at the cathedral, so we went to our B&B and dropped them off there, which was fun as our host was very interesting. Then we had plenty of time late in the afternoon to tour the cathedral and stay for evensong. It was a mixed choir of men and boys, and was quite beautiful.

At the weirs...

...along the River Itchen

Afterwards we wandered out by the weirs, a beautiful stretch of the River Itchen, enjoying the evening sun, and then had a light dinner at the Crown and Anchor on the High Street, which had a really friendly hostess who made us feel at home when we had been uncertain and frustrated about finding a place to eat. Finally, it was back to the B&B to stay up too late watching fun British t.v. shows (like QI) we don't get to watch at home.

35,015 steps, 26.261 km, 1063 cal
OS getamap measured distance: 9.95 mi (16.02 km)
Susan's GPS: 12.3 miles, 18.16 km

Medieval Cheyney Court, Winchester Cathedral Close