Day 22 Winchester to New Alresford: Pilgrims on St. Swithun's Way

First day on the Pilgrims' Way...

...along the River Itchen.

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

Our walk from Winchester to New Alresford was really pleasant, aided by yet another day of warm and sunny weather. Our route on the St. Swithun's Way path featured stops in several village churches associated with the Pilgrims' Way, an ancient track used in medieval times as a route for pilgrims between Winchester and Canterbury; this coincides with St. Swithun's Way at many points. So we generally followed this dual path along or near the River Itchen all the way to New Alresford—a nice change from the hilly walks of previous days. We also got off to a good start on leaving Winchester, finding a bag of five large white-chocolate chip cookies on sale at Sainsbury's for 50 pence. That's 50 pence total.

Perhaps because it was a beautiful weekend day on easy paths, we met more people walking than we have any other day.

St Swithun's, Martyr Worthy

Our lunch was eaten outside St. Swithun's Church in a the small village of Martyr Worthy. The medieval church was remodeled in the nineteenth century, and they did a sensitive job of adding a round apse at the East end in the same style as the Norman rest of the building. We also got a deeper sense of walking in the footsteps of pilgrims as there was a plaque on the wall outside the church commemorating the Pilgrim's Way.

Beware Killer Pigs!

After lunch we encountered a group of people on a walk by the river, and they warned us of the killer pigs up the hill. They then told us that the pigs were really quite friendly, as indeed they were when we met them a few minutes later. They were named Bubble and Squeak according to a sign on the fence.

Eventually we came to the Bush Inn, which was incredibly busy. It seemed like a beautiful pub, but we ordered a quick lemonade which we had outside at a picnic table because we had told today's B & B host that we would be there at 2:30 in order to drop off our packs in hopes of catching a bus, taxi or train to Chawton to visit Jane Austen's house. We walked quite quickly, with two noteworthy things on the way: huge rectangular ponds full of watercress—this area is the major producer of watercress in the country—and music coming from a distance. We arrived at our B & B at 2:40, and our host told us that the Alresford music festival was on, which explained the loud rock/pop/reggae/rap we had been hearing. We asked her about taxis, buses and train possibilities to Chawton, and she seemed very dubious about getting a taxi or making the other connections work. Feeling frustrated about having walked fast for nothing, we made the best of it and hand-washed a lot of laundry that we put out on racks and chairs on the patio to dry in the sun and wind. Ken was also a bit frustrated that our host seemed to think of all the reasons we couldn't get to Chawton—unlike so many of our other B & B hosts who have always been full of suggestions for how to make such things work. Oh well.

Beautiful Local Architecture in the Itchen Valley

The Good Shepherd, Itchen Abbas Church

On the other hand, our host did recommend the nearby Alresford Cricketers pub for dinner, and it was a very good experience. We were also grateful that it was quite a short walk there (on the way Ken wryly noted that there was a bus stop for the route to Chawton within 50 yards of our B & B!). Our entrees were so good that we ordered desserts as well.

We did enjoy having a sitting room between our two rooms—we sat on the couch and watched t. v. Although we didn't have Internet, I typed up several blog entries to post the next day. So it was almost like having a half rest-day to get a bit caught up, though we did stay up too late, considering it not worthwhile to go to bed before the outdoor music ceased, which it did at 11:40.

25,210 steps, 18.907 km, 796.8 cal
OS getamap measured distance: 9.44 mi (15.19 km)
Susan's GPS: 17.82 km, 11.07 miles