Three Trees to Holden Farm via Winchester

The night was cold, and wet, but not as wet as previous nights. I like my tent but my sleeping bag is very thin. It rolls up really small because there’s nothing much in it. 

In the damp nothing much was worth photographing on the first leg, from Three Trees to Winchester. But Winchester is at the very heart of England. England was unified at a battle in Dore, a suburb of Sheffield, when Wessex and Northumbria had a scrap in 886 AD or something round then. It didn’t last long but a while later Alfred the Great defeated the Danes, against massive odds, and made Winchester the capital of England. Great job Alfred.

It’s a decent place dripping with history.

I had my first and last meal of the day here, an all day full English breakfast with chips. Yessss! Then departed on my second leg of the day from Winchester along the South Downs Way, one of the UK’s national trails, to Holden Farm. 

This is rolling chalk countryside that isn’t going to be dramatic but will continue to be quintessentially English and beautiful. 

There was nobody on the Way, apart from a handful of cyclists. It was a reassuring countryside, compared to the unusual quiet and uncomfortable feelings generated by the New Forest. 

Holden Farm was a good campsite, good facilities and no unwelcome noise, apart from me – snoring.

17 miles today, 66 so far in total. Doing well, my legs and lungs are behaving and the only slight concern is my feet. Sore soles as my boots were sodden the last couple of days so I road walked in my trainers. No worries. I’m hard as nails me!!

Night night.