Hangers Way, 21 miles, 2 walking days, April 2015

QE Country Park – Hawkley – Alton

We walked this Hampshire LDP under leaden skies and light rain (Day 1) in early April and there’s just one word that characterises the walk – mud, lots of it, sticky, heavy, slippery and treacherous.  Hangers Way (no apostrophe, I checked) starts in the Queen Elizabeth Country Park near Clanfield and winds its way up through many woods (known as hangers) and pretty villages such as Buriton and Selborne (home of Gilbert White, the celebrated 18th century ‘parson-naturalist’) to the finishing line in Alton. There were a couple of steep climbs, one just after we passed Bedales public school (over £30,000/year boarding fees) of 460 feet, otherwise the going was fairly easy; well it would have been but for the presence of the mud. The mud slowed us down and caused us to walk tall.

The highlight of the walk however was an evening reunion with my best friend of 63 years ago, Alec – see photos below. Between 1950 and 1952 I lived on the RAF station in Negombo in what was then called Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. My best friend at the time was another young lad, Alec Tait, and by an amazing series of events we re-established contact last year after a 63-year gap. Alec and his wife, Linda, joined us for evening dinner at our overnight venue, the Hawkley Inn, and we spent the evening reminiscing about our childhood years in Ceylon plus a host of other topics. It was a very enjoyable evening.

16 images to follow.

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