Day 35: Southampton to Emsworth

October 11, 2022

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Our hotel, the White Star, turned out to very nice, and we liked breakfast a lot, for including French croissants and pain au raisin. The hotel is in a little quiet block of hotels and restaurants, and it was all very pleasant.

Once we left our little block, Southampton returned to being very plain. As Bob Koreis had presumed in a comment yesterday, in WWII over 30,000 fire bombs were dropped on the city with nearly 45,000 buildings damaged or destroyed, with most of the city's High Street being hit. On the other hand, they have had 75 years to build something nice, so hmmm.

Scenes of Southampton, immediately out of our hotel.

Southampton seems pretty random and plain.

One 0f our first chores was to cross the bridge over the River Itchen, which enters the inlet at Southampton, which is called the Southampton Water. The bridge is quite tall, and its railing is only chest height, something that gives me serious butterflies. Dodie on the other hand seems totally unaffected by heights. Consequently she can often be seen taking a break at the top of a tall structure, while I am sweating it out behind. During a break at the top, Dodie could be checking a map, or she could have a discussion topic. Today it was the Marshall Plan. But I was thinking "Can we go-oo!"

I noticed that others might have a problem with the low railing, but that would rather be through the temptation to jump. Help groups are clearly onto this, and have posters and intercoms all along the bridge. I was thinking if their specialty is in helping people needing to get safely off the bridge, I could fit the customer profile, even if not suicidal. (I mean, the blue button covers both suicidal and despairing.)

The riskier part of the bridge was that we had to cross the flow of traffic coming through the toll booths to go over it. However once we achieved that, we were basically done being terrified for the day. Not bad.

Not terrifying, but still not good for the blood pressure, was this barricade on the track. Although as recently as yesterday we have bragged about ignoring closures, this one was sufficiently convincing! The Diversion anyway was manageable, and we were soon back on track. And the track from here on was just swell. Sure, Sustrans could not resist dropping signs or making them ambiguous or confusing, but there were no meadows, bridle paths (much), swamps, or meadows. Instead there were quiet roads, some bikeways and lanes, and some glorious oceanside promenade.

A lot of excitement in the route today came from the fact that it involved three ferries. The first was needed for where the River Hamble enters the sea. It's the rather short Hamble-Warsash ferry, but still loads of fun.

There are always scenic sailboats in harbours.

The captain said that this bird comes on every trip. But he only comes half way, after which he flies home!

It's low tide. Our dock is out of commission.

Fine, we'll just beach her, landing craft style (Grampies are used to this!)

Just jump out onto the slime, Dodie (and bike).

At lower tides, the boat would beach more out where Dodie is pointing.

This clever bird was picking up and moving the seaweed to find creatures beneath. It seemed like a pretty clever move.

Before reaching the next ferry, which would be into Portsmouth from Gosport, we came across a little nature sanctuary, the Titchfield Haven. We have found the English are fanatical birdwatchers, so a place like this is bound to be popular. But we were surprised to find a large crowd gathered. We found that the local council was proposing to close the sanctuary visitor centre down, and this had brought the normally placid population of retirees out in force to protest.

We mix in with the action, and sign the petition.

We all head over to chant "Save Our Haven Centre" for the BBC cameras. The way people say "Haven Centa" in the King's english makes them seem more polite than angry to us. This was reinforced by the not so rabble rousing organiser who said to the crowd "Right, let's form an orderly queue and move over to where the BBC is".

From the Titchfield Haven, we moved on down the coastline, where we found broad promenades and exactly the type of water facing homes that we have in Victoria, BC. That is, they are of a sort of plain style and probably built around 1930, but nice.

The stretch of water out here is known as the "Solent" which forms the straight between the mainland and the Isle of Wight. The Isle of Wight has several towns on it, but also notably Osborne House, which was a favourite retreat of Queen Victoria.

The Gosport to Portsmouth ferry is quite large, with a ticket office, and certainly no beach landings.

Spotted in the harbour:

The Spinnaker Tower was built in 1995 and is now the symbol of the harbour. It has a lift and offers views of the surroundings.

This old frigate is perhaps the last of many that used to litter the harbour.

The "Warrior" is a combined steam and sail ship, made of steel. It was "Britain’s first iron-hulled, armoured battleship.Launched in 1860, at a time of empire and Britain’s dominance in trade and industry, Warrior was the pride of Queen Victoria’s fleet.Powered by steam and sail, she was the largest, fastest and most powerful warship of her day and had a lasting influence on naval architecture and design. Work and life on board reflected both the changes the Royal Navy experienced as it evolved into a professional service and shifts in Victorian society.Built to counter the latest French battleship, Warrior was, in her time, the ultimate deterrent. Yet by igniting a new era in naval technology, she soon became outdated. After 22 years’ service, Warrior’s hull was to be used as a depot, floating school and an oil jetty."

We didn't take time to visit the old harbour of Portsmouth, but we did happen to pass the Cathedral. It did not seem to me particularly photogenic.

Now we headed along the south Esplanade of Portsmouth, which featured an amusement arcade pier, and importantly to us, a bike lane.

We arrived at a point from which the D-day assault was launched. This is a spot directly across from those D-Day beaches of Normandy. The Chanel is very wide here, but Dover-Calais, the narrow point, would have been too obvious. Ports like Le Havre and Dieppe were also heavily defended, so they just went to the beaches.

Our final ferry jumped us over to Hayling Island. This has only a few roads, plus a rail trail up the west side. Although the trail was gravel, it still allowed us cover distance quickly. This was again important as the day was getting on. We had booked no hotel, waiting to see how far we would get today. We thought about pushing on to Chichester, but when we reached Emsworth, we thought oh well, let's go for it. We jumped in to the Crown Pub/Hotel for 75 pounds. For one night, it's quite fine. Our bikes also got a spot in the dining room, which was not expected to be busy tonight. In fact there was no one, except us. We joined the bikes and it turned out to be just us and them in there for dinner!

On the ferry to Hayling Island. The man in blue is from Belgium but is working in London. He and his wife drove down to here for a little cycling.

We took that dotted blue line up the west side.

The rail trail up the west coast of Hayling Island

Looking ahead, we see two day's cycling to Newhaven, and the ferry to Dieppe. We have been quite enjoying England of late, but anticipation is mounting, for a place where they actually drive on the "correct" side of the road!

Today's ride: 60 km (37 miles)
Total: 1,407 km (874 miles)

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