Taking a break from everything I just had a wonderful weekend in Hampshire visiting a friend. The countryside is more gentle than the Yorkshire Dales where I grew up, but it is countryside. I’d forgotten how much roadkill, and how many dead creatures you find. Especially at this time of year.
including, unfortunately, my first ever Barn Owl. Found and inevitably photographed on the main road not far out of East Tisted. It was much smaller than I would have expected. But a beautiful looking bird despite the circumstances.
There were a lot of ambivalent moments where I was excited by something and thought, ‘Mum would like this, I’ll tell her when I call,’ before remembering I can never do that again. At the same time it emphasised how many enjoyable moments there actually were.
On Saturday morning I walked out from Alton through Holybourne and on a brief loop taking in various bridleways. In the afternoon there was a circuit around some woodland. On Sunday it was Gilbert White country, taking the Zigzag path to wander round Selborne Common twice. Then a series of footpaths and roads taking me through Newton Vallance, East Tisted, Farringdon, Chawton and back to Alton. A very leisurely six hours.
All of which seems a long way removed from my M60 adventure and the purpose of this journal. Which is partly the point. As I said earlier, escape from everything.
But it was also a reminder that walking can be relaxed, purposeless, enjoyable. It’s not the distance, the speed, the destination, or any of this that matters. The walk itself should be sufficient adventure.
Matt's big M60 walk 