Portchester

February 25^th

 

After a late night of playing Balderdash and Articulate with my housemates and Kerrie, I managed to get out of bed at 7am to get ready for today’s hillwalk in Portchester, which is a small town near Portsmouth. As I was about to leave, Alissia (Alec’s 3 year old girl) was so sweet and said goodbye to me multiple times and as I went out of the door I saw that she was by the window waving to me till I was no longer in sight. Such a precious gem of a girl! 

Walking up to Portswood Road, I saw my bus pass by and ended up sprinting to the bus stop. I made the bus and was rushed over by relief, then I noticed I caught the wrong bus. Luck would have it though that it was going pretty much in the same direction. As I got off at a bus stop near Matlan, I gave Hannah a ring to see if the U1C was running late so I could decide whether to walk to the train station or wait for her bus. Turns out that the U1C Hannah was going to go on hadn’t turned up yet and she along with five others was still stuck in Highfield. I ended up walking to Southampton Central and gave Jenna the news about the others. We decided that it was best if they caught up with us on the walk, so we boarded the train and headed off.

On the train, we ended up stopping at St. Deny’s Station which is located about 3 blocks from where I live. Funny enough I bumped into my housemate, Rich, who was earlier fast asleep when I was getting ready for hillwalking but now on the same train. I felt quite silly for not saving myself the trouble of catching the train at St. Deny’s too, but I was on the train either way. 

Arriving to Portchester, Jenna was having a bit of nerves as this was her first day walk as Day Walk Sec. and the other Day Walk Sec., Vicky, was one of the five that were behind waiting for another train. Despite the circumstances she kept her calm and led the 25 hillwalkers through the town. The weather was threatening rain but had a small and hopeful patch of blue which gave promise that it might not rain on us today. We carried onwards through farm fields and as we went on the clouds burned off to a perfect blue sky day. 

Eleanor and Jenna!

Attempt at a panorama which sadly took Jenna out of the picture

For some reason or another, many of the gates that were supposed to be part of the community footpaths in Portchester were closed with padlocks but that didn’t thwart us as we climbed over the gates and went under barbwire fences. Jenna was navigating Vicky’s group by text since they didn’t have a map with them. Around noon, Vicky’s group finally were able to join us, making the total head count for the day walk 31. Now Jenna and Vicky could lose up to 3 people when applying the 10% rule. 

The weather was phenomenal with endless blue skies and sunshine that allowed me to enjoy some vitamin D. By now I had shed two layers of clothing and was comfortable in a T-shirt, shorts, and leggings. 

At one bit we had to go under a barb wire fence where I went under on my hands and knees just to find out that some of the weeds that I was resting my knees on were stinging nettles. I didn’t really notice till shortly after Rachel T. mentioned that she accidentally put her hands on the nettles. My knees became itchy and very uncomfortable but I refrained from touching them. I guess that was the major downside to leggings, they don’t protect you from stinging nettles. I continued to focus on how gorgeous the weather was and how it felt like spring or summer already.

The walk continued and it was past three, where we walked along a narrow country road that had high embankments of grass fields. When cars came by, everyone scattered and climbed the embankments which in some cases Eleanor discovered had stinging nettles too!

It was such a great day to walk in such glorious weather, Jenna and Vicky did an amazing job in leading us without getting lost and it was a longer walk than usual (20 km or roughly 12.5 miles) which meant that I was able to feel the burn in my legs after the day. At the end of the walk we climbed on old canons and missiles.

Jenna, Eleanor, Matt, and I relaxed/celebrated after the walk with delicious lasagna that Matt made and watching Princess Bride; allowing us to cross ‘watching Princess Bride’ off our list of things to do before I leave Southampton.

Sara and me

Jenna!

Vicky!

Hannah :)