Walk 3 : Netley to Botley

Warsash ferry now £1 and boat is a shocking pink! Country Kitchen Tea Rooms now The Square Cafe. Some nice looking pub alternatives in the main road.

The Railway Inn in Botley reports that it now serves food all afternoon, and not from 6pm as stated on the intro page for this walk

This is a good walk for anyone who likes an almost uninterrupted view of other peoples yachts and launches - I have to say, I found most of the route rather domesticated and not for me. On the other hand, there are several toilets along the route - you won't have to walk with your legs crossed - including those at Manor Farm which you pass by a couple of miles from the end of the walk. They also have a tea room. Don't be put off after Waypoint 4 if - like me - you can't find the metal kissing gate (that you're supposed to ignore) as you pass through a pea field after the Old Rectory - as long as you keep a rough measure of the metres covered and take the 'half right' turn, you'll still come out of that field alive!
Warsash ferry is £1.50 this year.

At point 20, a nice alternative route is not to take the left fork 90 metres after turning right at the T-junction. You can then follow an attractive public footpath (helpfully signed as the Strawberry Trail) through the woods of Manor Farm Country Park, close to the river. Eventually the footpath turns away from the river and later leaves the wood to go along a couple of field edges to Manor Farm. I haven't done the book route, but its 1km along a track to the farm doesn't look particularly interesting.

There are advantages to doing this walk in reverse. The outward train journey is about half an hour quicker and the lunchtime pub nearer, so you can start later (we took a train around 10am and would have been at the pub by 1pm if we hadn't been delayed). The café in Royal Victoria Country Park stays open until 5pm and it's only 1km or so from there to Netley Station – though you need to ignore the final Strawberry Trail marker which teasingly sends you in the wrong direction, away from the station. The only drawback I can see is that you'll usually be walking into the wind on the long stretch beside the river from Lower Swanwick to Hamble, and that won't be much fun in January.

Really enjoyed this walk, particularly along the eastern edge of the river Hamble. Path along the beach from Hamble to Netley can be difficult at high tide. In one place the sea reaches a tree at the back of the path. Found the directions around Hamble Common a little confusing but soon found a good way (though possibly not the right way). The ferry seems to run more or less continually I just missed one, but it was back in 10 minutes.