Sunday 27 July
Lymington to Barton-on-Sea
10 miles
3 out of 10 toughness

This walk was enjoyed by a group of SWC members last summer. The instructions haven't been written up yet but they fall under the usual coastal walk format of "turn right when you reach the sea and keep going." A mixture of easy promenade walking and gentle cliff top paths with wonderful views over Christchurch Bay towards the Isle of Wight and the Needles. The walk starts near the colourful yacht marina in Lymington and passes through tranquil salt marshes and a nature reserve. This is followed by coastal walking along the beach and a gentle cliff top path into Barton on Sea for tea. Return trains are from New Milton which is an 8 minute bus ride away.

Lunch: The Needles Beach Cafe which is approximately halfway, or a little before halfway, the Gunn Inn, a pub serving good food (going by the report from last year).

Swimming: There are plenty of excellent swimming opportunities on the last leg of the walk.

Tea at the end of the walk is at a magnificently placed cliff top cafe with panoramic views (which justify the slightly inflated prices). There is also the option of catching the bus (see below) into Lymington for a good choice of fish and chip shops.

Trains: Buy a cheap day return to Lymington Town (which covers return journey from New Milton on same line).

9.35 London Waterloo
9.42 Clapham Junction
11.17 Brockenhurst, change trains
11.29 Depart
11.37 Arrive Lymington Town

Fares: With a network railcard it will cost £20.75 (full price is £31.40). If you don't have a railcard, you could team up with someone who does and get them to buy you a discounted ticket.

There is also a group save option - 4 adults travelling together pay £15 each for their tickets. So far we have 2 people for this at Clapham Junction. If anyone else wants to join us post your interest below - all 4 of us must get on the train together to get this deal!

Return Trains

18.37 bus from Barton-on-Sea, arrives 18.45 at New Milton for the 19.01 train arriving Waterloo 20.49.
Trains from New Milton are twice hourly with fast ones leaving at 01 past the hour up to 20.01, slower ones at 23 past to 22.23. Bus connections are only 2 hourly though so if you want to catch an earlier train you can take a taxi to the station (unless you make the 16.37 bus).


Notes on Silent Walking for Newcomers

The usual format is to start the silence upon leaving the station at the start of the walk and keep it up until lunch time. We then burst into chat for the rest of the afternoon. Silent walks are not at all anti-social or solitary, rather the opposite in fact. People have said that they have felt a strong sense of connection with the group. Other people have reported that they enjoy a deeper appreciation of nature when spending some time in silence. It's a chance for a different experience.

Sunday Walk: Book 2 Walk 30 Dover to Deal 9.9 miles (16km). Toughness: 3/10
OS Landranger Map 179 or OS Explorer Map 138. (Please note the last mile or so is on 150).

Just the thing for a sunny Sunday in July: The views of France over the Channel and the whiff of garlic..and other wild flowers which are part of the coastal flora (?); the White Cliffs of Dover and its harbour; Deal Castle etc.
This was last walked in May but on a Saturday so hopefully not back on the programme too soon. See book or links above for info about shorter or longer options. The photos may encourage you to try this if you've never done it before.

09:00 LONDON VICTORIA arrive DOVER 10:58 Journey time 1hr 58 mins.
Cheap Day Return to Deal, Kent £24.00 Return trains from Deal at 14 past the hour until last train at 21:01 (journey time 2 hours 15 mins).

Lunch at the Coastguard pub or at the tea kiosk just 50m along the beach which serves sandwiches and chips. Another option less than 1k further along is the Blue Birds Tea Room in an old coastguard station. There are several options for tea; the book recommends too many to list here.

Walk 24 – Cookham round

14 km (9 miles): Toughness 2/10

10:45 Oxford train from Paddington, arriving Maidenhead 11:25. Change for the connecting 11:35 Marlow train arriving Cookham 11:43..

Return trains are at xx:20. Journey time around an hour.

This pleasant stroll around the Thames Valley has changed a great deal since Book 1 was published, mainly due to the difficult road crossings over the A404. It now has a very early lunch at the Jolly Farmer in Cookham Dean, hence the late start. The pub is mentioned in the book just after point [3], although the sign is down. You turn left instead of leaving the scrubby woods and entering the field. It's about 100 metres off the main route.

Nowadays we don't usually bother crossing the A404 at all. You can either turn right a bit before point [4] and follow the path North East that's shown on the book map, or go down the hill after [4] and at the bottom follow the brook, again North East, and climb back up the hill after crossing the B road. There are lots of paths in the area and the main thing is to keep track of your direction, use the B road that twists up the hill as a landmark, and aim for point [6].

The descent towards Bourne End is particularly beautiful.

This walk has been timed to coincide with the Ealing Jazz Festival. It's easy to get off at Ealing Broadway on the return journey, and the festival costs just one pound.

Extra walk 9: Pulborough to Amberley
Length: 17.2km (10.7 miles)

10.02 train from Victoria (10.08 Clapham Junction, 10.18 East Croydon) to Pulborough, arrive 11.19. Buy a day return to Amberley. Trains back are at 47 past to 17.47, then 18.59 and then 19.29 , 20.29 and 21.29 which is the last train.

Having put off Book 2 Walk 4 Chesham to Great Missenden to avoid engineering works, it turns out there are engineering works after all: the London Transport website just omitted to mention this 10 days ago.

So, rather than fish around for another Book 2 walk, when we have so many Extra Walks available these days, I thought I would pick this walk instead. Yes, I know it had a Sunday outing recently, but it was a pretty wet Sunday and it seemed only four walkers turned up. So the rest of you get another chance this week, hopefully in better weather.

The South Downs are a major feature on this walk, but it is only in the last couple of miles that you climb (steeply) up onto them. The rest of the walk has beautiful and increasingly dramatic views of the Downs as you slowly work your way towards them. On the way, you discover a delightful area of gentle hills to the east of Pulborough, and the flatlands of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds' Pulborough Brooks nature reserve, where there is an early tea stop. Note that 7 miles of this walk is after lunch, so it is not a great choice if you need to be back in London to meet a friend at 5pm.

One final attraction is the Bridge Inn in Amberley, at the end of the walk, which does nice food. You generally have to book for dinner on a Saturday evening, but if you turn up before 7pm, they sometimes will let you eat at an outside table before their booked diners arrive.

Extra Walk 12 - Faversham to Whitstable
Length: 15.7km (9.75 miles). Toughness: 1/10

10:03 Ramsgate & Dover train from Victoria, calling at Bromley South (10:19) and arriving Faversham at 11:10. Buy a day return to Whitstable, which is one stop further down the line.

Return trains from Whitstable are half-hourly at 26 & 56 minutes past until 19:26, and then hourly.

This rather unusual walk along the North Kent coast has had a rather chequered history. As well as lacking a suitable lunchtime pub – The Sportsman in Seasalter is listed but it's really a restaurant and invariably fully booked – it always seems to suffer from bad weather or disruption to the trains. But despite this gloomy record I am going to persevere and post it again, because at least this time you will have the distraction of the Whitstable Oyster Festival to entertain you. If you arrive before 3pm with a healthy appetite you should be in with a good chance in the Oyster Eating competition, and the Festival web site lists all manner of other attractions, not least a Beer Festival.

The walk directions are in this short pdf document. Much of the walk is along the Saxon Shore Way, and it looks as if the simple rule "head for the sea and turn right" ought to do the job, but there's a bit more to it than that.