The night was calm but the sky was overcast and just before daylight
there was still the barking foxes in the woods. I packed up and was
on my way by 7 a.m. and was thankful for a rubbish bag by the gate
near the road so I didn't have to carry my rubbish with me on the
ride. The first part of my ride was to descend into Westbury then
continue south into Warminster.
St
Mary and Nicholas' Church, Wilton
The roads were quite busy with the rush hour traffic starting and I
was very glad to leave the main road and take the minor lanes
firstly through Tytherington. I was riding down the Wylye Valley
south of the River Wylye and had occasional views of it. It was
extremely good riding and I had lovely views across to the yellow
Rapeseed fields. Unfortunately it was overcast but I'm sure it would
be spectacular in the sunshine. I continued through Hanging Langford
and into Wilton.
Salisbury
Then I was back on the main roads on the approach into Salisbury. I
rode into the city centre heading for Salisbury Cathedral. I cycle
to the entrance and then round to the lane on the west side to get a
view across the grounds.
The house is occasionally open to the public but it was closed
today. I continued round the cathedral and left the town on the main
road heading east. I continued along Southampton Road which was
quite busy and then left it to follow Clarendon Road towards
Alderbury. The road here was much quieter but unfortunately I had to
re-join the main road which was the A36. This was a part of the ride
I was not looking forward to as it is a very busy and very fast road
with no cycle track. I was thankful to eventually reach a stretch of
road where there was a footpath on the left and although not a cycle
track I left the road and rode on the path. Eventually and very
thankfully I was able to leave the busy Salisbury Road and follow a
slightly less busy road into Totton.
My next objective was to ride through Southampton which I found
extremely dull and couldn't find anything picturesque of interest to
photograph. I left the town to the east by cycling over the concrete
toll bridge. The first part of the bridge is a long steady climb up
to the summit and then a descent to the toll booths. I continued
along Portsmouth Road and eventually reached an Asda supermarket
where I stopped to buy water.
Southampton
Continuing right at the roundabout I descended to the bridge at
Bursledon which I crossed and then up Bridge Road to Sarisbury
Green. I turned onto Barnes Lane and continued south then along
Brook Lane heading towards the coast. I continued onto Hook Park
Road where there were some extremely nice looking houses. The
surfaced road ended at Workmans Lane and I had a decision to make.
The official cycle track follows a rough unsurfaced track but I
wanted to reach the coast so cycled down Cowes Lane to join a path
shown on the map. The path was quite good at first but then I came
to a swing gate that would not allow a bike through. Unfortunately I
had to take all my bags off the bike to lift it over. The path
continued to the Solent Way Coast Path where I reached a view of the
sea. It was very stony and rough so I had to wheel the bike to the
east along the coast until the path began to rise on to a grassy
area. This is where I'd hoped to reach so I decided to stop for the
day and set up camp.
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Whittle Wanderer
