Coastwalk

Hythe, Hampshire → Southampton

Distance: 12.3 miles
Ascent: 162 metres
Duration: 3 hours 34 minutes

Around Southampton Water
« Lymington | Hamble-le-Rice »

Why do I still have this irrational ambition to complete one leg of the coastwalk each calendar month for a year? I've not managed it yet, but it's the reason yet again that I find myself out walking on a day otherwise best left well alone.

Of course the trick will be to find twelve coastwalks that are within striking distance of home. A close review of the route so far has revealed a source: ferries.

Back in 1999 I walked from Lymington to Hythe on the Solent Way, then followed that recreational trail to Southampton on the ferry. Today I took the ferry in the reverse direction, then walked from the pier in Hythe round Southampton Water and back to the terminal at Southampton Town Quay.

This isn't a walk I'd recommend. It looks good on paper, with the first half on footpaths and the second half along the dock road but in practise the upriver part was on boggy ground and the dock road was a thundering dual carriageway, rarely the fascinating viewpoint that Liverpool's dock road was.

One moment of interest was the village of Eling, tucked in beneath the A35. Here a working Tide Mill and pleasant marina hinted of an alternative future the area could have taken had the container not become king.