Day 4 - Saturday 5th July - Salisbury to Winchester

On paper a challenging day - the longest of this year's journey at just under 24 miles, and with a very dodgy weather forecast.

Nevertheless I set out at 9am this morning from Salisbury and found myself going steeply uphill almost at once. Here we go...

I was following a route known as the Clarendon Way, which connects Salisbury and Winchester but takes 26 miles to do it, so my route would deviate where it made sense.

Shortly out of the city, under overcast skies, the path headed across a field, then steeply uphill to reach the ruins of Clarendon Palace.

Possibly started as a Saxon hunting lodge, the palace was largely rebuilt in the 12th and 13th centuries, but was confiscated in the 17th and rapidly fell into ruin. Not a lot now remains.

The route of the Clarendon Way, not very well signed or waymarked, wanders on through the woods before descending to the village of Pitton, where for the second time in two days I was engaged in a conversation about where I was going and why. 

Pitton is an unremarkable place, today every road seemed to be dug up, even the little church was under scaffolding, and the route leaves it heading up a steep hill as a trackway. 

That trackway takes a straight line over the hills to descend to West Winterslow, another nondescript village, after which a road twists and rises to The Common, or Middle Winterslow.

Here what had felt like drizzle turned serious, so I paused to fit full waterproofs before joining a track which follows the route of a Roman Road, and runs very straight to the hamlet of Buckholt, on the way crossing from Wiltshire into Hampshire.

Here a diversion is needed before the next straight Roman section can be found, and then another damp three miles led to Bossington, where a curving road in the Test valley took me to Houghton. Yet another unremarkable village.

I left it on a footpath festooned with private this, private that signs, which I hate, but it redeemed itself with a fine footbridge over the River Test, and later another over the Park Stream, complete with swans.

A rather pointless climb up, followed by a steep descent, took me to King's Somborne.

It did at least have several chocolate box cottages.

The next three miles to the little industrial site at Forest Extra were not high on the scenic list, but at least I was getting the distance done.

From Forest Extra to Sparsholt was along an attractive trackway, and then, with only about three miles or so to go, the sun came out.

Those last three miles threw in more ups and downs, just to test the legs, but I duly reached my destination for the night.

Winchester is déjà vue - see the Pilgrims' Way walk of 2023 for more - but this evening it was sunny, and typically busy for a Saturday.