Walk time - 2.57 hours
Distance - 7.29 miles
Accent - 369 feet
The main road into Hambledon had been under major reconstruction for a very long time, and despite a sign saying road closed , I still drove along until stopped by the road works. So for this walk we didn't park in the car park of the pub we had selected for lunch, instead a little way out of the village
This was a good walk at over seven miles although wasn't too hard due to not being overly hilly, however it did provide plenty of issues for us along the way, armed with my OS map app we headed off the B2150 (main route in to Hambledon) and west on to Cams Hill which is a small track next to a tea room, a short way up Cams Hill you see a modern fence and gate across a gravel track on the right with a stile and a finger post marking the path, follow this track to the end where it joins another track on to which you turn left, follow this path around the edge of a field with a small woodland on your left hand side until you join up with the marked 'Wayfarer's Walk' path (green arrows with a WW inside them on finger posts, when the Wayfarer's Walk joins with 'Allan King Way' turn left on to the Allan King Way path until it comes to a road
I try to avoid road walking where possible although we did have a small amount at this stage, following Hambledon Lane as it bends first to the right then switches back left on the right you will see Broom Farm and shortly after this there is a footpath marked with a post on the left going straight over a field, this ends on another road called Armsworth Lane but heading straight along this road for a few meters takes you straight off again across more fields.
You can see from this picture the finger post taking us from Armsworth Lane heading straight across the field and it is towards that piece of woodland you can see, although the farmer hasn't left a clear path over the field, this is where a good OS map with rights of way indicated is invaluable
Anyway, we headed across the field and round the woodland onto a small and well kept farm, it's called Roy's Farm on the OS map, the pleasant surprise was the 'ha ha' which led along the path meaning my ankle height was at the horse's mouth height, it is nice not to have fences but also sometimes scary and potentially bity. Left out of Roy's Farm and on to Roy's Lane (not sure who this Roy is or was but he does seem to have a firm belief in his own self importance).
As Roy's Lane turns sharply to the left head straight on through a small woodland, or this was what we were planning, the path was so overgrown we had to backtrack to Roy's Lane and walk around the woodland (if you take a look at the map above you can see just after the 4 mile mark the aborted entry into the woodland) as it was the route round was on a decent farm track so no major issue, it just wasn't marked on my OS as a right of way!Follow the marked path for about a mile until it comes out on to Hoe Street and directly opposite is Kelanne Stud, ideally take the track up to the stud farm and just before the gate there is a post marking the path to the right, this path heads around the farm, however as this picture shows the path was beyond impassable (yes the path is to the right of the fence!)
Again you can see at the 5 mile mark that we did try to make a way through but had to retreat. It is very frustrating when paths are not maintained as our walk is planned before hand from the OS map and to have so many unkept paths in one walk was a real shame and disappointment for us
We headed back turning right on to Hoe Street, past the stud farm fields on our right which were full of foals so it wasn't an unpleasant walk, just not planned, turning right onto a farm track we headed up hill on to Habens Lane turning off left towards a small wooded area known as Madam's Copse, the path followed this keeping the woods on the left and passing along the top side of several fields all separated with a stile and the obligatory group of cows
Thankfully the cows moved as we crossed the stile, but do take caution in a field of cows, they can be very dangerous
Eventually the field opened out and we could see the very large wooden bridge come stile that leads out of the field and back onto the B2150 where we started, just a short walk up the road to where the car was parked.
You will now see from the map we carried on past the car and into Hambledon village to find lunch
The Vine was a pleasant village pub and we headed for the garden, the menu was well priced for a village pub and the 'lighter bites' section was where we found the ploughman's ranging from £7 to £9, we ordered one each plus the obligatory pint and were happy with the portion size plus the fact it arrived on a plateWe were joined in the garden by a cycling stag party, one of their number being dressed in a skin tight pink body suit, which was nice, the food and drink bill came in at under £25
Trip Advisor - The Vine
Although we did suffer from blocked footpaths the walk was a decent length and walked in good time, there were no real climbs so nothing to raise too much of a sweat, not having much height menat no significant views, although we did enjoy some nice field walks once off the main long distance paths and farm tracks, and it always feels good for the soul to walk across a field full of crops, very English.
