Cloudy, little sun. 11.8 miles
A short stroll down to the canal and as there is a car park here it is popular with dog walkers, ten minutes later i’m alone wandering through beautiful countryside.
For a long way this canal is level with no locks so must count as perfect walking and the miles pass with ease. When i reached Wanborough green a garage was spotted that sold coffee and a short distance had me sitting by a tilt bridge for sandwiches and cool coffee on a handy bench. When i set off again it was a short distance until the remains of Odiham castle were passed.
And not much further on is the end of navigation by boats these days, there is a side pound of water so barges can turn around, the limit of navigation is imposed as another short distance brought me to the entrance of the Greywell tunnel wich is now closed to traffic apparently due to a collapse in the tunnel a long time ago.
The tunnel is now considered a great refuge for bats so is certainly being put to use, now a bit more map reading is needed to navigate a few turns in the village that give access to good footpaths over the large hill and into woodland on the far slope where the opposite end of the tunnel can be found, the canal through the woodland has little water in many places (a sad remnant of what was) but is considered again a good nature reserve, as progress is made some of it is restored and full of water including the wide turn with a side branch to what was a brick works years ago.
Really form my little knowledge it seems this canal was built just to late and time it was in working order i guess the railway arrived so taking most of it’s potential trade. At Up Nately the Basingstoke canal now ends abruptly at a road with the remaining miles filled in and lost for ever i imagine. I took the small road towards Hatch and then on to old Basing, here are the remains of Basing house (a casualty of the civil war), i thought a photo of its gated entrance would be the last photo of the day when the well i never moment struck. In this case i was at a small road junction by a rail bridge looking at my map as there was a footpath marked along side the rail way which didn’t seem obvious to see at first, two youngsters were very helpful in asking what i was looking for and pointed out the hidden sign just as i spotted it. Then looking to my side i was once again amazed, this time to see a Dalek in a garden.
Footpaths proved easy to follow alongside the rail line all the way to the station which was good as i had expected some road walking. all in all another nice day, plenty of history and all easy to access.
