14th March - Romsey to Lyndhurst - 11.6 miles

After a relaxed breakfast I visited the Abbey - just across the road from the hotel.   Apparently, the Abbey was saved from the ravages of the dissolution when the local priests managed to convince Henry Vlll that Romsey was a mere parish church and sealed the deal by paying him off with a £100 sweetener! As a result, Romsey was preserved in it's full splendour.
The building is an interesting combination of styles. Norman semi-circular arches to the East end. Gothic pointed arches to the West end. (not best shown in these pictures)
There's a lovely atmosphere in the place.

Despite a forecast of cold rain, it was bright when I left the town centre.
Ideally my route would have passed through the parkland around Broadlands House but unfortunately, the owner Norman Knatchbull - 3rd Earl Mountbatten of Burma only allows the public in for a few days a year!!! ..and today wasn't one of those. Pah!
So, my route over the River Test had to follow 
the busy A27 for a mile or so until I found signposts for the Test Way
 - a well marked path that gradually became more and more muddy as it crossed farmland...
complete with mildly interested cattle.
At Wade Hill, while using my bird call app., I met Peter - a local landowner. Having worked as a young man in the coal mines in the North East and then served in the RAF in the Far East, Peter moved to Hampshire where he is passionately involved in protecting the countryside and proudly listed the birds that he enjoys watching in his garden. 
I then followed his suggested route to cross the M27 on a footbridge close to the Salisbury exit.
and after the noise of cars on the M27 and A36, the path took me back into wonderfully inviting woodland near Tatchbury

Unfortunately, there was then a long stretch on quiet but increasingly painful tarmac around Bartley and Bourne Farm.
I could have happily pinched this guy's bike at Longford Village Hall. 
 
There's something wonderful about old tractors - my fascination continues! 
With a flat tyre, I thought it was looking rather sorry for itself....
..and by this time, with rapidly tiring feet I was starting to feel sympathetic.....!
Finally, just beyond Woodlands I was back in to the forest for the last 4 miles
..a combination of long, straight forestry logging roads and wonderful atmospheric Beech forest.
Wonderful.

To crown it all, as I neared Lyndhurst I came upon a family of ponies grazing on the edge of the forest.
Though the distance wasn't great, today had felt like a long day so with tired feet I checked in to The Stag and enjoyed a Greene King Scrumdown.
Tasty too!!

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