What about to Portsmouth or Fishbourne?

Good ideas, Marc, but I had a specific request for a walk in this area (though as you can see I have chosen one slightly further away, since with only one train running an hour it doesn't make much difference)

Nine off the train (crowded, but not terminally so) at Petersfield, to be met by a downpour. We huddled by the ticket barriers and waited for it to pass, and were met there by two who had come by car, one of whom got soaked walking from car park to station.

Then the rain stopped and off we set under sticky cloud. What a novelty to walk through damp countryside for a change. (Those who had come in sandals had to make kit adjustments…). There was far more birdsong than there ought to be for the time of year and as the weather slowly brightened, increasing amounts of butterflies.

We whizzed through Buriton. Up on the downs yours truly took a wrong turn. I walked a mile along a private driveway to get back on the footpath. Don’t tell anyone.

The Red Lion in Chalton seemed cruelly empty compared to former visits - the weather? the cost of living crisis? They were super friendly and super efficient. All pubs should be this way. We sat in the garden and were rewarded with a slight shower. But this was the only other rain of the day. Walker number 12 joined us here, having just missed the train at Waterloo and caught the one an hour later. She reached the pub not long after we did: a sterling effort.

In the afternoon the sun came out - for a time, anyway. There were big golden fields of ripe barley, some fine views and even more butterflies. We meandered along, stopping to look at this and that. As we approached Rowlands Castle the skies got more threatening, but after a drink in the dog-filled pub by the station we got the 18.29 train just before more rain arrived.

1 sunny and hot with gentle breeze

Thunderstorms! Torrential rain! Flash floods! Severe weather warnings! Given the strenuous efforts of the BBC weather forecasters to put us all off, it is a credit to the fortitude of SWC walkers that 16 turned up on this walk. One of them was a newbie, which is a credit to the fortitude of newbies.

We started in a very humid and sticky drizzle, but it soon stopped and by lunch time there were some bright patches. After lunch we walked south into sunshine and so it remained for the rest of the day.

There seemed general agreement we would lunch at the Red Lion in Chalton (I am not sure, indeed, that the Buriton pub was open.) They had a wedding on at 3pm, but were not vastly busy at 1.30pm when we rocked up. We could order drinks at the bar and food at a nearby till. Oh the heady pleasure of this! I felt giddy as a child.

Perhaps it was the sunshine, but the afternoon of this walk seemed particularly pretty. There were hazy views of the distant sea, fields full of small white butterflies, and an impressive selection of arable weeds. At one point my attention was held for over a quarter of an hour by a gorgeous patch of spear thistle that was dotted with bees, hoverflies and butterflies of various species: the very quintessence of summer. Towards Rowlands Castle the wheat fields were golden and there were some lovely little downland sections. About a mile from the end in Ferndean there was a country pub with a sun-drenched garden which unaccountably no SWC-ers had stopped in.

I got to the Castle Inn in Rowlands Castle to find that much of the group had - there is no nice way to say this - got the 4.45pm train. On such a sunny afternoon!! Five others were still left, and we had tea and drinks in its garden and got the 5.45pm. Still too early….

17 on this walk on a day that was basically sunny , give or take a bit of cloud. Worse weather has been walked in at worse times of year.

An early excitement (for me at least) was seeing a flock of swifts screaming over Petersfield. Further excitement came after passing though a new housing estate on the edge of the town when we found a gate the path passed through locked shut with a sturdy cable. A nearby workman opined that the path “should have been re-opened by now” and lent us a Stanley knife with which to cut the cable. We decided instead to pioneer a route through the shrubbery which circumvented the gate.

After a walk through flowery meadows we came to pretty Buriton, where there was some debate about whether to lunch there or push on to Chalton. About half opted for Buriton, where the Five Bells has a very pretty garden, where we sat in the sun or not according to taste. The food was hearty rather than particularly inspired, but certainly filled a hole. We were almost the only diners.

After lunch all was very dreamy and nice, and after crossing the railway line some of us sat on the downs and watched the occasional common blue and small heath butterfly flitting about. We then joined the Chalton lunchers for tea in the terraced garden of the Red Lion.

On through waving fields of barley and along fine open ridges, and past a surprising field of (surely planted?) tansy-leaved phacelia (a striking purple flower), which was swarming with bees.

Bringing up the rear yours truly then got to Rowlands Castle, anticipating a convivial drink at the Castle Inn, only to find the rest of the party gathering themselves to get the 5.46 train. So I sit here alone, dear reader, with my half of cider, and pen these lines.

Quite. A. Brilliant. Winter. Day. Especially for Country Walking...

Bright blue skies all day, frosted ground in the shaded areas, hardly any mud, clear air, far views, hardly a breeze, but - sadly - only tiny tiny specks of snow away to the side, in very few places, and never on the paths. It felt warm, it felt like spring, and we were walking into the sun all day, and into the views for the latter 2/3 of the route, after having climbed up the first of several downs, with a real top-of-the-world feeling with 360deg views on the last long down (Chalton). 'tis a very quiet route as well, away from roads (once out of Petersfield, where there is still a diversion in place around a new housing development, but that only caused a few minutes of delay).

We got to the Red Lion 1/4 past 1 and the first arrivals fell into the 'table service'-trap, consequently getting their meals after all the later arrivals who ordered at the bar. To top it off, that lot also had coffees and left the pub long after the others. Not that it mattered, as we all ended up on the same train (16.46).

11 on the platform, 2 met just north of Buriton in that beautiful valley without a name where we spotted 4 deer (they had driven to Buriton, from there walked with us to lunch and then back to their car), 1 overtaken in the woods south of Buriton (having missed the posted train, he was half an hour behind in Petersfield and took a taxi to Buriton). 14 sunny

There was about 1cm of snow on the North Downs above Wye: only on the tops and then not everywhere. See the SWC Facebook page. There was also a bit of cloud in the afternoon so you had better weather, and the ground in Kent was not frozen.

Out and Proud: Wood Sorrel, Wood Anemones, Lesser Celandines, Harebells, Wild Garlic, Native Bluebells (the latter only in one of the woods though, as far as could be ascertained). Rapeseed fields turning yellow more-and-more, Skylarks audible: spring, I suppose.

Also present: 15 walkers off the scheduled train, + 1 other who had taken an earlier one, got caught at lunch in Chalton, only to disappear quickly with most of the sandwichers. So 16 in drizzle turning to rain until lunch then dry with some drizzle .

I walked this for the first time and found that - apart from the route out of Petersfield from The Square onwards - the scenery was very scenic indeed, had a decent amount of variation, with some pretty villages, far views, plenty of varied woods and enough ups-and-downs over the rolling hills to keep one honest. Just a bit too short... So a very good mid-week walk.

Pub lunch (friendly staff and competent but not memorable food) for about half the group, joined by a couple of sandwichers for a drink.

Later 11 walkers in the Castle Inn in Rowlands for a bevvie.

The fast ones caught the 15.46, those 11 the 16.46 train.

Home before darkness.

Any info on numbers, route accessibility and refreshment options very welcome.

Six on the walk. Instructions were clear and easy to follow. Lunch was at the second of the two recommended pubs - the one you get to about 2/3 of the way through the walk - we had to wait about 30 minutes for our food to arrive, as the pub was busy, but helpings were generous. Some of us had tea in one of the pubs in Rowlands Castle - there are a couple teashops in the village, but these close at 4.30. An enjoyable walk through a little-used part of the south downs.

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