We meander our way from home through the New Forest to Hurst View Campsite at Lymington.  Sadly, it starts to rain and blow a gale as we are putting up the tent and the inevitable happens, a pole breaks – I’m really upset as was really looking forward to this moment. Manage to just about mend it with the help of some blue tape borrowed from the campsite reception, enjoy lunch in the tent then call a cab to take us to Bucklers Hard.

We follow the footpath down to the quaint row of houses leading to the water. Stunning view of the boats bobbing in the estuary looking over to the tree clad headland. Sadly, not enough time to view the museum about the fascinating history of boat building and community life going back through the centuries. A half hour boat ride along the river estuary also looks tempting but we opt for the sweeter option of an ice cream admiring the view before wending our way back to the road and starting off on our slightly inland walk parallel to the coast.

Sadly, this bit of the Hampshire coastline is inaccessible to “Joe Public” as it is all privately owned. The lanes are, however, very peaceful on this sunny August afternoon – between here and Lymington we see a handful of cyclists, very few passing cars and no other walkers!

We follow a mixture of country lanes hemmed in by hedges bursting with blackberries (negating the need for our rucksack full of energy bars and apples) from which we can see over the fields of recently bailed hay to the sea glinting on the Solent and the Isle of Wight in the distance.

Further on we discover overgrown footpaths and then enjoy the dappled shade of a mixed woodland allowing me to practice my botanical tree names!

It turns out that much of this area was commissioned during the World War II, with the fields being transformed into temporary airfields using steel mesh, along with Blister Hangars for the typhoon fighter-bombers. With many homes and farms used for accommodation and the area littered with anti-aircraft guns, it would have been a very different place in the spring of 1944.

We are surprised at the large number of young pheasants hiding in the hedgerow and woodland but later conclude that they are most likely bred for the locals to shoot in the “season”! Our path takes us alongside Sowley Lake and the Sowley Estate and through the Pylewell Estate with their very own cricket ground.

As we near Lymington we skirt the edge of a golf driving range and what looks like a crazy golf site! Then arrive at a rather incongruous looking monument which at first guess is a war memorial but turns out to celebrate the life of just one individual -Admiral Sir Harry Burrard Neale. At 76 foot tall, the granite needle like column pierces through the surrounding trees and can be seen from the pub we later visit on the river estuary in Lymington.

The Ship Inn is a welcome site where I enjoy an elderflower cider (all the way from Scotland!) and a duck salad before saying we better continue our journey along the coast to our campsite before it gets dark!

My calculations of the distance are somewhat confused by the windiness of the Solent Way path. We wander through a boatyard and the oldest and largest open-air lido in the U.K. – the Lymington baths?? We have to duck our heads as we pass along the hedgerows as the bats are out early looking for their evening snack – or we are out very late!

We continue in the darkness with no torch for well over an hour with the sea to our left and saltines and lakes of the nature reserve to our right.. there is no turning back and we seem to take forever to reach the tiny pier and the pathway to our long-awaited sleeping bag in our little tent at the Hurst View Campsite.