Day 1 Hike Complete!

 Today we completed our first walk - a circular route starting and ending at the White Horse Inn.  Here's the recap:

The walk went through meadows, farmland, pastures, hiking trails, and small roads.  It climbed hills and went through valleys.  The elevation changes were more than we anticipated so I guess we should have done our homework better.  The weather turned out great which contributed to making it a wonderful day.  I hope that the photos reflect that.

The day started with The White Horse providing milk at our door for the morning tea.

After a hardy breakfast we took off - Linda was really more excited than she looks here:

We passed through gates into pastures, through some woods and tasted the wild blackberries.

After passing along a lovely lane, the walk started to climb up to Beacon Hill.

If you look off into the distance in this photo, you can see the English Channel.  Hooray for a clear day!

After that we made a steep descent and steep climb up to Pen Hill where we stopped for the lunch provided by the inn.

As we headed down we went through some woods where we found a very interesting memorial to a German pilot who was shot down and killed in WWII.  What a surprise to see such a thing.

Next up was a small diversion to see the Devil's Jump, burial mounds from 3000 years ago.

Continuing on, we passed a pasture where a herd of cows was just off the path.  Thankfully, no bulls!

It was a fairly easy return to the inn from there, passing through some more lovely scenery.

One odd moment came as we walked down the last narrow lane to the inn and we were passed by a Ferrari!  So out of place.

We made it back feeling a mixture of joy and exhaustion.

Another sign of the times - the last time we did an InnTravel trip, we had detailed written instructions to find our way.  We had to be careful to find the correct way marks and occasionally had to backtrack.  Now, they provide links to map files that you can download.  I used an app, Komoot, which was easy to use and gave accurate step by step navigation.  It was almost too easy.  I missed the challenge.

Tomorrow, we walk from the White Horse in Chilgrove to The Royal Oak in East Lavant - a distance of 12.7K.  The weather forecast looks really good and we're looking forward to another invigorating walk!

Peace and blessings,

Linda and Larry