Bob and I have completed our longest hike of the tour. 21 miles, 8 hours and 20 minutes. We rolled into the Blue Bell Inn and Pub in Cocking at about 5 pm and quickly showered and changed, so we could hit the pub before it closed at 6:00. We were out of luck for food since it’s a Sunday and kitchen closed at 4pm but we’re able to get a celebratory wine and a couple bags of chips. We had also picked up some canned goods before leaving East Meon, knowing that nothing would be open tonight.
We’re feeling pretty cocky after having climbed and descended quite a few hills (Salt Hill, Hyden Hill, Tegdown Hill, Butser Hill, Tower Hill, Pen Hill, Treyford Hill) and trekked through a park and natural area (Queen Elizabeth Country Park, Harting Downs Nature Reserve). And we think we should feel cocky in Cocking, a small village with an 11th century church that we passed on the way into town.
Our day didn’t start great, as we wanted to have an early start. However, our bed and breakfast didn’t start serving until 8:00 am and that seemed to be a stretch for them. We were down right at 8 and were offered coffee, orange juice, cereal, and toast. Not bad, but we were hoping for a bit more before the long hike. However, it ended up being fine, as did the hike today since we didn’t run into bad weather and didn’t have to walk through water today until coming into Cocking.
Here are photos of the hike.
we came to a section of really cute homes.
We loved the moss covered trees here.
They turned around shortly after the photo,
and we followed them for awhile.
Peckish Travels 