Although it was the warmest day of the week, the sun only occasionally made an appearance during the ride that started in Fareham on Tuesday 8th February. Eleven of us had driven down from Basingstoke for a ride along the Solent coast - DavidC, Len, Mick, Carol, Jan, Keith, SueP, Vanessa, Ray, Brian and me. The route took us through the back streets of Fareham form Lysses car park, past Titchfield Abbey and through the pretty village of Titchfield. We then headed west via Hook Lane to pick up the NCN2 in Warsash and cycled past the Warsash Maritime Academy where Mick had undertaken some of his offshore diving training. The route followed the Solent coast, though a little inland at first, as we passed the large mansions in Hook with their views acros the Solent to the Isle of Wight. The NCN then took a bumpy gravel track with deep puddles back to Hook Lane - at long last they have installed a bollard in the middle of the track about half way along to prevent vehicles using it as a shortcut. From there we continued on the NCN2 down to Chilling and the bridleway through the trees, past Brownwich Pond to the Meon Road and then to the coast again at Meon Shore where we stopped for a comfort break beside the beach.

Hill Head - Solent February 2022

The NCN then followed the coast road past Titchfield Haven and the Nature Reserve cafe that we normally stop at to Hill Head and Lee on Solent. For a change from last time, we headed through the back streets to the entrance to Alverstoke Country Park where some looked longingly at the cafe but we continued on taking the surfaced paths through the park back to the NCN2 beside the River Alver. By this time, we were searching for a suitable cafe - the one at the Diving Museum looked good but we were put off by a large group of children entering so carried on to Pebbles on the Promenade facing the beach recommended by our local girl, Vanessa. There was a fair breeze blowing so we sat inside and had our welcome lunch - service was remarkably quick.  The cafe was actually off the route and we picked it up again at the Gilkicker car park beside the Gosport Lifeboat Station then took the gravel path to Fort Gilkicker and back onto the NCN2 through the golf course.  Slightly further on we diverted onto the sea wall outside Haslar for another view of the Solent and the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour. We cycled back to the road and across Haslar Bridge and into Gosport to the Esplanade where we took our regular group photo with the Spinnaker Tower on the opposite bank of the harbour in the background.