Friday, June 12, 2009

Safe Walking In England

Readers of the blog will recall that I am in desperate need of a safe walking route, when I reach England, from Portsmouth to Oxford, where I will join the canal system and walk safely on the towpaths.

Today I had a really helpful e-mail from a lady called Marilyn at Hants County Council.

Thank you for your enquiry about a route from Portsmouth to Oxford.

I would advise you to contact the Long Distance Walkers Ass as they will be able to provide you with details.

It would be best to follow routes that are waymarked with logo's that you can follow from the Coast .

From Portsmouth you can follow the Solent Way along the coast and on the east is Portsmouth Wayfarers Walk just outside Portsmouth an small section of the South Downs Way then back on to the Wayfarers Walk to New Alresford picking up a section of the Ox Drove Way until the Three Castles Path comes in which you can follow up to Windsor where you would then follow the Thames National Trail that leads into Oxford.

The best maps would be the OS Explore maps as the routes will be indicated on these with a green diamond.
The website address for the Long Distance Ass is http://www.ldwa.org.uk/

I if can be of further help you come back to me.


I Have not yet checked out how much that route wanders about but it sounds just the ticket. It should mean that I have a safe, off-road walking route almost into Lancashire, which is where my ultimate goal, Blackpool, is.

I hope to receive similar advice about some of the French sections of VBW.

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