Parked at East Meon Village Hall and headed through village in easterly direction to Greenway Copse. Continued through pathway junction to minor road. Headed south at road junction along minor road, then east along minor road, picking up the footpath again heading towards The Nore. Continued on pathway, skirting Butser Hill and climbing up through an over-used and deeply riveted pathway.
This part of the pathway is marked as a by-way on the OS map, and is therefore open to pedestrians, horses, cyclists and all forms of motorised vehicles. It's chalk, a sedimentary and relatively soft rock, which is prone to erosion. As you can see from the photo below, some parts of the path were at least two foot deep, which has resulted in the path being widened as people seek to walk along the less eroded edges. Whilst walking up the path ourselves, we were joined by two scrambling motorcyclists, who struggled to manoeuvre their vehicles up the pathway, spraying a trail of bedrock as they climbed to the top. A good example of how by-ways are pressurised and impacted by the many different types of users.
On reaching the car-park area, continued south along Limekiln Road before picking up minor road. Continued along minor road for ~500m before heading west on the South Downs Way. Continued to Leydene Park. After Leydene Park, headed north on the South Downs Way, passing the Wether Down, Salt Hill, and onto Coombe Cross. Continued north onto Halnaker Lane, skirted Hen Wood to the west, on to Drayton Cottages. At cottages, joined minor road north before picking up pathway to the east, past Drayton Mill, to Chalkdale Cottages. On reaching minor road, headed north, crossed road and back to car-park.
Underfoot conditions, wet, slippy, particularly over the chalk pathways. Weather, low lying cloud/mist, light breeze, cleared towards end of walk and as we headed back down to village. Temperature low teens.
