We were lucky with the weather this day, and missed the great heat of previous days. So, loaded up with lunches, copious amounts of water and our equipment, we headed first for The Navigation and an environmental impact assessment at Tun Bridge on the boundary of the National Park itself.

Travelling onward to St Catherine’s Hill we conducted a Footpath Transect, investigating erosion and completed a noise pollution assessment too – the boys finding to their surprise that the SDNP is quite a noisy place! We headed over the M3 bridge and a little truck spotting, then on to lunch via the old protesters' monument on what is left of Twyford Down. A quick walk through to the edge of Hockley Golf course (and ‘Hay Fever Central’) gave us the opportunity to see the range of land use from recreation to intensive agriculture. Onward towards the clubhouse and a visit to the River Itchen, and then our final stop was at the base of St Catherine’ s Hill to appreciate the changes since the infamous by-pass was restored to ‘Chalk Downland’ in the late 1990s.

The boys were brilliant and despite being a little tired, coped admirable well with the conditions and were superb company, too. 

Steve Leslie
Head of Geography