Considering we dragged Master Humdrum out of his pit to walk with us on this Saturday morning, when he ended up saying it was the best walk he'd been on, we were surprised. He did qualify this by adding he in no way enjoyed it, but that it was better than previous walks. (I suspect he is still cross with Glynn for making him walk in the snow with inappropriate shoes.) What are the Master's criteria for a good walk, I hear you ask? Easy. Short (4 miles); flat; good weather; punctuated by good food. So today ticked all those boxes. We learned a little about the history of Portchester Castle (3rd century castle built on the site of a Roman fort), spied the aircraft carrier in the dockyard, listened to endless tales of how the Master won a Fortnite game and before we turned back, enjoyed a slap up breakfast at Salt Cafe.
Well we just had to choose the worst day of the year to walk. The date had been set weeks before - who knew there would be the worst winds of the decade almost on this very day? But we didn't want to be beaten. We will walk to the cafe. At least it wasn't raining! Parking is free next the castle and obviously, it wasn't busy this day! We set off around the outside of this medieval monument. The sea wall affords views across to Portsmouth and Gosport, and Portsdown Hill if you look behind. You can see the Spinnaker Tower in my photos, but you'd have to zoom in. The sea wall leads to a walk along a path, switching between grass (a much more sheltered area) beside a playpark, and the beach. It is an easy, flat walk, made slightly harder in the wind. After 1.75 miles, you reach the Salt Cafe (@saltcafe66). This took us one hour - that wind did slow us down! I've had a breakfast bap there before and remember it being delicious, but slightly expensive. But today, we