The photos in this short post were taken during a bout of something quite terrifying for us, something we try not to think about often, something we try not to engage in very often either, something that causes shakes and a fever to break out now just thinking back to it. Gentle exercise.
We decided to get out of the house and brave the infected world with a walk the ten minutes or so towards Portsmouth Port, then to take a wander up part of the Pilgrim’s Trail that runs either side of the M275 motorway that forms one of our island city’s connection to the English mainland, and venture back through the parks that form a barrier between the motorway and the homes of the Stamshaw area of Portsmouth. The trail and parks – despite their proximity to our house and the fact we’ve lived here for close to a quarter of a century – were places we’d never trodden foot on before.
First though, the port. We thought it would be nice to see if there was a decent view of a cruise ship docked there since cruise ships in Portsmouth aren’t that common; Southampton gets all the glory usually. Portsmouth is attracting more of them, though. You obviously just can’t wander into the port and up to the ships to see them so I thought we might get a view of some kind at the bridge that connects Portsea Island to Whale Island. Well, close. You can’t get onto the bridge on account of it belonging to the Ministry of Defence, but there is a small car park beside it with some benches among bushes at the far end, and you can stand on a bench and see… something.
Spirit of Discovery is a fairly classic-looking cruise ship. Nice-looking balconies, nice sloping aft, but being a Saga ship you need to be (or have the lead person in the booking be) fifty years old to get on her. We don’t qualify yet, and while it won’t be long, sadly, even when we can there will be the matter of cost to factor in. She’s an elegant ship run by a line that throws in perks like insurance for the quite elderly and traditionally overflowing-with-ailments-and-needs demographic, but that all comes at a hefty price which we can’t justify when comparing to other lines and vessels.
Heading north from our car park view of Portsmouth Port took us onto the part of the Pilgrim’s Trail that runs along the western side of the M275. We’ve never walked any part of the trail before, partly on account of us not being pilgrims but mostly through sheer ignorance.
The views from here were across the water to Whale Island, home of HMS Excellent, the oldest shore training establishment in the Royal Navy, and which, despite being a land mass, is technically a frigate. A frigate with trees on it.
I kept looking back towards the cruise ship in Portsmouth Port because of course I did.
The tide was pretty low, as you can tell, and the abandoned and sunken boats in and around the water held more interest than the ones at anchor.
We headed up towards the Tipner Firing Range, not getting too close to it despite their being no warning flags indicating shooting was taking place, then crossed under the motorway and took a stroll through the parks on the other side.
There are no photos from this part of our walk on because there were families and children present and I show just a smidge of respect in those situations on occasion. The parks were interesting in that they felt quite dark and not terribly relaxing; an effect of the nearby (and raised) motorway blocking some views and generating a constant white noise of traffic, plus the trees that were likely put up to try to deaden some of that noise. Some bloke on a bike also kept cycling close to us for some reason despite all the paths and grass he could travel on which started to make me a little antsy. Before we moved into the house we live in we did look at a place just in this area of Portsmouth and I’m glad we didn’t move there.
The Pilgrim’s Trail was pleasant enough, it was good to see a cruise ship in Portsmouth, but avoid Stamshaw if you can.