Living in east Dorset I was not far from the border of Hampshire.  The south downs in the south east of England is one of my favourite places to walk and take landscape photos.  Today was going to be my first venture into the Hampshire part of the South Downs starting at Beacon Hill and making my way to Old Winchester Hill.

Hampshire South Downs Map

As always I plan my walks using OS Maps online.  I was also interested in a photo walk around the city of Winchester in Hampshire.  But I would save that for another day.

The plan was to arrive on top of Beacon Hill before dawn and catch the sun rise.  This is incredibly hard for me and was considering staying in a hotel nearby.

Beacon Hill Dump

But this morning I manage to drag myself out of bed at 5AM.  To save some time I stopped off in McDonalds 24 hour drive thru on the way for breakfast which I thought was a good tactic.  I got a couple of extra coffees to fill up my flask.  Problem is, like clockwork after breakfast I need to take a dump!

I arrived at the Beacon Hill carpark, it was still pitch black, no one else there and I was dying for a poo.  I had to squat down near a tree, with owls hooting and empty my bowels.  Only nature.  Second problem was I had no toilet roll.  So I used a trick I learnt travelling in India many moons ago,  they just use their hand and water.  I had plenty of water in the back of my car.  So thats what I did.  Lesson learnt carry some toilet paper in the car too.

Beacon Hill Sunrise

Feeling a lot lighter, I followed the Monarchs Way beside the Beacon Hill beaches to the summit of Beacon Hill.  I not know the area so was a combined scouting and landscape photography walk.

The sky was turning red as I fumbled around trying to set up my camera on the tripod.  I not have much time to capture the magnificent colours of the red dawn over the Hampshire south downs.

Every minute the sky changed colour until eventually the sun rose through the mist and over the summit of the distance hills of the Hampshire south downs.

As soon as the colour show of dawn started over Beacon hill it was soon over, the deep red and orange colours rapidly dissipating as the sun rose higher over the horizon.  The mist remained thick and allowed the camera to be pointed directly into the rising sun to give an atmospheric shot on top of this part of the Hampshire downs.

Soon the spectacle was over and I got my first views over the south downs in Hampshire through the morning mist.  I would now follow the footpaths to my next destination the old Winchester Hill.