Day 2 Goring to Portsmouth "By roads unadopted, by woodlanded ways"

One of the pleasures of cycling is the incidental birdwatching. Sadly, I am quite poor at identification. The last two days have featured larks and yellowhammers in profusion, greenfinches and the always entertaining goldfinches. Buzzards abound, today especially. There have been at least four red kites unless, worryingly, it is the same one and it is following me around. All this contributed to a pleasant ride from the ridgeway across the South Downs often along single track roads. There was plainly quite a bit of rain last night. This made a two foot deep ford a significant obstacle until I found the footbridge. There were some welcome bursts of sunshine on what was otherwise a very nippy morning for mid June. The real star though was the wind which blew briskly at my back all morning and got me to Wickham for lunch at Park Place in good time. The afternoon has been spent watching football with Andrew before heading for the ferry at Portsmouth. Now that I have seen what I will be  missing I am almost relieved to be out of the way for the next couple of weeks.