Portsmouth Loop: welcome back to the Hayling-Eastney Ferry

Today, I tried out the newly reinstated Hayling-Eastney ferry service. The service ceased last year when the operator went bust, severing the NCN2 south coast cycle route and making it impossible to reach Portsmouth using the Hayling Billy disused railway path down the east side of Langstone Harbour. Mercifully, the service was rescued when a new operator purchased and refurbished the old ferry boat, and a local community trust was formed to provide financial support via crowd-funding. The service was re-launched on 5th August, and I was keen to give it a go after such a long absence. I used the ferry to enable a circuit of Portsmouth: here's a map:

I parked mid-morning beside the shore of Langstone Harbour at the nature reserve car park on the Hayling Billy Trail. I cycled down the trail and along the sea front to the Ferryboat Inn. After a beer (it was a hot day ), I boarded the ferry for the short ride across the harbour mouth to Eastney (ferry timetable). I stopped off for a snack at the new 'Coffee Cup' cafe on the beach near the Royal Marines Museum, then pressed on along the front and across Southsea Common, following the NCN2 signs.

(For an exploration on foot around the Eastney peninsula, see my companion walking blog.)

Having arrived opposite Portsmouth Harbour Station, I picked up NCN22 (the route hereabouts is shared with the Pilgrims' Trail) and followed the route out of town: the signed route seems slightly different from that shown on the Sustrans mapping including a new section on a waterside concrete track running north from Whale Island (home of the RN Command),and sandwiched between the elevated M275 and an inlet of Portsmouth Harbour. After crossing back East of the M275 at the Park and Ride site, I followed the NCN22 along the lakeside and past the lido to the roundabout at the M27/A3 junction. At this point, the 22 heads into the suburbs, but instead I decided to take the track along the Hilsea Lines, built in the nineteenth century to defend Portsmouth island from an attack from the North. Bastions are hidden in the trees, but the most obvious surviving feature is the zig-zag moat built behind the Ports Creek, the channel which makes Portsmouth an island. A good path follows this moat eastwards. The last few hundred metres up to the A2030 causeway have been greatly improved, running along the top of an embankment raised as part of recent works to protect the island from a 1:200 year flood event.

I then navigated the pelican crossings at the manic A2030/A27 roundabout, then rejoined NCN22 on the good tarmacced cycle path sandwiched between the A27 and the Farlington Marshes nature reserve (quite a contrast). I then picked up the Hayling Billy Trail back across the bridge to my start, pausing only for a cuppa at the Ship Inn excellently positioned beside the harbour at the landward side of the bridge. If only they could reinstate the old railway bridge (the old stanchions are still there), that would provide the perfect way for walkers and cyclists to avoid the horrendously busy road bridge.