The coastal walk from Keyhaven to Lymington-on-Sea

Is something like an eight mile hike - you’ll earn your cup of tea!

We’ve noticed every time we’ve walked its length, Our Gert and me

The harbour’s always half a mile away.

 

This is a strange phenomenon you’d think cannot be true

But when you’ve done ten minutes then the harbour comes in view

You’d think this can’t be possible.  Believe me, right on cue

You spot the boats’ masts half a mile away.

 

Deceitful, flinty pathways chalk up miles upon your clock

The information boards and milestones now just seem to mock

It’s still four miles to Lymington, to where the ferries dock;

But the harbour’s only half a mile away!

 

And then begin meanderings, circuitous they swerve

Round abandoned salt pans, random bird hides and Reserve

The wants of Man, of flora, fauna equally they serve

Constructed from industrial decay.

 

But ever onward like Beau Geste through dust and heat you traipse

Seaward to the headlands and then back round brackish scrapes

Sometimes the masts concealed from view, sometimes through woodland gape

But never more than half a mile away.

 

Up and down the walkways, round the mudflats and the bays

Where godwits, redshanks, egrets, meadow browns enrich your days

And finally the lido where the youth of Hampshire plays;

You really are now half a mile away.

 

So then at last your walk is done – it’s Lymington-on-Sea

The run-a-round’s been worth it – there’s no nicer place to be

You now know that the harbor with its café-fronted quay

Is genuinely half a mile away.