I try to do this trip every year. This time I chose to go out when a storm was due, as I thought it would be fun. I wasn't dissapointed.
I was supposed to start at Salisbury but train stikes ended that idea. So I set off in the evening from Winchester stopping at the 888 Chinese takeaway. The House special rice is huge and tasty, to be eaten at the 1st night's bivi. The forest at Old Winchester Hill Fort.

20180729_103956 by Hola Siesta, on Flickr

2nd night was in a nice old forest just north of Housedean Farm Campsite (A27). Bunkershill Plantation.

20180728_091046 by Hola Siesta, on Flickr

And what happened in the storm?

presumably he's not still out there :D

desperately waiting for updates, that was some serious weather we had down here...

I made it out.
I had to bury myself deep in the woods to keep out of the wind. It was amazing how the wind could still pass through so many trees. Unfortunately I was surrounded by ash trees, which have a tendancy to panic and drop their branches when frightened. Widow makers.

Met a few bikepackers going westbound! It blows from the west over 80% of the time, then north and rarely from the east. Westbound on the SDW is not recommended - and they did it in a storm!

But it is still a great trail.