Saturday 3rd
We met Katie in Bournemouth at 10.15 am and, after sorting out footwear and coats, we set off at 10.30 am. We had a very breezy and grey start along the prom that led all the way to the Sandbanks area of Poole, which would mark the start of the longest long distance path in Britain, the South West Coast Path. As we reached the ferry at the mouth of Poole harbour, Susan began to wonder why she set out at the beginning of her walk at Cley, not wanting to use ferries. I assured her that, if that was still the case, I wouldn't be with her this weekend to walk around Poole harbour!
Once over the other side, at Shell Bay, we stopped for a photo call at the big marker post for the path. (This year is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the path being open and the sign is brand new.) Then followed a short walk along the sandy beach that would take us to Studland. As we rounded the corner, we had our first glimpse of Old Harry Rocks and were so excited that we had to sit down and have lunch! After more photos, we set out along the most hazardous part of today's walk ... the nudist beach! We thought it would be far too cold to encounter anyone today, indeed the first person we saw only had his trousers off! However, a bit further along, we saw two men running backwards and forwards in front of us, one of whom asked Katie if she had the time on her. Exhibitionists.
We reached Studland and had a well deserved cup of tea at the National Trust tea room. We went inland a bit now as we found the path out to Old Harry. It was a lovely flat path straight out to the headland and we had to shed one or two layers as the sun had finally come out. We had a glorious view back to Bournemouth and beyond. We walked through a wooded area that was full of bluebells and wild garlic that had a really strong smell. After another photo call at Old Harry, we headed towards Swanage. The wind really picked up as we descended Ballard Cliff through the gorse, so coats were back on again. The path goes inland a bit, through a tiny estate and onto the main road into Swanage.
We managed to drag ourselves along the sea front, straight into the nearest tea room for a cream tea at 4.30 pm. A fantastic day's walking - we managed eleven miles which isn't bad going. After our sit down, we hobbled back to the bus stop to wait for the bus back to Bournemouth. Whilst waiting, a young man wandered up to us, saying, "I thought I recognised that face ...". It was Matt Ilott who I used to work with. He's now teaching climbing to school children and said that he'd be at Dancing Ledge tomorrow and we said we'd try and find him.
The bus arrived and we had an exciting ride, at breakneck speed, back to the car. We said goodbye to Katie and then had to try and find our B&B. We did eventually track it down after casting aside the two sets of directions we had and finally asking a cab driver the way.
After showering and spreading our belongings around the room, we walked two hundred yards down the road to the pub for lasagne and a jar, before heading back for an early night.
Sunday 4th
We were awake at 7.00 am and opened the curtains to reveal beautiful blue skies. After breakfast, we drove to Swanage via the Sandbanks ferry and parked at the youth hostel where we were staying tonight.
We bought lunch and plenty of water for today's walk - it was going to be a tough day. We started walking at 10.30 am again today, firstly along the very edge of the bay and then up the cliff to Peveril Point.
We were to see lots of interesting sights today and they were all in the same area of Durlston Country Park. Firstly, we reached the Great Globe at Durlston Head and luckily we got there when there was no-one else around. Next were the Tilly Whim Caves and finally the lighthouse at Anvil Point. There were lots of people around by this time.
After the lighthouse, the path stretched out before us and it looked like it was all quite flat, so we sat down and ate our cherry cookies. Off we strode and, indeed, the path was good, but it was getting warmer with very little breeze. We reached Dancing Ledge after about an hour and decided to have lunch. There were lots of climbers around and we looked around to try and find Matt amongst them. Then we noticed a very tall, skinny bloke teasing a bunch of school girls - there he was! He came over while we ate our lunch and he made us try some samphire (tastes better when cooked methinks!) and then we were on our way. We were beginning to realise that Kimmeridge was out of our reach today and, when we reached Winspit, we followed the path that went inland to Worth Matravers. Susan found her sprinting legs when she noticed the tea rooms and we settled for another cream tea and lime milkshakes.
It's a shame we couldn't go any further, but it was so hot we would have blown a gasket, so we called for a cab to get us back to Swanage. We told the driver that we had done seven miles today and he said that, "no way was that seven miles". What does he know?
We got back to the youth hostel, got the keys to our room which was on the second floor. Bunch of comedians here obviously! We emptied our bags again, and there was much hilarity over the top bunk. After showers, we went out to find food from the place Susan had spotted while in the taxi. We had scampi and burger in Beavers Restaurant in Institute Road. No more to be said on that.
We made our way back to the hostel after dinner up the north face of the Eiger (very steep road then!) and made a lot of noise in the lounge before another early night.
Monday 5th
We had an early start today to make use of the cool part of the day. We were a little concerned when it started raining, but had forgotten that it was only 7.15 am. We collected our packed lunches, refilled our water bottles and headed for Worth Matravers, to start walking at 8.05 am. We found the path out to St Aldhelms Head, the chapel being in view the whole time. The views when we reached the headland were amazing and we could see the whole of Weymouth Bay and the Isle of Portland, even Portland Bill lighthouse. We could also see that there were no clouds coming our way ... time to get walking before it got too hot again.
The first part of the path dropped two hundred feet (with steps) and then up again to Emmetts Hill and we could see it wouldn't be the last hill for the day. We followed the path inland a little before plunging into a valley and turning back to the sea. A scrummage ensued shortly after as we could see the path on the other side of the valley, but it was like a rabbit warren inbetween. All credit to Susan for getting us through it.
Next, we went through a field of lambs and then up the next headland, Hounstout. I was really nervous about this one. We could see it all morning and the path looked to be VERY close to the edge. However, we waited at the bottom while a couple came down the path and we could see that it was, in fact, quite a good path. We celebrated when we reached the top - lunch! Susan even ran to the bench and it was only 11.00 am.
Our target for the day was marked by Clavell Tower, a folly built on the top of the cliff at Kimmeridge Bay and for the last few miles of the day, it was rarely out of sight. We reached the tower and had a sit down before our walk into the village of Kimmeridge for, you've guessed it, another cream tea!
Susan did her measuring and we'd done nine miles. That made it twenty-seven miles in all. Looking back on today's walk, there's no way we could have done that on top of yesterday's mileage. We had a lot of fun and I can't wait until the next time.
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