Thursday 23 March 2023 - Hardown Hill and Pilsdon Pen

After an excellent meal at the busy Three Horseshoes pub, we returned last night to Middle Farm.

The rain lashed down. 

Today, Sue and I set off for the NT car park at Stonebarrow Hill. 

The rain lashed down. 

By the time we got our walking boots into first gear the sun was reflecting brightly from the gorse, with a backdrop of rain sodden Golden Cap.

We headed to Chardown Hill then descended to cross the busy A35 road and climb steeply up to the 207 metre summit of Hardown Hill. The sun beat down through a stiff breeze.

A descent to the north took us to a lane that contoured back to the A35, whence we took a bridleway to the south, past nuthatches and treecreepers. Then back to the car via a gently ascending track in increasing overcastness, up Chardown Hill to lunch in the car. 

Our 8km route will be pictured below. 

The rain lashed down.

A short drive north took us to a car park just 60 metres below the 277 metre summit of Pilsdon Pen, the site of an ancient Fort and roundhouses. Antiquities dating back 10000 years have apparently been found here.

The rain lashed down. 

We braved the gale and reached the trig point in a cloud. Not many photos were taken today! Apparently there used to be a lodge here, perhaps occupied by a 'rabbit man' at a time when the ancient looking mounds were constructed to allow rabbits to live in a huge warren, with the 'rabbit man' being responsible for farming them.

The rain lashed down. 

We wandered around this interesting site for a while, then returned drenched to the car, thus concluding this week's perambulatory activities. 

Our 1.4km route will be pictured below. 

Middle Farm at Long Bredy is a lovely haven to which to return, despite the WiFi being down.

Hence this email posting that I'll edit next week, mainly by way of added pictures.

Tonight we will reconvene with the rest of the gang for a fish and chip supper, before we all leave for home tomorrow. 

Wednesday 22 March 2023 - Abbotsbury, West Bexington and Chesil Beach

Today eight of us found our way to the car park in Abbotsbury for a 14km walk, starting along the South Dorset Ridgeway path, and descending to West Bexington before returning along the Chesil Beach coastal path.

We rose steeply after leaving the village.

We hoped the fog would clear, but after reaching the point at which we joined the Ridgeway path on Saturday, we were still engulfed as we stopped for elevenses and then continued beyond the trig point. Skylarks sang happily (I assume they are happy!) above, and a flock of sheep were rattled by a combination of Anita's dog and a passing horse.

Dave, Betty, Gaynor and Anita took the path down from Tulk's Hill. The rest of us - me, Sue, David and Sue - continued on to descend into West Bexington before turning left into the deep expanse of shingle that is Chesil Beach.

We soon caught up with everyone except Andrew, who was somewhere nearby. We actually glanced a view of his back at a turn in the coast path that we but not he were following. 

Colin had sneered at the prospect of a coastal walk and had gone home to Exeter to play raquet ball!

Sue ventured up to St Catherine's Chapel whilst the rest of us hastened back to tea shop or cars before our paid for time (£1 per hour down here these days) ran out.

Then it was back to Middle Farm for some R&R and to jot down these notes before wrestling with the 'OBJ ' icon problem and our Internet connection, which seemed to have gone down.

Sue and I are eating tonight in the Three Horseshoes pub in Burton Bradstock, near Bridport. I'll report on that tomorrow.

Here's today's 14km route. (Well, for the moment it may just be a picture taken just below today's trig point, as some posting is better than no posting and I should be able to edit/add more photos when back at home next week...)

Meanwhile...

Separate posting due to problems with the OBJ icon when using the S23 phone.

Tuesday 21 March 2023 - Askerswell and Powerstock

Sue and I decided on a 14km stroll from nearby Askerswell, where we parked outside the church. Good paths and lanes took us to Nettlecombe, where a friendly cat joined us for elevenses outside The Marquis of Lorne.

Powerstock was soon reached. Another impressive ancient church.

Then King's Lane led past some trampolining goats to Whetley, whence a very muddy path through dense forest brought us to a lunch spot sheltered from the strong wind. Sue's boots had filled with overflowing mud. I wore gaiters.

After that we headed for Barrowland Farm, a place guarded by more deep mud, numerous electric fences, and ankle deep slurry. It didn't help that our route seemed to be entirely uphill. 

Eventually we reached Eggardon Hill, the site of a settlement dating from around 500BC. Sue wandered around it and I finally extricated myself from the wind by traversing the side of the hill, past some Highland cattle.
Lower down, friendly pigs and sheep had provided entertainment,  with chiffchaffs and many other birds active in the hedgerows. 

We were home by mid afternoon. Time to enjoy a bit of down time before joining 'The Other Houses' for the evening in Lower Kingcombe. 

Today's walk was about 24km.

Monday 20 March 2023 - Minterne Magna and Cerne Abbas

With rain and fog blowing in from the sea, Sue and I drove inland to meet David, Sue, Dave, Gaynor, Jacqui, Anita and her dog Billy at Minterne Magna for a circular walk featuring the village of Cerne Abbas and the Cerne Giant.

We started from the Minterne Gardens car park outside the church, pictured above, that dates from the early 17th century. It is noted for its association with the Churchill family going back to C17.

A great spotted woodpecker, hammering away in a nearby tree failed to notice our vocal group as we passed by. It seems that we chat at high volume because most of us need hearing aids. 

Given the damp conditions, we were remarkably cheerful as we progressed along pleasant footpaths, eventually reaching a viewpoint. From here we could see the Cerne Giant, a 180 foot tall 'Rude Giant' cut into the turf of the opposing hillside. The earliest reference to it is in 1694. 

Walking on to Cerne Abbas, we passed some flood prevention constructions and after a riverside walk we eventually wound up in the friendly surroundings of the New Inn - apparently over 600 years old. 

Continuing in intermittent light rain and low cloud, we made our way back through light fog to Minterne Magna on good paths, passing below the unseen (fenced off to deter fertility rites) Giant. 

Our route, shown below, was a little over 10km and took us all morning.

Then we went back to base for some indoors entertainment.

 

Sunday 19 March 2023 - A Walk from Eype Mouth

A short drive to the NT car park on Stonebarrow Lane put Sue in a position to be pictured in an undergrowth of gorse bushes.

Others who are staying nearby and with whom we enjoyed a fine meal at their rented house last night, soon arrived. I was to have a gentle day whilst my strained calf repairs itself, so I bade goodbye to Dave, Sue, Gill, Sue, Gaynor and David and headed to Eype Mouth.

A short walk from the car park saw me up Thorncombe Beacon, with good views from the crumbling cliffs to the east.

Near the summit, someone’s been busy!

I met the others above Seatown, and we soon paused for lunch on the draughty hillside.

And the prevailing wind is from the sea…

Back at Thorncombe Beacon, Gaynor expressed ‘Body Language’ while the others lined up for a routine snapshot.

Gill stopped walking at Eype, joining me to wrestle with a car park in West Bay - a very busy place on Mothers Day. We all met up and returned drivers to cars before adjourning to our various accommodations.

Here’s where I went - follow the light blue line. About 6km for me. The others probably walked about 11km, maybe the same as Colin’s group of ‘Inland Antiquities Walkers’.

Saturday 18 March 2023 - St Mary's parkrun (Bridport) and a walk from Long Bredy

Bridport parkrun. Sue did well; I strained a calf muscle.

Then an eleven km stroll from Long Bredy. 

Lunch on the South Dorset Ridgeway path.

Sea fret nearly obscured the view of the sea over Abbotsbury.

Then we returned to Long Bredy via the Macmillan Way.

We soon passed a stone circle in a field crowded with docile cows.

Our route is shown below by way of a faint blue line.

Technical issues - I keep losing the entire posting when the text becomes centred and the pictures are replaced by 'obj' icons.

Friday 17 March 2023 - Montacute House and Middle Farm, Long Bredy

After an evening in Solihull, Sue and I pottered down the M5 to Montacute House, dating from 1601. We admired its impressive long gallery on the second floor. There was also a rare Exeter bed. I’ll add more to this posting next week when back at home. The early glass windows are also a feature, as well as numerous paintings.

Then we zoomed on to Long Bredy and our home for the next week at Middle Farm. It's an excellent spot.

On the South West Coast Path (6)

 

Durdle Door, in Dorset, featured on our South West Coast Path trip in 2012, during which we just about finished that project. However, recording of said project has fallen behind, the various sections having been left as stand alone trips, with photos just left in folders or slide boxes, or on this computer's hard drive, totally unedited.

 

Another project, good health permitting....

 

My original entry for 2 June 2012 is here - the use of the same picture twice is just a coincidence.

SWCP 2012 - Durlstone Head to South Haven Point, Poole (Monday 4 June - The End of a Long Walk)

Waking to overcast skies, we were pleased to find that overnight rain had passed and we would enjoy yet another dry day on the trail.

Numbers increased again today, with Colin, the original organiser of these trips, arriving with Simon at Primrose Cottage. Meanwhile, Sue, Andrew and I picked up Gaynor and Jacqui from Ammonite B+B. G and A then strolled into Swanage whilst Sue and I provided Jacqui with a tour of the Bee Orchid beds that she'd missed yesterday.

Somehow the whole group eventually managed to coagulate - for the record:

Organiser Sue and David
Stalwarts Betty and David
Sisters Jacqui and Gill
Gaynor and Hilde
Liz and Rachel
Martin, Sue and Andrew from 'up north'
Nelia and Jonathan
Colin and Simon

The very scenic stroll around Durlston Head got the three of us off to a great start, though I think others may have short-cut this section. After admiring the orchids and the sea birds - mainly guillemots and gulls, plus a few scavenging jackdaws - we found ourselves back at the car park 50 minutes after setting off. A fine walk to Peveril Point (pictured - top) and its National Coastwatch Institution lookout point maintained the quality of today's outing. Then it was a stroll along the sea front to Swanage and a morning coffee.

The rest of the party had long since moved on from here, so we continued as a threesome out of the seaside town, past beach huts whose occupants were sporting Royal Family masks. It's QE11's diamond jubilee weekend.

The rocky spikes of Old Harry soon beckoned, beyond a golden buttercup meadow (pictured - middle) and by the time we reached the headland (pictured - bottom) known as Handfast Point we had caught up with half of the rest of our party. Lunch was taken here, in a zone of wide tracks, vertiginous cliffs and whizzing mountain bikes, whilst the vanguard had moved on towards Studland for lunch on the beach.

Wonderful wild flower meadows on the stroll to Studland sported a variety of species, including broomrapes and lilies - providing Sue and me with a foretaste of our forthcoming Alpine adventures.

From Studland the SWCP ends in style, with a stroll along the beach all the way to its conclusion at South Haven Point, where one sign indicates the start of the classic trail and another sign alerts one to the fact that it's 650 miles of coastal walking to reach Minehead.

Today we traversed the beach soon after high tide, so the sand was firm enough to grant us an easy passage. There's a nudist zone where today a lone elderly man played (frisby) with himself in a rather ostentatious manner. Not a pretty sight!

We all finally met up at the end of a walk that only two of our party, Sue and David E, had actually completed in full. Congratulations were in order. And self-timed photos. Then a tanned gent turned up and watched as many of us fumbled to find our old age bus passes.

"I started from Minehead on 26 April" he observed "it has taken me six weeks. And you?"

"We started in May 1997" chimed Sue E, proudly demonstrating her mathematical expertise by adding "it has taken us fifteen years..."

A number 50 bus curtailed that conversation and whisked us back to Swanage, where a street party was in full flow. We adjourned for tea and cake/biscuits at our various lodgings before reconvening at Primrose Cottage for a barbecue and beer celebration. Sue and Colin both received presentations in recognition of their organisational efforts and I think I spotted the odd bottle of champagne being quaffed.

The evening climaxed after dark, when most of us (Sue, me, S+D, B+D, J+G, Andrew, Liz, Simon + Jonathan) took a stroll under a full moon up Knowle Hill to admire a selection of firework displays and try to spot some of Dorset's many jubilee beacons. It was a perfect activity with which to round off the mini era of our SWCP travels.

What next for this group? Who knows?

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SWCP 2012 - Gaulter Gap to Durlstone Head (Sunday 3 June - a Bee Orchid Day)

Today we managed somehow to deposit some cars at Durlstone Head, then our friendly local taxi got 15 of us (numbers having been swelled by the arrival of Nelia and Jonathan) back to Gaulter Gap for about 10.30.

Gaynor, perhaps distracted by yesterday's memory of prostrating herself in front of a pirate, missed the crocodile and headed off in the wrong direction, but by the time of our CCS stop below Eldon Seat she had caught up and could enjoy the goodies.

Today's weather forecast foretold of steady rain all day. Luckily for us the legendary pessimism of the BBC's forecasters proved to be the case. Not a drop of rain fell on this pleasantly temperate day.

It was a classic 18km section of coastline. A few ups and downs put paid to some of the less fit members, and Liz, Betty and Jonathan soon headed off to a strategically placed car in Kingston.

The rest of us continued on past some warblers - whitethroats I think - to a sheltered spot for lunch in a field to the south of well named Emmett's Hill.

Shortly afterwards, National Coastwatch Institution volunteers provided more tea and cake in return for a small donation, though I suspect that we and they do not approve of the government cuts - minuscule in general terms - which are forcing coastguard operations to rely on charity.

Nearby was a field of poppies and St Aldhelm's Chapel, a unique and fascinating place dating from before the 12th century.

The walk to Dancing Ledge was easy and uneventful apart from a short appearance of the sun. Numerous climbers were enjoying the warm rock on the cliffs above the crashing waves.

As we progressed towards Anvil Point, Sue spotted some Bee Orchids, the first time she has seen them in the UK. Quite a find, although my reference book describes their occurrence as 'frequent, locally common". One of them is pictured above, underneath some cliff scenery typical of today's walk.

Tea and cake at Primrose Cottage was followed by another meal at the New Inn with coffee and chocs back at PC before the long drive home to Norden House.

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