Day: 133 29/4/95 Abbotsbury to Portland

Weather: Drizzle and overcast.    Distance: 15 km, (9.3 miles)    Total Distance:  miles

The forecast was not good, light rain all day. I left Coventry early after giving my son a bottle of milk.  This was quite a landmark occasion since I turned a different direction driving out of our road for the first time since my walk had begun.  And so instead of going down  the A45/M42 and M6 I headed off down the A46 towards Warwick. The traffic was pretty light all the way down except through Weymouth. I parked the car at the Weymouth end of Chesil beach, changed into walking boots and rode the bike to Abbotsbury - not an easy cycle  in the damp conditions.

I chained the bike up and got some food from the port-a-cabin cafe; a good slice of brownie. I psyched myself up for walking Chesil Beach.  This is an eight mile bank of pebbles with sea on one side and a lake on the inside. I was not planning on taking it too fast. I headed over the pebble bank and down towards the sea. The tide was out leaving a reasonably firm area of sand / pebbles at the bottom of the bank. I had soon passed the last signs of holiday strollers and ornithologists and had nothing to look at except sea on the right and pebbles on the left. There was little sign of birdlife around. They must have been on the landward side! At one stage it seemed as if the tide was coming in fast and I would loose my firm sand, I headed for the top of the bank. It was much more difficult walking and I soon headed back to the shoreline.

After a couple of hours walking a structure started to appear out of the mist. As I got closer a red flag appeared - so much for Weymouth Tourist Information office telling me there was no problem walking across Chesil Beach with the Nature Reserves and Firing Range marked on the map.   I had heard rifle fire on my earlier excursion to the top of the bank and had feared the worse but figured out I would be perfectly safe on the seaward side since rifle bullets do not turn right angles.  As I got closer I could make  two people. Closer again I could see one individual had begun walking across the range and the other was a sentry returning to his box. Seeing me he soon pounded down the bank, and told me he would have to radio in for permission for me to cross. The person ahead of me was a diver, with complete with air tank and carrying flippers though I still don't know how he got to be there - we were miles from anywhere. The Major General or whoever he was on the other end of the walkie talkie was less than pleased to have his firing interrupted a second time. He was shouting back at the sentry. I was told I could cross, at my own risk, and they would not stop firing. I'm sure they did though. By the far end of the range I had virtually caught up with the diver who was obviously finding it difficult. He was talking to the female sentry at the other end, I acknowledged them and headed off. I had got 200 yards on and was called back. Half way back I was waved on again - I was less than pleased since the walking was now very difficult.

I continued, having soon to transfer to the top of the bank. I looked around and the diver kept stopping finding it difficult with an air tank and weight belt. I opened a can and decided to wait for him but just then he headed to the lake and the last I saw of him was diving towards the mainland. The whole experience was rather serial.  It's almost as if I dreamt it all. 

 

The rest of walk was tiring and I just got to the end before some serious drizzle started. After a cup of tea from the kiosk I drove back to Abbotsbury, stopping in a good woodcraft centre and picking up some nice ideas on doll's house furniture. I picked up the bike and came back to Weymouth. The streets were narrow and confusing around the harbour and busy along the front. I ended up near the place where my wife had booked for us to go to at half-term. I booked into a B&B around the corner -Keithlyn - not of Welsh origin but an amalgamation of the proprietors names, clean, quite busy and a pretty good breakfast!  I ate in the pub next to our half term flat and what a pub it was - in the Good Beer Guide, good food, a children's room, collie dogs.... I had a very early night - too tired to go to see the firework display on the beach.

 

Day: 132 19/4/95 West Bay to Abbotsbury

Weather: Sunny and cool.    Distance: 11 km, (6.8 miles)    Total Distance:  miles

I had my English breakfast cooked by the American, gained permission to leave my car in their driveway and pick it up on my way home, and walked down to West Port, now much quieter in the cool of the early morning. Even though the tide was on its way in and only an hour from high tide, I decided I could walk along the beach for a time instead of climbing the cliff. At Burton cliff the tide was  too far in to chance the beach so I made my only climb of the day. The cliff then disappeared and Chesil beach started. I had not realised it but from there to West Bexington was hard going along the pebbles.  A case of two steps forward and one back.

A cafe at West Bexington was a welcome sight. More than a cafe, this was a village shop without a village! The sun shone and I sat outside drinking a wonderful mug of tea made by a very elderly man. From there to Abbotsbury was easier along a track on the landward side of the beach.

At Abbotsbury I read on a sign about Chesil beach that the public were only welcome to walk the beach up until May 1st after which it was closed to protect breeding birds. So much for the TIC at Weymouth who told me I could walk it anytime. This meant that I had to return in 10 days time to walk Chesil beach.

I walked up to the main road, past the sub-tropical gardens, and to the outskirts of Abbotsbury. The bus was still over an hour away so I hitched, getting a lift of a van driver delivering chilled foods in the area.  The disturbing thing was that he resembled Fredrick West the mass murderer from Gloucester! I kept envisaging that I would disappear and end up in a pack of frozen sausages.

Two days of glorious walking weather made a real surprise since it had been a poor forecast originally.

 

Day: 131 18/4/95 Lyme Regis to West Bay

Weather: Drizzle then sunny and cool.  Distance: 15 km, (9.3 miles)    Total Distance:  miles

 After a pleasant Easter at home during which time I had witnessed my youngest son starting to stand upright and also crawl at speed it was time to go to the south Dorset coast for a couple of days. The forecast was poor - wet, windy and cold for the time of year. It was certainly cold in Coventry as I prepared to leave and I had to scrape frost off the car, and there was rain on the way down but by the time I got to Lyme there were already signs of it brightening up. I was comparatively wide awake considering that I hadn't had much sleep. We had been to a pub quiz the previous night and our son had been awake since about 4 o'clock.

I parked in the large car park on the east side of Lyme then walked down into the town looking for the coast path. I soon found that the land slip that had occurred in about 1987 still closed the path and the detour in the guidebook was still in place. It was therefore back up the hill, past the car park, through a couple of fields and into some woodland carpeted with bluebells - a real bonus for not having a coastal route.

I tried to go down a path past a golf club but that route was also blocked - I should have believed the signs! Backtracking 500 yards onto the road and then on an official footpath straight across the golf course - so why couldn't the golf course allow a new footpath past it's perimeter along the coast.  Surely the "negotiations under way" sign should have made progress by now!

The path eventually led through the back streets of Charmouth and down to the beach. I stopped in the cafe for a pasty, kit-kat and tea. It was evident the cafe had a new leaseholder and new stock - the kit-kats were fresh and well overpriced at 30p!

The next part climbed up onto the cliffs. I began to feel silly having put long-johns on at home and now walking in sunshine. The cliff tops were busy with Easter walkers. It was probably possible to walk on the beach at this stage but Golden Cap was coming up - the highest point on the South Coast and I was not going to miss that.  The climb was not steep and well worth it - good views back to the west.

Golden Cap - highest point on the south coast

 

From Golden Cap looking east

I descended the hill down to the beach at Seatown, and was sorely tempted to call in for a beer at the pub whose garden overlooked the beach but avoided that temptation. From there to West Bay I walked along the beach which was a real mix of sand, pebbles and boulders.  I passed the occasional fossil hunter hunting in the many rock falls that littered the coast. I was taken aback by the large variety of different types of stone present in these rock falls which added to the interest of the walk. At Eypes Mouth, a JCB piled up sand to form a base for a line of caravans.

West Bay had both the charm of a harbour town and the less attractive aspects of a town with a caravan park.  The crowds were out enjoying the spring sunshine.

In order to catch a bus back to Lyme Regis I walked up to Bridport. I passed Palmer's brewery which gave the impression of doing OK for itself.  I then called into the Tourist Information Centre to ask about bus stops and times.  I was told there was a bus that minute around the corner and she was right.  I dashed around and into the waiting bus just as the doors were closing. I jumped on. When the driver had freed me from the closing doors I was blamed for making him late!  The drive back to Lyme was via a couple of quaint Dorset thatched villages.

I drove back to Bridport, strolled around the town for an hour looking for places to eat and things to do that evening. There was a folk evening at a pub and a rather brash Brat pack film at the cinema.  The B&B I had booked was hidden away in a narrow street but still in the centre.  It appeared to be run by the man of the house - a gentleman from South Dakota keen to tell his guests about interesting walks in the area. He even told one guest how to walk to the paper shop via a scenic route! His wife appeared mainly to hide out in the loft conversion.   I decided her eye-sight was less than perfect when she told me I looked like Tom Jones!

I ate in one of the two Indian restaurants in town but was too tired after a long day to go to any of the other attractions but had an early night instead.