Weather: Very good - sunny and breezy.
Distance: 21 km (13
miles) Total Distance: miles
I got up fairly early again and was in the first car in
the National Trust car park at Studland at just gone 9 o'clock. The sun was
already out as I took the path down to the beach. The tide was out so I was
fortunate in that there was fairly firm sand near the water's edge. The guidebook states that walkers may like to
skip this section as it is a bit of a trek but for me it was idyllic, the sun
shining on the calm sea.
About half way along the beach it turns into a nudist
beach - since I was in a hurry I kept my clothes on but there were already sun
worshippers taking advantage of the good weather and a very camp man draping
himself over the sign saying nudist beach.
A couple of marine landing craft were out practicing beach landings.
At Shell Beach the ferry leaves for Sandbanks
and the end of the South West Way, but I headed inland again for the long way
to Poole. I followed the very flat road
along Stuudland Heath and was relieved to get to the point where I could cut
off and into the countryside. The next couple of hours were spent on forest
trails and footpath and very pleasant it was too with hardly anyone around.
After the first forest section I came to Over Farm and had to stop to wait for
a herd of cows to come through a gate that I wanted to go through in the
opposite direction. As ther ware daudling I shooed then along only to be
confronted by a bull. I let him have the right of wat and quickly jumped over a
naerby fence into an ajoining field to find an alternative route.
Through some more woodland and diverted footpaths and
boggy ground - I was glad we were in a dry spell. I came to Wytch Farm BP Oil
field. I got slightly lost here but soon got back on the right path and around
the oil field. I bumped into a very elderly farmer who asked me if I minded
taking a certain path as the other I almost took went over his maize field and
had only been designated a public footpath by his predecessor Mr Hopalong! Although the way he told me was indeed the
correct way I ended up in the corner of a field without much idea of where to
go to cross the nearby Corfe River. I was fortunate that a farm laborer took
pity on me and stopped his tractor to tell me he thought there was a bridge just a
little further on and he was indeed correct.
I soon came out on a minor road on Slope Heath which I followed for a couple of miles,
eventually into the village of Ridge and then along the bank of the River Frome
into Wareham. From the river bank I saw my bus leave to Swanage. I tried
hitching and had three good lifts pretty soon after each other. The first was in
a Land Rover from an agricultural plumber with a very friendly dog that had to
be held down to stop eating me for lunch. The second was from a man who worked
for the Nat West and drove a new white Astra - trying to sell mortgages that
were not going too well. The third - also in a Land Rover - in the back this
time was from a couple of birdwatchers who I had passed on the path the
previous day.
I arrived back at the car just as the bus from Swanage
was pulling in proving that sometimes it is quicker to hitch even if you do
need three lifts. Back at the flat it was a domestic afternoon. I popped up the shop and then looked after the boys whilst Margareet went shopping.
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