Day:141 2/6/95 Hamworthy to Bournemouth

 Weather: Sunny .

Distance: 23 km  (14.3 miles)    Total Distance:  miles

Another early start with a train to Hamworthy station. Needless to say I was the only one to get off at that given its isolation and the time of day station. 

The first part of the walk was around Turlin Moor housing estate which was quiet as it was only 8 o'clock in the morning.  At the far end of the estate I found a footpath that went outside the houses in fields. Once over the railway bridge and past a fortified caravan camp and MOD establishment, I took a path around Rockley Sands only having to cut inland again because of the Royal Marine training camp. Out back onto the beach again though this bit looked a it private!  Past a park and then into the streets of Poole port and the marina and past the pottery which we had visited yesterday.

The next mile or so around Parkstone Bay was along good paths and good views of the bay.  I tried to keep going along the coast but a marina and a high tide meant I cut back onto the suburban streets.  From there, all the way to Sandbanks, the walk was along the road but nothing too nasty, just a lot of hotels and no nice cafes but good views of the bay and desperate wind surfers struggling with no wind and a long swim out to deep water.

I eventually found somewhere to stop at the Sandbanks ferry terminal.  I had a large coffee in a sad polystyrene beaker and a sandwich and sat outside watching the ferry queue build up.  I headed for the sea but soon had to retrace my steps when I found that the first couple of hotels of Sandbanks go virtually right down to the sea.  Access was thus a couple of hundred yards up the road towards Bournemouth.  For the first half of the walk to Bournemouth I kept to the firm sand next to the sea, dodging small children paddling and making sand castles.  It was here that I came for a holiday with my parents one year. It was just as I remember it - a long expanse of sandy beach all.

Once the promenade started I went up onto that and made faster progress. It was warn and busy but not too crowded.  It was impossible to decide where Sandbanks and Poole ended and Bournemouth began by looking at the terrain though a sign on the promenade told visitors as if asking them to make a comment on the cleanliness of the two.  The pier at Bournemouth looked a long way away for a long time but eventually I reached it.  I had walked fast and non-stop from Sandbanks in order to catch the train. I made my way up a zig-zag path some way beyond the pier and then though the wide streets of Bournemouth to the station. It is an impressive tall station for its two platforms.

Back at Weymouth, I met up with Margaret and the boys on the beach and had fun taking Sean to a Punch and Judy show and watching Gareth make desperate scrambles towards the sea.