Swanage to South Haven Point

Swanage to South Haven Point - Monday 18th April 2016

Path Facts - Length: 7.6 miles, Ascent: 568 feet

Breakfast 9am... in the White Swan... it was bad... a bit of a sour taste in more than one sense. Let's get out of here.

The route out of Swanage is along the sea front a bit then up a road and round the houses a bit. There's definitely some class in parts of Swanage.

Out of the town there's that aahh feeling of being back on the path (except Andy may have been more bleeuurgghh - he was bearing it stoically).

View back to Swanage.

Then on to Old Harry Rocks.

After this the path flattens out and goes inland a bit.

Stopped at Studland for a cuppa (today had been a hellish few flatish miles).

The last couple of miles from here are along the beach at Studland Bay.

There are some unmentionable sights on this beach (pixelated to protect the viewer).

So...

...after 5 1/2 years
...and 630 miles
...and about 4 Everests worth of ups and downs

We arrived at South Haven Point at about lunch time on 18th April 2016.

This makes 58 walking days, some epic and some gentle strolls on the beach.

And will we ever know how many stupid faces were pulled....

FIN

Worth Matravers to Swanage

Worth Matravers to Swanage - Sunday 17th April 2016

Path Facts - Length: 9.5 miles, Ascent: 1203 feet

Breakfast 8am. Off by 9.20 am. Sunny and cool. Walked back through Worth Matravers to rejoin the path.

From the valley at Hill Bottom there's a shortish uphill up to the cliffs on the way to St Aldhelm's Head.

Just before St Aldhelm's there's a steep descent and ascent...

...then there's the chapel and the coast watch up on the head itself.

Dancing ledge.

Anvil Point.

It was busier today and particularly past the lighthouse around Durlstone Head, not far out of Swanage. Stopped here intending to visit the café but it was too busy and there were people queuing. As it was already 1.30pm ish and Swanage was still a few miles away the only real option was packet sandwiches out of the shop. Boy, were they bad. Dried up with manky salad. Gave the remainder of mine to the nearby dog. 

 

 

A short trip from Durlstone before arriving at Swanage at about 3pm.

 

Stopped for afternoonsies at the railway station café much like the one right back at East-the-Water just before Bideford. This was possibly the best experience in Swanage (even though the cake was pretty dry).

This is a small window into the world of Tebbutt post walk recovery and recuperation.

Ate out at La Trattoria. Pizza was good but the jury is out on the dessert. Given that Andy had all the marks of food poisoning afterwards and the only thing he ate today that I didn't was the panna cotta, this was a likely root cause.

 

And here's another special mention for the White Swan, I think the worst place we've stayed over the last 5 1/2 years and about 70 B&B's. Why? Well, offish and unwelcoming staff. Music and shouting until 1.30am in the morning. One of the worst breakfasts we've had. Couldn't wait to leave. I only booked this place on Booking.com because so many places in Swanage don't take single night bookings, but wandering around the town it was clear a few still had vacancies. Bugger!

Info

Accommodation - The White Swan

Location *** well, central I'll give them that

Room **

Facilities **

Noise * Minus a million

Food *

Ambience *

Price * £80 for the room. Too much at any price.


Food – La Trattoria

Quality - difficult to rate this one. The pizza was actually very good, but if the panna cotta was actually the cause of food poisoning then the overall picture wouldn't be good. Jury is out.

Price ***

Lulworth Cove to Worth Matravers

Lulworth Cove to Worth Matravers - Saturday 16th April 2016

Path Facts - Length: 12.8 miles, Ascent: 3200 feet

Stayed over last night in Poole. It was raining quite a lot but better weather was promised. Getting back to Lulworth Cove, our finish point for the last leg would involve a few logistical challenges. So... Breakfast at 8.30am which is the earliest it was available, bus into the centre of Poole, buy lunch as there would be no obvious eateries on route today, catch the 10.14am from Poole to Wool, then a 10.48am bus from Wool to Lulworth Cove, total coast of public transport £9.60 each (take breath).

This actually all went like clockwork. Remarkably the small mini bus that goes from Wool to L. Cove had just enough seats for the number of passengers. Note to anyone else attempting this journey, it only runs 3 times a day.

Walked down to the Cove from where the bus left off only to find that the usual route had been closed due to landslip. The alternative was not signposted so we basically backtracked up the road keeping as far right (East) as possible until a footpath up onto the cliff tops became visible. Probably didn't get going until after 11 am.

This first section is vertissimus up to the cliff top then right back down to almost sea level again, a fair taster for the rest of today. Note the ascent, 3200ft, the most we've done for quite a while.

The path to the fossil forest was also closed so there was another brief diversion into the edge of the Lulworth Range. This brings me to another logistical point. The range appears to be one of the most active and is open most weekends and school holidays. The route through the range is a fair part of today's walk and it is a huge detour to avoid it.

Weather was weird today. Quite warm in the sun but the Northerly wind was straight out of the arctic. The forecast had said that it was snowing in some parts of the UK.

Another vertiginous ascent at Mupe Bay.

Then another drop right back down to Arish Mell then right up two large ascents to Flower's Barrow hill fort where we stopped for lunch, mostly because the time was getting on having started at 11am and it had been challenging walking. Great views but freezing. Don all layers.

Lots of military signs and strategically abandoned tanks.

Erm, not quite sure what to say about this one. Maybe just wooarrgghhh.

 The path drops height again around Worbarrow...

 ...then the path eventually leaves the military range at Kimmeridge.

Although there's not much at Kimmeridge it's a nice quiet spot and there is a car park and very modest sea life centre. We had been hoping (actually disproportionately bigging up) the possibility of at least a tea van. Almost missed it, but luckily there was one tucked away on the edge of the car park. One of those cups of tea that tastes like the best cup of tea you've ever had. Probably mostly due to the desire to stop, sit down and warm up than because it really was the absolute best tea in the world. But what I'm saying is: it was good tea + some subjective factors.

After the relatively modest ascent out of Kimmeridge the path stays the most level it's been today for a few miles then the looming cliff of Houns-tout approaches and St Aldhelm's Head (tomorrow's walk) begins to take more shape (as this head is quite a prominent feature on the coast it had been visible right back from Portland).

Houns-tout cliff was a bit of a sting in the tail today. A stiff ascent after being lulled into post-Kimmeridge flatness. And what goes up...

The path from Houns-tout heads inland up a valley called Hill Bottom.

Instead of following the path where it almost doubles back we followed the road into Worth Matravers, about another mile. There's not much at Worth Matravers but it's a really nice place. The B&B (Chiltern Lodge) was great. With no restaurants within walking distance they offer a meal service as well.


Info

Accommodation - Chiltern Lodge

Location *** nice place but bit of a detour from the path

Room ****

Facilities **** No TV which was fine by me

Noise *****

Food ****

Ambience ****

Price *** £80 for the room.


Food – Chiltern Lodge

Quality ****

Price *** £13 each

Beer (at the Square & Compass) - HBA/Copper Ale *****