SWCP: West Bay to Abbotsbury

 Day 2 was supposed to be a lot easier on the legs, but it didn’t quite seem that way. There was a section of shingle beach that really took it out of me.

This is the house across the road from where

I stayed. There are two similar houses and they’re called the “Hardy houses” because they were designed by the Dorchester architects’ firm where Thomas Hardy worked. 

Looking back towards West Bay around 930 am. 

Phil kindly gave me a lift there from Bridport.

There were flowers galore all along the route.

Not as much climbing as yesterday’s 2500 feet - today it was only 1000 feet. But a few hills.

You can see Chesil beach in the distance.

There were reed-beds all the way along, alive with reed warblers, skylarks,
linnets and I also saw a goldfinch.

The walk from Burton Bradstock to West Bexington was four miles of shingle beach - knackering. I had a nice socks-off sit-down and would have liked to walk barefoot in the shallows but the shingle was too sharp underfoot. I had the entire middle section all to myself, being the only nutter prepared to walk all that way. 

 I turned away from the coast at West Bexington and made my way up to the South Dorset Ridgeway. From here the views were 360-degree and stunning. 

On the ridgeway

The approach to Abbotsbury. In the centre you can see the 14th-century St Catherine’s chapel standing in splendid isolation on a green hill.

I’m staying in a lovely old stone house in Abbotsbury for two nights. It’s very quiet. The only sound is a wood-pigeon and the church bell telling the time now and then. I’ve got the whole house to myself.