SWCP: Portland Bill

Once again I forgot to Strava it - we walked six miles today. The island of Portland was much bigger than I expected, about 4 miles long, so the drive from Sutton Poyntz took half an hour. The rain cleared up just as we were arriving at the rather magnificent Portland Bill lighthouse.

We walked anti-clockwise from the lighthouse through loads of old quarry areas, all with Portland stone piled up everywhere in stacks of giant toy blocks.

Wilson had a whale of a time

There were also a lot of disused gantries for lifting the stone.

There was an active quarry in the middle of the island that we walked past to get from the east cliff to the west cliff, via a public right of way. Wilson seemed to like the taste of the chalky puddles.

Dad being daring.

Wilson navigated the cliffs with ease.

We had a bacon and Brie baguette at the Lobster Pot cafe by the lighthouse. No dogs allowed inside, so we had to sit in the wind. Our tea got cold really quickly. A trio of starlings landed on the trestle table next to ours, looking keen.

On the way back up the island we stopped at a viewpoint overlooking Chesil beach.

 We went to the local pub for dinner, the Springfield. Lovely ambience, wood burning stove etc but the food was pretty bad. A couple of rounds of One Foot in the Grave and time for bed. Tired from the wind and sun. 

SWCP: Weymouth to Osmington

Set off from Barnet towards 10 o’clock this morning and made it to Weymouth by 1 o’clock, mostly through driving rain and impenetrable road spray. It was still grey and drizzly when we arrived and ate our sandwiches. Wilson was finally released from the boot and as we walked down to the sea front the rain petered out and stopped, hooray! There was nobody about and we only saw one other walker the whole way. We actually walked five miles but I forgot to turn Strava on for a while at the beginning.

About to start

It was a bit more up and down than
the guidebook had promised

Sun coming out!

Wilson was the only one who didn’t mind how muddy and slippery the path was. We could all have done with four legs.

Nearly there.

We made it to the bus stop just in time to get the bus back to where we started from. I was worried the bus driver would take one look at the mud on Wilson and exercise his discretion not to let him on board, but to my relief nothing was said. The Airbnb turned out to be only a 5-minute drive away, but down a very narrow road so you have to either reverse back up it or do a ten-point turn in the driveway. Tedious. We will need to have a careful think tonight about where, and how far, to walk tomorrow as it will probably be just as muddy.