Saturday 27th April ‘24. DH, BFS, PCL, DL and ladies, with Albus & Sully
Only a month after original planned, just 4 of us met with our good ladies for our annual Easter walk at the coast, and making his first guest appearance since the Christmas walk Sully was keen to reacquaint himself with everyone as we assembled in the West Bay Hotel carpark at 1030 on a cool but dry late April Saturday morning. Having been checked by the landlady that we weren't just pulling a fast one by not paying for parking, we headed north along the old railway line out of West Bay. No sooner had we started walking and just like young kids on a day trip, the shout went out that someone desperately needed the toilets before we got going. Brian attempted to use the old station café ones before it was pointed out that the public ones were just 30 metres down the platform. Once everyone had been we finally reconvened and headed pff alongside the kids playpark.
The first section of the walk was along the flat old trackbed of the link line off of the Yeovil to Weymouth line which was created by the Bridport Railway Company in 1857 and ran from Maiden Newton (just north of Dorchester) through the Dorset countryside to what was then Bridport Harbour, later renamed to West Bay. Unfortunately Sully is now 12 years old and doesn't walk too far these days, but he was still keen to get to his rightful position at the head of the group as we made our way by the rear of the residential properties and through some newer housing estates, which have been made to look old already with some sporting thatched roofs. Little did Sullky know that plans were already afoot for him to tun around with Denise at some point when we though he had walked far enough, but he certainly had other thoughts at this stage. Crossing the road to Burton Bradstock we started climbing up a small path in a westerly direction and paused to take the groupie photo with a good view over the rooftops and out to sea, before Sully had to turn around.
The day had started with thick coats and hats on but as we continued to climb coats were unzipped and hats stuffed into pockets. At the last property the tarmac road changed to a track as we paused for another photo and then continued climbing past the Wessex water reservoir for the town and through an area of a small nature reserve maintained by Bridport Town Council, known as the Jellyfields and Bothenhampton Nature reserve, which also includes a memorial wildflower garden in memory of local men and boys who gave their lives during the First World War.
As the wooded part of the nature reserve opened up into fields and at around the 1 mile point, Denise decided it was far enough and said her temporary farewells and Kath and her turned around, Before they could depart Dereyk decided it was time to introduce the ladies to the weekly lolly rations and promptly stabbed his stick into the ground and took out the bag of sweeties to distribute around. Once all replenished the remaining six of us continued the steady climb up towards North Hill. There were plenty of young spring lambs in the field to our left whilst the views northwards over the rolling Dorset hills were almost as good as that opening up to our south.
We entered a large field where a tractor was spraying weed killer and fertiliser onto the ground and just as we passed a couple of benches there was a cry from Dereyk at the rear. He had just realised that yet again when he stopped to issue the sweets he had started off again without his trusty stick. There was really no other option that to head back down in the hope it was still there and that Kath & Denise had spotted in and decided to take it back with them. Whilst we waited, i took the opportunity to rest on one of the benches whilst Phil & Claire leaning on their family shepherds crook sticks, looked out to sea and along the Jurassic coastline right round from Portland in the east to Lyme Regis in the west.
After waht seemed an age, but in reality was only about 10 minutes we spotted signs of movement in the distance and then 5 minutes late a hot and tired Dereyk walked back to the group, with stick in one hand and coat, jumper and no doubt some other now surplus cloths on his other arm. Thankfully the stick was where he left it, so without hardly chance for him to catch his breath we continued up the hill, just as the tractor made one last pass in front of us filling the air with yet more chemicals.. A trig pillar on the top marks the summit at 115 metres but our path took us to the rear of the hill maxing out at around 90 metres. The opened field ended at a gate where we continued along a dirt farm track. Knowing our path should only be 200 metres or so on our left, We paused to chat to a walker and farmer in a gate who kindly told us it was another 100m metres or so along, but it was certainly not obvious and i called a halt whilst we checked on possible routes. deciding against going further along before dropping down, which would have taken us right into Burton Bradstock, we did a strategic U turn and having had another chat with the farmer in his Land Rover, we passed through the gateway we had been assured wasn't correct only 10 minutes earlier and into a very large field forming the ridgeline we had to crest before starting our decent.
Following a set of vehicle tracks across the field we eventually realised that we had drifted a little too far left and had to dog-leg across to our right to drop down to the next stile. As we descended the views across the whole of the West Bay area was amazing, and was certainly a new experience for all of us on todays walk. The track down to the road was between a couple of hedgerows and out of the sun the ground was a bit muddy and slippery in places, as we slowly descended to the 90 degree bend in the road. Visibility of traffic coming up the road was fine but extremely limited from the right. Claire took her life in her own hands as she crossed first and then with police like authority stood at the side of the road waving her arm up and down to slow down the traffic. The chap and his friend in a convertible E Type Jaguar looked pretty shocked but reduced his speed sufficiently to allow the 'old' folks to cross safely.
We could see a gate in the corner of the next field so headed straight across to it thinking the path would be through the caravan park, but when we got there there was s seperate pathway across the back of the campers. Luckily Albus didn't have his eye in quick enough as a couple of bunny's had their lunch time disturbed and darted into the hedge. The grass track ended by a toilet block and we followed a gravel one around to the start of the golf course area. The course looked quite busy and a group of four lads stood on the tee waiting for the group ahead to finish, so we took the opportunity to walk past them on the clearly defined public footpath. Brian almost jumped out of his skin when a few seconds later one of them hit his driver and the ball whizzed by on its way over the water obstacle and onto the intended green.
Further along another four ball group were playing across the footpath so again we waited for them to take their shots, although with the extra eyes watching, some didn't quite go to plan.
The path angled across to the fence at the edge of the course and having crossed a stile we headed downhill with the West Bay Hotel firmly in our sights. With the couple of delays we had had on route, we were running close to our reservation time, but knowing Denise and Kath would already be on the vino, we just had time to stop at the cars for some to change footwear. We had completed the 4.4 miles in two and a half hours and had climbed over 120 metres on the way.
We soon found our table in the corner of the bar and settled into ordering drinks and perusing the menu. There was plenty of choice and going by the plates being delivered to other diners, first impressions were good. Fish was obviously a favourite choice with three opting for the sea bass and others for the haddock or cod, whilst the Clacksons went for steaks and I opted for a Thai red curry. the food was quickly served and everyone was impressed with their choices.
We decided as a group that rather than having dessert we would head out to the harbour for a sea side ice cream so once the bills were sorted we did just that. A good choice of flavours and even one for Sully rounded off a thoroughly enjoyable day. Lets hope we have a few more able to join us for the summer walk, that is if the rain ever stops and we do get to have a summer this year.