Sunday 21 June 2026 – Tuesday 23 June 2026

Saturday 20 June 2026

Believe it or not.

Number of walking days: 53
Number of Rest days: 7
Number of hotels/inns/B & Bs: 48
Number of kilometres walked: 1,018.70 kilometres
Number of paces we took: 1.7 million total on 53 walking days, average of 32,000 per day
Number of metres climbed: 32,797 metres
Number of ferries: 15
Number of rivers waded: 2, Gannell and Erme
Number of standard gates: 880
Number of kissing gates: 523
Number of signs: over 4,000
Number of stiles: 436
Number of steps: over 30,000
Most climbing in a day: 1148 metres
Least climbing in a day: 27 metres
Most kms in a day: Woolacombe to Braunton 27.11km
Least kms in a day: St Ives out and back 10.0
Hottest days: Falmouth to Portloe, Portloe to Mevagissey (31°)
Wettest days: to Crackington Haven, St Ives to Tendeen, Dartmouth to Brixham
Windiest days: St Ives to Pendeen, to Lizard, Salcombe to Torcross (1^st half)
Best day of walking: Bigbury-on-Sea (Barbara), Swanage to South Haven (Paul)
Number of taxi transfers: 8
Number of times we got a bus: 5
Number of rooms with a Bath: 11
Number of Hotels with a Lift: 3
Number of 7.30 breakfasts: 7
Best Breakfast coffee: Instow Barton
Continental Breakfast only: Silver Cottage Braunton, The Mandalay Mevagissey
Best breakfast: lots of good ones
Meanest breakfasts: Old School Hotel – no muesli, yoghurt or fruit, The North Inn Pendeen, The Mandalay Mevagissey, The Swan Lodge Abbotsbury
Biggest room: Old Custom House Padstow, Old Schol Hotel Port Isaac, King Arthur’s Arms Tintagel, Hartland Quay Hotel, Hannafore Point Hotel and Spa Looe, Chillington House
Squeakiest floor: Coombe Barton Inn, Hartland Quay Hotel, The Waterfront Inn Westward Ho!
Best Accommodation: The Red Lion Clovelly
Worst hamburger: The Red Lion Clovelly
The hardest walking: four days in the 31° heatwave
No complimentary toiletries: Sea Jade Guest House Bude
Largest bathroom: King Arthur’s Arms
Times we got a room on the ground floor: 8
Creatures seen; ponies, horses, goats, sheep, cows, dogs, cats, snakes, birds, hens, snails, butterflies, bees, flies, alpaca, bulls, squirrels, swans, ducks, pheasants, pigs, humans
Most amazing room: Old School Hotel Port Isaac
Burgers: 7
Nespresso machine in room: Old Custom House Padstow, The Old Success Sennen Cove, The Admiral’s House, Royal Castle
Room two floors up: Old Custom House Padstow, St George’s Hotel Perranporth, Sea View House Portcurno
Most nights in same room: The Western Hotel St Ives (3), Durham House Beer (3)
Home-made cake on arrival: Coombe Barton Instow, Fernleigh B & B Coverack, Jago B & B Portloe
Mistiest day: Lizard to Coverack
Worst internet: Trelawne Hotel Mawgan Smith, Membly Hotel Falmouth
Number of times fridge in the room: 9
No one at reception on arrival: The Mandalay Mevagissey, Durham House Beer, Swan Lodge Abbotsbury
Worst Hotel: The Mandalay Mevagissey
Number of swims: Paul 10, Barbara 6
Hotel with swimming pool: Boscundle Manor, Hannafore Point Hotel and Spa, Devon Court
Most number of beds in our room: Lisawne (1 double, 3 single), Chillington (4 single)
Air conditioner in our room: The Royal Castle Dartmoiuth
Most stairs to room: The Royal Castle Dartmouth 62
Free beer in the room: Old Success, Royal Castle
Free wine: The Admiral’s House Plymouth
Number of glasses of wine: one each at The Admiral’s House because it was complementary, one at the end in Toby Carvery Poole
Number of beers: Paul had one Korev at the Royal Castle because it was complementary
Number of ice creams: one each (Lyme Regis)
Number of cream teas: one (Port Isaac)
Number of Fish and Chips: one (Lyme Regis)
Number of pasties: 6
Number of breakfast eggs: 93 each
Number of Hob Nobs: 105 each
Number of photos: Paul 5037, Barbara 25
Number of blog postings: 72

Saturday 20 June 2026

This was just a moving day from Poole to London Heathrow. Our National Express bus didn’t leave until 12.25pm so we had a slow and easy morning. It seemed odd that we didn’t have to have our bags down at the front door by 9am for collection by the luggage transfer people. There were two other couples at breakfast who were also walkers. They had walked from Lyme Regis to Poole. We felt a bit smug saying we had walked from Minehead. They have done other walks in the UK together and also in New Zealand, including the Tongariro Crossing. Just for a change and because they were on the menu for the first time I had grilled kippers. Kippers are fat herrings that have been split through the back, gutted, opened flat, salted or brined and then cold smoked. They often come with scrambled egg or a poached egg on top. Mine came minus the egg. They were okay but too salty for my taste.

We had a small problem with Barbara’s telescopic walking poles this morning. She has used them everyday and after nine weeks in the dirt, sand, mud and rain they were stuck fast and we could not collapse them. You are not permitted to take walking poles as your “carry on” on aircraft, they have to go in your checked in luggage. The only way we can get them into her baggage is to collapse them. After a lot of struggling and cursing and twisting, with help from a wrench supplied by Steve, the landlady’s other half, we managed to get them unstuck and collapsed and into her bag.

We walked the half hour down to the bus terminal. It is adjacent to the very large Dolphin Shopping Centre which was busy on a Saturday morning. In a central part of the mall pink, yellow and black deck chairs were set out in front of a giant screen so you could relax and watch World Cup Football. I think it was a replay of USA v Australia.  They should have had the Hurricanes annihilating the Chiefs. We noticed some people walking around in pirate costumes.

The Dolphin Centre leads out into the old part of Poole and High Street which is completely pedestrianised and leads eventually down to the historic Poole Quay. This is just how the Golden Mile in Wellington should be. They even cope with the main railway line crossing the High Street. This morning a market was in full swing with dozens of stalls set up. We kept seeing more and more pirates and eventually found out today was Harry Paye Pirate Day, a swashbuckling community festival. It all kicked off at noon so we couldn’t hang around as we had a bus to catch. At noon there was to be a parade of pirates led by the mayor, best dressed junior pirates competition, singing of sea shanties, pirate games, children’s rides, treasure hunts, firing of cannons, raids by pirates from neigbouring towns and much more. I have never seen so many eye patches, ear rings and cutlasses.

The bus trip to London was uneventful, 2½ hours cruising down highways with only about 3 stops. The bus went right to the central bus station at Heathrow, between terminals 2 and 3. This is also where we caught a local red bus route 105 that goes through a long tunnel under the runways to get outside the airport precinct. Only about a 7 minute ride with a bus stop right outside the ibis Styles. We are here just for tonight, it is comfortable, has a restaurant for dinner and breakfast, and is quiet despite being a stone’s throw from the Heathrow runways. It is a mile away along the same road from the Ibis London Heathrow Airport Hotel where we stayed when we arrived in England in what seems like a lifetime ago.

We had dinner down in the restaurant. Barbara: sweet potato and spinach curry with rice and naan bread. Me: meatballs Pomodoro, pork and beef meatballs in a rich tomato sauce, with basil and olive oil served with pasta. Reasonably priced and not too large. We will have breakfast there in the morning.

This was one of those frustrating days when you are feeling a bit flat because the big walk is over but you are just filling in time before the dreaded long journey home.

I should have said in yesterday’s post that one of the factors in us completing the Coast Path and enjoying it so much is because we have been 100% healthy. No coughs, colds, flu, stomach ailments or anything of the like. For me not a single blister, for Barbara a few hot spots on her feet but she catches them early and wraps them in wool. There is a lot of wool available on the barbed wire fences. Of course we had sore feet, legs, hips etc after long days of steep up hills and downhills but we seemed to come right overnight to do it all again the next day. We definitely got fitter and stronger as the weeks went on, which surprised us. We thought we would just get more and more tired and run down so I guess it shows even old people can improve their strength with exercise.

Friday 19 June 2026

Day 53 of walking
Swanage to South Haven
Distance: 11.63km
Total distance: 1018.70km
Climbing: 295m
Total climb: 32,797m

This was a perfect day for the last day of our South West Coast Path. We woke to a bit of mist but by the time breakfast was done this had burnt off to a lovely sunny windless day. A short day and an easy one. A gentle climb up Studland Hill, the only hill of the day, to a large grassy area known as Ballard Downs. The air was crystal clear today so we had a great view back over Swanage Bay, views over Studland Bay to Poole and Bournemouth and out over the Solent to the Isle of Wight. The Downs sloped gently down hill to Ballard Point and Handfast Point. This is an exhilarating section with vertical white chalk cliffs, off shore stacks, sea gulls and falcons soaring, and the Old Harry Rocks.

These are a trio of spectacular white chalk stacks and a stump. Thousands of years ago these stacks were part of a solid line of cliffs connecting to the famous chalk formations on the Isle of Wight known as ‘The Needles’. Relentless wave action eroded the softer chalk creating caves that eventually broke through to form arches. When the tops of these arches collapsed, they left isolated pillars of hard chalk—the sea stacks we saw today. A nearby stack known as “Old Harry’s Wife” crumbled into a stump during a severe storm. “Old Harry” is a traditional nickname for the Devil in English folklore. Legend claims the Devil once slept on the rocks.

From Old Harry it was an easy stroll down to Studland Bay with its sheltered sandy beaches and little wooden chalets. At Middle Beach we stopped for what was to be our last swim of this walk. Probably the best too, the water was warm, flat calm, no pebbles, and this part of the beach very quiet. It was here we had our coffee break and could look across the bay to Old Harry Rocks. From Middle Beach our walk was all along the beach amongst sun seekers, dog walkers, naked naturists and other day trippers to South Haven Point and the finish line.

There is a large blue metal sculpture at South Haven Point marking the official end (or the beginning) of the 630 mile path from Minehead. Fortunately there was a man willing to take our photo, although he didn’t seem to know much about the Coast Path. At South Haven there is a vehicle and pedestrian ferry that crosses the 375 metre wide entrance to Poole Harbour (the second largest natural harbour in the world) to Sandbanks. It takes about 4 minutes to cross. A ferry was about to leave so we hurried on board. Pedestrians going from South Haven to Sandbanks go for free. Pedestrians doing the reverse have to pay £1.18. Vehicles pay both ways.

The ferry is a “chain ferry”. Two heavy steel chains run along the harbour bed, spanning 1235 feet and are anchored at each end. The ferry has heavy duty on board drive wheels that grip the chains. The ferry’s motors turn the wheels winding the chain up and pulling the ferry across. Poole Harbour’s entrance is narrow and subject to extremely strong, rushing tides, a standard free-floating boat or ferry would struggle to dock accurately. The heavy steel chains guide the ferry safely across, maintaining a perfect trajectory directly onto the slipways despite the currents.

While waiting for our bus we ate our lunch on the Sandbanks foreshore and watched the ferry go back and forth. A return crossing takes 20 minutes, including loading and unloading cars, buses, trucks and pedestrians. It carries about 30 vehicles including the large double decker buses.

Our bus was a “Breezer” open top double decker, Route 60 into the Poole Bus Station, another £3 fare, and took about 20 minutes. We had front row seats on the top deck which sounds good but was a bit breezy and cool up there. Hence the name I guess. At the Poole Bus Station we checked out the National Express coach bus station we will use tomorrow to get back to London Heathrow. Our accommodation, The Acorn Guesthouse, was a half hour walk from the bus station into the depths of suburbia.We were warmly welcomed and it is comfortable enough but not in the least bit charming or interesting. Maybe a bit of a let down after some of the other wonderful 47 places we have stayed at in the last nine weeks. We needed to get some dinner but we seemed to be in the middle of a housing area with no shops. The landlady recommended the Toby Carvery a further 400 yards up the road. Maggie on MapMyWalk told us it was in fact 740 yards but it was well worth it. They basically serve roast meals all day, every day, pork, beef, gammon or turkey with a buffet of all you can eat vegetables, roast potatoes, carrots, beans, corn, cauliflower, Yorkshire pudding, ruffled roasties etc and all at very good prices. They have set prices for two or three course meals, we had the two course, a main and dessert. For dessert Barbara had apple crumble with cream and I had it with custard. Our waitress was having a little difficulty with our accents. We thought we had ordered a glass of red I Heart Shiraz from Spain but ended up with a glass of white I Heart Chardonnay from Chile. We didn’t complain, just laughed it off as another of those funny misunderstandings we have had over the last nine weeks.

The last day is always one of mixed emotions, Certainly a feeling of having “knocked the bugger off” as Sir Edmund Hillary said after conquering Mount Everest. Incidentally we did almost four Mt Everests of climbing and we didn’t use supplemental oxygen as Hillary did! We are glad and proud we have walked and finished Britain’s longest and finest footpath.

It is also a bit of a sad day. Life has been so simple for the last nine weeks. Eat, walk, sleep. I didn’t want it to end. Right now I would happily turn around and walk all the way back to Minehead, or maybe carry on and walk King Charles newly opened England Coast Path. Barbara doesn’t feel quite the same way, she is ready to go home to family and friends. Alfred Wainwright at the end of his walk on the Pennine Way said: “You have completed a mission and satisfied an ambition. You have walked the Pennine Way, as you have dreamed of doing. This will be a very satisfying moment in your life. You will be tired and hungry and travel stained. But you will feel, great, just great.” Substitute South West Coast Path for Pennine Way and that is us.

Thursday 18 June 2026

Day 52 of walking
Swanage out and back
Distance: 10.60
Total distance: 1,007.07
Climbing: 156m
Total climb: 32,502m

Today’s stage was always going to be a problem. Our Macs itinerary had us walking 34 kilometres from Lulworth Cove to Swanage which included going through the very active Lulworth Firing Range between Lulworth Cove and Kimmeridge. The Range is usually, but not always, open on weekends, usually closed week days but sometimes open in the peak summer months. You have to check before leaving Lulworth Cove if the range is open or not. Today was a Thursday and it was not.

There are alternatives. Alternative one is an inland route on public paths, fields and quiet back roads from Lulworth to Kimmeridge and is 21.75 kilometres. Alternative two is to walk on a relatively busy road, the B3070, to Kimmeridge and is 19.3 kilometres. When the range is open Lulworth Cove to Kimmeridge is 11.76 kilometres. So alternative one is 43.5 kms, alternative two is 41.05kms, compared to the range open, official route, of 34 kms.

Macs suggested if the Range was closed we get the bus from Lulworth Cove to Corfe Castle, walk from there down to the Coast Path at Chapman’s Pool and carry onto Swanage. This is a walk of a total of about 21 kilometres. However it is very hilly, over 950 metres of climbing. Another option we considered was to bus to Corfe Castle and do the inland section of the Purbek Way from Corfe Castle to Swanage. This would have been a complete contrast to all the coastal walking we have done over the last nine weeks.

A further option was to get the bus to Corfe Castle, spend a couple of hours in the beautiful stone building village with its castle ruins of 1105, and get the heritage steam train from there to Swanage. Much as I love old steam trains we are here to walk.

It was another misty, murky morning and we didn’t think we would see much on any of the above options and they were a bit long and hilly for us. We decided to get the bus all the way to Swanage, and then hoping the mist may have lifted, do an out and back walk from Swanage. There was a bus every hour, it cost £3 each, went on a circuitous inland route, and took an hour and a quarter. It seems that on suburban buses, no matter how far you go, it is always £3.

Swanage is a small and unassuming town of about 10,000. It is not very attractive in itself but does have a long sweeping sandy beach, is the terminus of the heritage Swanage Steam Railway which runs to Corfe Castle, and is located between Lulworth Cove and Durdle Door to the west and Old Harry’s Rocks to the east. It is basically the eastern end of the Jurassic Coast.

We located the Coast Path in Swanage and climb up around Peveril Point across the grassy Downs, through some woodland to Durlston Country Park. At Durlston Castle Maggie on MapMyWalk announced we had walked 4 kilometres which meant we had walked 1,000 kilometres. A high five and we asked a kind gentleman to take our photo. He and his friends were amazed two old geezers had walked so far.

Also at Durlston Country Park overlooking the ocean, is a stone sphere sitting on a solid rock platform cut into the hill. It is one of the largest stone spheres in the world, is made of Portland Stone, weighs 40 tonnes, is 3 metres in diameter and was made in 1887. The surface is carved in detail and shows, continents, oceans and certain specific areas of the world. New Zealand is shown. Around the globe are plaques carved with verses from English and Roman poets, and the bible.

We walked on a bit further to Anvil Point to see the lighthouse. The mist had come in again and we couldn’t see the lighthouse until we almost tripped over it. It was built of local stone in 1881 and positioned as a waypoint for ships passing along the English Channel. We couldn’t see the cliffs ahead or the sea below so decided to turn around and head back to Swanage.

We are staying at the Pines Hotel, a fairly bland mid last century hotel in a great location on a cliff overlooking Swanage Bay. Except it is now total white out and there is nothing to see from the hotel rooms, terrace, lounge or dining room. It is only the third hotel we have stayed in that has a lift up to our second floor room. It is about a kilometre out of the town centre and a flat walk along the beach promenade and then up a hill. This is one kilometre we won’t have to do tomorrow. The hotel has 147 steps down the cliff to what is effectively their own private beach. Very few people would come this far out of Swanage to swim when they can swim anywhere in the bay, so it is used just by hotel patrons. After settling in we went down to the beach for a refreshing swim. Almost as warm as Oriental Bay in summer.

It is a long walk into town so we dined at the hotel. It is a bit upmarket for grubby walkers like us who just want a quick and simple meal. All the dining room staff were dressed in black and white like penguins and were very polite. All the diners looked incredibly old, but then we forget that we are just as old as they are. Barbara: pan fried chicken supreme, creamed potato, rosemary red wine sauce. Me: roast pork belly, apple puree, black pudding crumb, maple syrup, smoked paprika. They both came with roast potato, carrots, broccoli, corn and green beans.

We can’t quite believe tomorrow is our last day of walking. A short, easy walk to Studland Bay and South Haven Point, photo at the sculpture at the end of the South West Coast Path, ferry across to Sandbanks and a bus ride into Poole. And that’s it, all done, back to the real world.

Wednesday 17 June 2026

Day 51 of walking
Weymouth to Lulworth Cove
Distance: 19.35km
Total distance: 996.47km
Climbing: 727m
Total climb: 32,346m

Today’s section started with a dead flat walk and ended with a roller coaster. The walk out of Weymouth was on the esplanade on a dull and gloomy morning. The splendid Georgian houses on the sea front which should have been standing proudly , glistening in the morning sun were hardly visible, hiding in the mist. At the end of the beach the path went inland slightly to bypass Furzy Cliff and then went through the Southside Funfair, all still and quiet before opening time. There is another huge holiday park here and the massive faux Art Deco Riviera Hotel, abandoned and neglected when we were here three years ago and looking like it is falling apart even more today.

On the hill above the hotel we were looking for the Osmington White Horse. This is a large image of a horse and rider carved into the white chalk hillside. Carved in 1808 and restored in 2010, the figure is King George III who often holidayed in Weymouth. We missed seeing this last time and were determined not to miss again. We asked a man walking his dog, who we assumed would be a local, but he had no idea having been in Weymouth for only a day. Next we asked a lady walking her two dogs. She was local and pointed it out to us there and then. It was much further away than we expected and so looked very small. It was also not white but a dirty sort of brown. I think the fact that it was a gloomy misty morning meant it was not looking its best.

After some very gentle walking along some low cliffs the next highlight was The Smugglers Inn at Osmington Mills. This is a lovely thatched roof place, its origins dating back to the 13^th century. It was one of the main landing places for smuggled goods from France in the 17^th century. It is often voted the ‘Best Pub in Dorset’. Some more gentle walking on grass and through woodland until we went down to the beach at Ringstead Bay. The coast is all pea sized pebbles as we saw at Chesil Beach. Luckily we didn’t have to walk on it, just sit and drink our coffee and try and make out the outline of the Isle of Portland in the mist. The mist was hanging around the higher cliff tops and it was much clearer at sea level.

Then the tough stuff began. A gradually steepening climb up to White Nothe and some remote former coast guard houses. We were way up in the white stuff and you could only see about 50 metres ahead on the path. We then got on the roller coaster, a series of very steep descents and climbs with intriguing names like Burning Cliff, Middle Bottom, Bats Hole and Scratchy Bottom. Some rocks off shore are called The Calf, The Cow, The Blind Cow and The Bull. The geology had changed to a series of sheer white cliffs. This is a very dramatic part of the coast and has two iconic landmarks of the South West Coast Path, Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove.

Geologically Durdle Door is just an arch of limestone rock, set out at sea, and joined to the mainland with a narrow sliver of land. It was formed by the tides eroding the rock and eventually the tides will destroy the arch. Just along the beach at Stair Hole a new arch is forming in an ’infant cove’ and it will eventually replace Durdle Door. This place is incredibly popular with a camp ground and huge car park and is on the route of a hop-on, hop-off open top tourist bus. We have now been here twice and both times there were a lot of people about. Last time it was a hot, sunny, windless day and along with many others we swam. Some were swimming out and through the arch. Today it was windy, cold, and overcast. It is a very steep pebble beach with a strong undertow and today the wind was driving in some decent waves. It looked a bit unsafe unless you were a strong swimmer and nobody was in the water.

Just over the headland is one of the most picturesque coves in the south west, Lulworth Cove. A perfectly horse shoe shaped white pebble cove known for its brilliant blue crystal clear water. It wasn’t quite like that on this overcast and misty day. Just inland is the idyllic village of Lulworth and a little further inland the even lovelier village of West Lulworth. We are staying there at The Castle Inn, a beautifully restored thatch roofed pub dating from 1660. In the attic again, but up only one flight of narrow, uneven, twisty stairs. The corridor to our room is only the width of my shoulders and is far from straight or level. We love it when you just have to go downstairs to the bar for a meal. Barbara: Wild garlic rigatoni, spring pesto, burrata, basil and toasted pine nuts. Me: Wiltshire lamb sausages, champ potatoes, mint gravy, spring greens, beer-battered green onion. Both fantastic.

Tomorrow Macs Adventure have us walking 34 kilometres from Lulworth Cove to Swanage, with 1297 metres of climbing. Way too much for us these days. In 2023 we did this in two days and found it difficult then – although the first day was in pouring rain. We are concocting something different for our penultimate day of walking.

Tomorrow will be a milestone day. We only have to walk 4 more kilometres to reach 1,000 kilometres.

Tuesday 16 June 2026

Day 50 of walking
Abbotsbury to Weymouth
Distance: 16.35km
Total distance: 977.12km
Climbing: 291m
Total climb: 31,619m

We feel we made the right decision to shorten today’s 24 plus km down to 16 plus km by taking the bus from Abbotsbury to Chickerell. It made for a nice walk of a comfortable length, a good path, no big climbs, warm but not hot, no wind and interesting in a few different ways. Because there are so few buses on this route we were at the bus stop a good 20 minutes early to make sure we didn’t miss it. A full-size double decker, route X53 to Weymouth by First Bus, arrived on schedule and in 15 minutes whisked us down a narrow secondary road to the small village of Chickerell. The way these large buses navigate tight roads and small villages is amazing.

At Chickerell we walked about half a kilometre down a quiet country road and then a public path over a field to rejoin the Coast Path at the Fleet. We had chosen Chickerell because it is the closest point the bus route gets to the Path. On the public path to the Coast Path we came across a tiny stone church in the hamlet of Fleet. The Doomsday Book of 1086 mentions a church on this site and a survey of 1552 records a church with a tower and two bells. In the great storm of 1824 the church suffered badly when the Chesil Beach shingle barrier was breached and huge waves crossed the Fleet lagoon. The tower and nave of the church were demolished and all that remains today is a tiny church and a few grave stones. A new church was built further inland.

The Fleet is a nature reserve, a great expanse of lagoon water separating the land from the pebble ridge of Chesil Beach. The ridge is so high that walking around the shore of the lagoon you cannot see, and are unaware of, the sea on the other side. The walk was easy, mostly flat, farm land on one side and the lagoon with its bird life and a few boats on the other. We passed a couple of modest sized holiday parks, walked through a military firing range (no red flags flying today), around a military training centre with its high fence and razor wire, and across a short stretch of the muddy Fleet itself. Fortunately the tide was out.

The 29km long Fleet ends (or begins) at Ferry Bridge where it connects to Portland Harbour. Ferry Bridge is the start of the long causeway that connects the Isle of Portland to the mainland. We are not going out to the Isle this trip as we did a full one-day circuit of it in 2023. We stopped for our coffee break at Ferry Bridge. It is still another 5 kilometres to Weymouth the first part along a flat straight former railway line along the coast. The path then climbs up through some very, very, expensive suburban real estate before dropping back down to the coast onto a concrete sea wall. This leads to the massive Victorian Fort Nothe, guarding the entrance to the harbour and the River Wey, through Nothe Gardens, and suddenly you are in Weymouth alongside the river.

Weymouth is probably my favourite town on the South West Coast Path. It has the old harbour, full of fishing boats, ferries, day excursion boats and luxury yachts and the river is lined with a lovely collection of old buildings now housing bars, cafes, restaurants and the like. Leading from the river is the old town with a maze of narrow streets and lanes full of an amazing range of shops. Then a great sweep of sand and a promenade with arcades and fairground rides, fronted with Georgean houses. We swam at the beach in 2023 so I wanted to go and swim again. The weather had turned overcast, the wind had got up and it was a bit cooler. In the miles and miles of beach front I was the only person in swimming. Even the life guards had packed it in and gone home.

We are staying at the Red Cliff B & B which is about 2 kilometres along the beach from the river, on the way out of town. We didn’t want to have to walk back into the town for dinner so had lunch in the Old Rooms Inn on the river bank.  Not counting the hamburgers there were only five mains on the menu and two of those were “off”. Barbara: Hand battered Atlantic cod, with chips and garden peas. Me: Rainbow grain salad, mixed grains and salad leaves, topped with cucumber, baby tomatoes, roasted peppers and red onions, drizzled with French dressing and a topping of grilled chicken breast. This is the reverse of normal. Barbara is usually into the grain salad. For the second time this trip we had dessert: Bramley apple crumble with custard.

Monday 15 June 2026

Day 49 of walking
Bridport to Abbotsbury
Distance: 21.17km
Total distance: 960.77km
Climbing: 170m
Total climb: 31,328m

Our first mission today was to retrace our steps from Bridport 3.2 kilometres back to West Bay. This is a nice quiet walk along the river bank and all of it away from traffic. About half way to West Bay is a large Morrisons supermarket so we called in there to get some supplies for dinner tonight. Our destination Abbotsbury has two pubs but one had a fire in January and is closed for rebuilding and the other does not serve meals on Mondays, and today is a Monday. We decided to have our main meal at lunchtime and just get something cold to eat in our room this evening. On past trips we used to buy ‘Meal Deals’ quite often but not this trip. A meal deal is a combo price for a main (sandwiches, wraps etc), a drink (smoothies, juice, soda, water) and a snack (crisps, choc bar etc). One of each for a total of £3.75. If you bought a smoothie on its own it was £2.80, so overall it is a good deal. These meal deals are in all the main supermarket chains and even some Boots the Chemist.

At the east end of West Bay is East Cliff, an imposing, orange, vertical cliff towering over the beach. The Coast Path used to go up the edge of the cliff but a dramatic landslide in 2017 means the path is diverted inland, across some fields, through yet another golf course and comes down to the beach at Burton Freshwater through the massive Freshwater Beach Holiday Park. A small climb over Burton Cliff to Hive Beach where we stopped for our coffee break. The cliffs then flatten out and there is no more climbing for 10 kilometres until the climb up to Abbotsbury Village. This does not make the walking easier as sections of it are on pea sized round pebbles on a shingle ridge separating the sea from the fields. The walking is hard on the legs, slow and tiring. Your feet sink in the shingle which moves every time you try and step forward. You feel as though your feet are slipping and sliding in all directions. At first this is Cogden Beach which turns into Chesil Beach.

Chesil Beach is 29 kilometres long, up to 15 metres high and is made of 100 million tonnes of pebbles. It is a ‘storm beach’ and is still moving inland about 5 metres a century due to storm overwash. The pebbles grade from pea size in the west to potato sized cobbles in the east. Chesil Beach is one of the finest storm beaches in the world. It was formed in the Holocene Period 6000 years ago and was pushed on shore by rising sea levels and now protects the Weymouth lowlands and the Fleet, one of the most important lagoons in Europe.

About half way along our walk on the beach was the tiny hamlet of West Bexington, some beach houses, a car park, toilets and The Club House Restaurant. This is where we planned to have our main meal at lunch time. It was open and doing a good trade. We both had Focaccia sandwiches served with salad and a summer slaw. Barbara had a ‘Veggie’: fried halloumi, guacamole, spiced tomato chutney, pickled red onion, tomato and lettuce. I had ‘The Club House’ sliced roast chicken, bacon, lettuce, tomato and aioli. We didn’t add the skinny fries. The sandwiches were huge and we should have ordered just one and shared.

After lunch we were able to get off the pebbles and make much faster progress on a service road behind the beach. After a couple of kilometres we reached a car park, toilets and a seasonal café (closed Mondays and Tuesdays). Here the path turns inland  for about 2 kilometres to Abbotsbury. The path was on grass and went around and through a few fields. In one field five tractors were tedding, collecting, baling and plastic wrapping hay and loading the bales onto a trailer. All a very slick operation. We were following the route on our Macs app and it took us up a steep grass slope to the highest hill around, to St Catherine’s Chapel. The chapel was built in the late fourteenth century and is dedicated to St Catherine of Alexandria, one of the most popular saints in mediaeval England. The hill top location recalls the monastery of St Catherine on Mt Sinai and suggests it may have been a place of pilgrimage. From the hill we could look down on the Fleet (lagoon inside Chesil Beach), also the maze that is part of the Abbotsbury Swannery.

Abbotsbury is a pristine little village of stone with lots to interest. The 11^th century remains of the Benedictine Abbey of St Peter, the longest Tithe Barn in England, St Catherine’s Chapel, the Swannery where swans are bred, subtropical gardens, a children’s farm (where they farm children?), a Clock Work Shop where dozens of elegant and rare antique clocks are displayed.

We are staying at The Swan Lodge, possibly the least interesting building in the whole village. Just an ordinary house converted into an ordinary B & B. When we arrived there was no one here, the front door was unlocked and our bags were in the hall. Macs had a phone number in their notes so we gave it a call. Turns out the Swan Lodge is run by the Swan Inn over the road. This is the Inn that had the fire in January. A lady in her old painting clothes came running over to get us settled in. She and her husband are working frantically to get the Inn opened as soon as possible.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a 25km day from Abbotsbury to Weymouth. Anything over 20km is getting to be a bit too much for us at this stage of our walk. 90% of the path is not on the coast but goes across endless fields until you get down to the Fleet and then it follows the inland side of the Fleet almost into Weymouth. Outside the Swan Lodge is a bus stop, so in the morning we will catch a bus to the next village down the road, Chickerell, and from there, using farm lanes and public paths, get back onto the Coast Path, bypassing the boring fields. There are very few busses, we need to be on the 9.05am otherwise there is hours of waiting for the next one.

Sunday 14 June 2026

Day 48 of walking
Lyme Regis to Bridport
Distance: 21.14km
Total distance: 939.60km
Climbing: 746m
Total climb: 31,158m

Our 9.30am taxi turned up at 9.10am and we were back in Dorset at Lyme Regis ready to start walking at 9.30am. Our taxi driver was a happy chappie, he was Moroccan and overnight Morocco had drawn their World Cup Football match against Brazil which was something of an upset. Lyme Regis at 9.30am on a Sunday morning was already beginning to buzz. The cafes and restaurants offering breakfast or coffee were doing a great trade. People were already marking out their plots and setting up their little tents and shelters on the beach.

Besides The Cobb, famously featuring in Jane Austen’s Persuasion and the book and film of The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Lyme Regis is best known for its fossils. The Jurassic Coast is a treasure trove for fossil-hunters and fossils are found at most of the beaches including Lyme Regis. The most common finds are ammonites – the spiral-shaped shells of extinct marine molluscs, and belemnites – once called ‘Devil’s thunderbolts’ due to their shape but are really part of an internal shell of a squid-like animal.

‘She sells sea shells on the sea shore’ The person this tongue twister is said to refer to is Mary Anning, the famed local palaeontologist who made numerous discoveries of great importance in the coastal cliffs around Lyme Regis. She rose from a poor and uneducated background to become one of the world’s leading and most revered fossil collectors and palaeontologists. She made the first of several important discoveries in 1811 at the age of 12, unearthing a 17 foot long ichthyosaurus (fish lizard), in 1823 she discovered a complete plesiosaurus (near lizard) and in 1828 a pterodactyl skeleton. Unfortunately due to the great social inequality of the time a woman of her background was never given the plaudits she deserved. In order to make a living she had to sell her finds to other scientists who then took all the credit for them. In 2010 however she was included in the list of 10 British women to have most influenced the history of science.

A major feature of the walking today is the large number of cliff slippages caused by a combination of wet weather and geology. After a walk along the promenade and sea wall at Lyme Regis the first diversion was inland on roads away from the coast, across yet another golf course, back onto some roads to meet the coast again at Charmouth. The interest here was a nice beach, a Heritage Coast Centre, a good location for fossil hunters, and for us a shop with an ice cold drink of apple juice on what was turning out to be hot day.

From Charmouth there is a long steep climb, with diversions inland away from and back to the crumbling cliffs to Golden Cap – at 191m the south coast’s highest point. The highest point on the entire Coast Path is Great Hangman – 318m, but it is on the west coast. The views up and down the coast were spectacular on this clear day, way beyond Beer Head to the west and the Isle of Portland to the east. We came over Golden Cap in 2023 in white out conditions and saw nothing, so today was pretty special. Golden Cap gets its name from the distinctive layer of bright yellow-orange sandstone (known as Upper Greensand) that forms the very top of the hill. From the summit it is a very fast steep descent to the beach at Seatown, a tiny village with a pub, pizzeria, sauna, car park and huge holiday park.

Another steep climb and descent over Doghouse Hill to the beach at Eype Mouth, a tiny hamlet with just a few small chalets and a car park. I was feeling very hot after all the climbing so had a quick swim before we tackled the last climb of the day at West Cliff before going down into West Bay. The whole of the coast today was steep crumbling cliffs and there have been many large landslides. The path keeps away from the more dangerous cliff edges but sometimes got very close to the edge and you could peer down to the beach and water below. This was a bit unnerving when you realised the piece you were standing on was severely undercut and there were large cracks in the ground around you.

West Bay is a working harbour but also thrives on the tourist trade. The original harbour was at Bridport a couple of miles inland on the River Brit. The river silted up and boats became too big for the river so a new port was constructed on the coast. This was named Bridport Harbour until the railway came to Bridport and in an early example of rebranding the name was changed to West Bay to be more attractive to tourists.

At West Bay we left the Coast Path and went inland 3.2 kilometres on a public footpath, initially through a large holiday park and then along the banks of the Brit and Asker Rivers to the town of Bridport, where we are staying at the Tiger Inn. It is tough doing an extra 3 kilometres at the end of a hot, strenuous day but West Bay has very little hotel or B & B accommodation, just the holiday park and some modern high-rise apartments. The Tiger Inn is a nice 18^th century establishment, and of course we are up two flights in the attic. Like every pub and Inn in England they are showing non-stop World Cup Football and there is a lively crowd downstairs and in the two outside beer gardens. It could be a long noisy night.

The Tiger Inn does not serve food other than breakfast so we went down the road to The Bull Inn. We stayed there in 2023 and knew they did evening meals. It was a Sunday and to our joy they were serving Sunday Roasts until 8pm. Two weary but hungry walkers after a strenuous day, tucked into a great roast chicken with Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes and vegetables with lashings of gravy.

Saturday 13 June 2026

Day 47 of walking
Beer to Lyme Regis
Distance: 14.98
Total distance: 918.46km
Climbing: 477m
Total climb: 30,412m

Today and tomorrow are the last of our taxi transfer days. We walked from Beer to Lyme Regis and a taxi was booked for 5pm to bring us back to Beer for the night. We arrived in Lyme Regis at 1pm and after a slow lunch and a swim rang the taxi company to see if they could pick us up early. The best they could do was 4.30pm. Tomorrow morning a taxi is booked for 9.30am to take us back to Lyme Regis for us to start walking. We asked the driver if he could come earlier, say 9 am. He rang around all his taxi driver mates to see if anyone could do a 9am pick up but no luck. So tomorrow will be a late start, probably not walking out of Lyme Regis much before 10am.

It was a windless, sunny, 21° day and fortunately at least 10 kilometres was in woodland in the shade. Of course it started with a climb out of Beer up East Ebb and then back down to Seaton Hole Beach. When the tide is low it is possible to walk a kilometre along the pebbly beach to Seaton and this is what we did. Seaton doesn’t have the Regency style of Sidmouth or the old world charm of Beer but it did have a Park Run. This is a world-wide phenomenon of a Saturday morning 5km timed run. Barbara does the Wellington Park Run along the wharves and used to do the Kapiti one along the Waikanae River. In New Zealand they start at 8am but in England they start at 9am. When we arrived in Seaton the run was in full swing. We chatted with the Race Director for a while and she said the one millionth Park Run would be run that day. They had considered starting at 8.59 today until someone pointed out New Zealand would have already run dozens of Park Runs by then, as they are 11 hours ahead and are the first in the world each Saturday.

Leaving Seaton we crossed the River Axe, Axminster is a larger town inland, and immediately had a very steep climb up through a golf course. The original Coast Path along the cliff tops has disappeared in large landslides so the diversion is through the golf course and through fields of corn. Soon we were into the Axmouth to Lyme Regis Undercliffs National Nature Reserve. This is an 11 kilometre long by 750m wide strip of land, the result of numerous landslides, the biggest on Xmas Eve 1839, separated from the cliffs by a huge chasm. This was the first such landslide scientifically studied and was a huge draw card for Victorian tourists. The interesting thing about it now, is that it was subsequently never farmed and has been left to its own devices. It has become a safe virgin woodland and dense scrub habitat for birds, butterflies, flowers, shrews, mice, lizards, snakes, and much else.

It is called an English Jungle, but to us it was much like any stretch of NZ native bush. It was cool and beautiful to walk through but the path was difficult. Lots of sharp ups and downs, constantly winding back and forth, tree roots to trip over, fallen trees and boggy and muddy stretches. Only one place where you could see the coast and a few places where you were aware of the towering white chalk cliffs. When you start this section of the walk you are committed to either keep going forward or retreating back on the same path. There is no where down to the coast and no paths inland to roads and civilisation.It seemed to take an age to get through the “jungle” but then suddenly you emerge into Lyme Regis, or more specifically The Cobb and Lyme Regis Beach. It was a warm, sunny Saturday and the beach, ice cream parlours, cafes, restaurants and bars were packed. The beach is protected from the rough sea and wind by The Cobb and is a sheltered, calm, sandy, shallow place for families. The Cobb is the large curved harbour wall built in the 13^th century to protect the resident fishing boats. We were pretty hungry by this stage and decided to have some fish and chips, a first for this trip. We had fish and chips here in 2023 and went back to the same chippie. One serving of cod and chips, £13.95, more than enough to fill the two of us. Then another first for us this trip. Because we had just had fish and chips, and because we were at the beach, and because it was Lyme Regis, we had an ice cream. Neither of us are big fans of ice cream but these were as good as you get in NZ. Barbara: salted caramel. Me: black currant and clotted cream.

We then joined the sun tan oiled masses and went for a swim. A lot of people on the beach but few in the water, because it was cold! Colder than my swim at Beer yesterday, but so refreshing.

Somewhere in the jungle we passed from the county of Devon into the county of Dorset. This is the last of the four counties of the Coast Path, Somerset, Cornwall, Devon and Dorset. We were not in Dorset for long, the taxi ride took us back to Beer which is in Devon. Tomorrow we will come back to Dorset. We only saw The Cobb end of Lyme Regis today. Tomorrow morning we will walk about a kilometre from The Cobb into Lyme Regis town. Lyme Regis “The Pearl of Dorset” used to be just Lyme. Following the granting of a royal charter by King Edward I in 1284, the town added the term “regis”. This simply means it has some sort of royal connection or endorsement. There are about 19 towns in England that have added Regis to their name.