Marine Centre And so to the second beach clean of the month, starting from the Marine Centre at Kimmeridge. Annie picked me up this morning, which was great as I was not sure if my legs would be up for driving after 32.5 miles walking yesterday. Actually, it was a good idea to keep moving, or else I might have completely seized up. The results were in from last week's clean at Worbarrow Bay - an amazing 52 bags of rubbish were collected. Not so much rubbish today, but every little helps. I found the egg case from a shark, probably a dog fish. Unfortunately a dead guillemot was found. There were 60 washed up on Chesil Beach on Friday (19th) and over 1000 altogether so far in Cornwall, Devon and Dorset following a chemical spill last week. 200 others are being treated by the RSPCA and South Devon Seabird Trust. The chemical is Polyisobutene and it is the second time in three months that a spillage of it has caused seabird deaths along our coast. The chemical, used as an oil additive to lubricants, is non-toxic but it has a consistency like wallpaper glue and so sticks to the birds' feathers. It is thought to come from large ships washing out their tanks and is illegal to dump in volume. Whilst it is heartening to see the efforts of lots of volunteers to keep the beaches clean of rubbish washed up or left onshore, the death of our seabirds, fish and mammals caused by thoughtless pollution is very upsetting. I hope that there is something we can do to prevent these spillages happening in the future. On a more positive note, Pete had purchased some of the evil empire's (Tesco) finest scones which we warmed up and had with cherry jam and clotted cream when we got home. Yummy.
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Christchurch Quay and the Priory I had planned a hilly loop around Wool and the Purbeck Coast Path, but luckily I checked on Friday and the MOD Range Walks were closed (unusual for a weekend). Pete needed the car, so I just decided to walk from home to Ringwood and take it from there. 12 hours and 32.5 miles later, I was back, with the blisters and aching quads to prove it. I started by picking up the River Stour from home and headed down the Stour Valley Way to Christchurch. Then I picked up the Avon Valley Way to Ringwood. This was mostly dry, but there was a very, very wet section at Kingston Common where there was still standing flood water which was too deep to cross and algae covered. Reckon I must have spent ages there skirting the path edge by hanging on to fences, then under barbed wire and along a soggy field boundary to rejoin the path at a drier spot. Then it was across the flood plain (still wet) to pick up the Castleman Trailway and a well deserved lunch break at Ringwood. The trailway is along the old railway line between Southampton and Dorchester and is 16.5 easy miles between Ringwood and Poole via Wimborne. I made good time, stopping only to put compeed on a heel blister (it did the trick nicely). I broke off the trailway just before Wimborne at Stapehill to pick up the Ferndown, Stour and Forest trail towards Longham...well, I had to do a bit of road walking as the start of the trail was not obvious and it was this bit that added on the 2.5 miles...I had only thought about doing 30! I discovered Longham Lakes, and decided must go there bird-watching. My OS map is getting out of date as they are still on there as a gravel pit. From Longham I picked up the Stour Valley Way again and followed it back home via Muscliffe, Throop and Holdenhurst. I phoned Pete when I was half an hour from home to run me a bath, which was lovely to sink into after 12 hours walking. There is a petition to save Throop Mill which is currently minimally maintained by its owners. The aim is to bring it under Council ownership and open it as tea rooms and museum. Highlights of the walk - sunshine (at last), hearing first cuckoo of the year and seeing such good numbers of brimstone and red admiral butterflies. Unfortunately, I didn't get a long walk in this weekend. It has been raining on and off all week and it was positively torrential yesterday, so I decided to cut my losses as stay indoors instead. I spent the day making GPX files from OSgetamap for the C2C walk, so it wasn't a wasted day! Today I went to Worbarrow Bay to do a beach clean with the Dorset Wildlife Trust and the Marine Conservation Society. The bay is part of the MOD ranges and includes the 'ghost village' of Tyneham, which was taken over by the War Office in 1943, and has never been re-populated. There is a good website here. The beach clean was very satisfying, I think I will have to buy a litter picker. I have also invented a new game called 'polystyrene or cuttlefish,' although I'm not sure how well I could market it for Dragon's Den. There was a good turnout of about 15 of us and we were given gloves, bags, litter pickers and a rundown on what do do if we found shells on the beach (the ordnance ones, that is). There were plenty of plastic bottles, lids, sweet wrappers and crisp packets, loads of polystyrene, nylon rope, fishing line, broken glass, bits of plastic, drinking straws and deflated helium balloons. It made me think, as I usually do when I see loads of rubbish, that we used to manage perfectly well before all these things were invented. After the rubbish was carted away, I walked back to the car at Tyneham feeling a bit worthy. It didn't last as there, right where the car next to me had been, was a plastic bag of rubbish, a dirty nappy and wipes and a banana skin all just left on the ground as the (insert swear word here)ing litter louts drove away. AARGH. It's enough to make you despair. Why, oh why, oh why, oh why can't people just take their rubbish home with them??? AARGH again for good measure. I think I need to go and meditate.....There's another beach clean at Kimmeridge next Sunday, so will do that and definitely get a long walk in as well. Just a final word about Tyneham.
The plan for today was to do a short but hilly 10 miles from Kingston Matravers over Swyre Head and down Smedmore Hill, across the MOD Ranges and then down to Kimmeridge near the Wytch 'Nodding Donkey' oil well. From Kimmeridge we were to make a circular route by going back along the coast path up to Clavell Tower along to Rope Lake Head and up the relentlessly steep Houns Tout. Unfortunately, the coast path was closed at Kimmeridge due to landslips. The only bit of Dorset coast path closed is the very bit between Kimmeridge and Houns Tout. Typical. I think it will be closed until September for some pretty substantial repairs. But there have been sections along there that have been cracked and crumbling away for years, so it will be worth it. We picked up Annie & Grae at 10 am and got to Kingston ready to start walking by 11 - minimal faff time today! I love the walk across Smedmore as the views along the cliffs to Lulworth and beyond to Portland are sublime. Not only that, there is a long barrow at the end of Swyre Head and you go through 'Heavens Gate' to start the descent of Smedmore. You can also look back to Corfe Castle and to Poole Harbour, and across the other way to St Aldhelms Head. Today was the first weekend where it didn't feel so bitterly cold, although the wind was quite biting in places. We stopped for packed lunch near the marine centre in Kimmeridge. As we couldn't make a circular route, we headed up through the fields and through Kimmeridge Village where there is a steep path behind the Church. Then back up Smedmore Hill and along Swyre Head to drop into Kingston again. At this point Annie, Grae and Pete headed to the Scott Arms and I tagged an extra 3 miles on by going across Houns Tout then dropping down to the farm path near Chapmans Pool (lots of gamboling lambs) and back up into the Village to come out by the beautiful Victorian church made of rose-coloured Purbeck stone. It looks like a miniature Norman cathedral. I think the walk across Houns Tout has even better views as they include Swyre Head which runs parallel to it. I have told Pete to scatter my ashes by the second stone slab along the ridge! I had to drive home as my extra few miles gave the chaps time to down a couple of pints. Although the walk was not as planned, it was a good one and hilly enough in parts. Not sure where to walk next week - either a longer one in the Purbecks or a long route around Milton Abbas. There are a couple of beach cleans coming up over the next weekends so would like to get to one of those as well, if poss. |
AuthorI'm Saran and I like hiking (and cats). Archives
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