JURASSIC COAST WALKING.

In order to get the New Year off to a good start I felt that a walk was required. After all- the cycling had started well and as I type this my cycling mileage is on target.

It seems to have been a long time since I managed to get out for a decent walk.
The great thing about living where I do is that we have such a wealth of wonderful coastline that we can walk along.
Some years ago I walked the entire coast from Minehead in North Devon back home to Bournemouth. This was a distance of about 620 miles and took me five weeks. I backpacked the route camping out wild most nights. The route is a National Trail known as the South West Coast path and for anyone with some time on their hands I can certainly recommend it.
In my opinion the best sections are from Minehead to about Padstow and then from Exmouth back to Poole. The reason I say this is probably because I chose to do it during a nice hot summer and the coastal towns and villages on the Cornwall section were heaving with people.

 Anyway I digress - New Year and a walk along a short section of the Dorset coast between Swanage and Chapmans Pool and then back along the Priests way.
The entire walk is about 17 miles in length and can be very muddy and slippery in sections at this time of year so you need to be careful negotiating your way along the cliff edge. One of the nice things about walking this route during the winter is that you don't come across many other walkers even over a bank holiday.

The top photo shows a part of Seacombe Cliff close to the now disused Seacombe quarry.
The lower photo is a view of Chapman's Pool taken from the coast path near the Tumulus  at Emmetts Hill.

The Dorset Group of the Backpacker's Club has often walked this route whilst camping at Tom's Field campsite.