June 26, 2017

Abbotsbury

The first part of the walk after leaving Seatown was hard.  Steep climbs over headlands for a total climb of approximately 1480ft (454m) in quite a short distance.

The view from East Ebb Cove towards the Isle of Portland

Looking across Eype Caravan & Camping Park to Thornecombe Beacon 

After climbing the last steep slope out of West Bay and walking by the Bridport & West Dorset Golf Course the path descends to Burton Freshwater where there is a large caravan park.  The view across this caravan park may be familiar to any of you who watched the Broadchurch TV series.  Fortunately I didn't see any bodies lying at the bottom of the cliff.

Once I had gone past Burton Bradstock the path was level walking which was great as long as it wasn't on the pebble beach.  Walking on the small, round pebbles was like walking on a bed of ball bearings.  It took two steps to make one step of progress.

Shortly after West Bexington the path follows a road just up from the beach and continues all of the way until it turns inland for a short distance to Abbotsbury.  All along this road there are big pieces of chalk rock that have probably been put there by farmers who wanted to get them out of their fields.  This chalk is so close to the same quality chalk that some of us remember being used in school that I decided to use a small piece to write on the road to prove my point.

I found accommodation in Abbotsbury with only a little difficulty and I stayed in a quaint cottage for two nights so that I would be available for my big moment on BBC TV the next day.