First training walk

7th March, 2018

First training walk done: a lovely section of the SWCP here in Dorset and one of Karen's and my favourites.I found an app called Komoot which recorded the whole route and you can see the map and pictures I took along the way here. If this works OK, and it seems to so far, I'll use it from here on in.

The start was at a place called Stonebarrow and is the site of an old WW2 radar station, now a National Trust shop (some transformation!) - one way to monitor the car park I suppose... Pretty much all the coastal strip here is NT land and you can see from the landslips why, as no-one would want to build on it. Whereas there used to be significant effort put into stabilising the coast to counteract erosion the policy now is generally one of managed realignment except where trumped by significant economic issues (e.g. Lyme Regis).

One of our favourite places was the single building at Stanton St Gabriel which although on its own now used to be part of a coastal hamlet. It's really not obvious until you stumble upon it so we always thought of it as our discovery. There's a route down to the beach near here (although closed now as you'll see from the photos) where Karen found her most exciting beach find ever: a section of Ichthyosaur vertebrae which even intrigued the fossil centre in nearby Charmouth.


I was fortunate to have wonderful weather, in contrast to last week when I was snowed in for two days. 

It doesn't take long to suffer from cabin fever. This area I imagine was pretty hard hit as it's high and isolated - but still beautiful in any weather. A number of the buildings in the pictures are NT accommodation that you can rent: dog friendly and all the walks you can want right on the doorstep. Just remember that it's very, er, soft underfoot and I don't necessarily mean just mud. If a cow's gotta go, she's gotta go.

I promised/threatened to mention gear this time. A consequence of all this walking is the search for the ideal equipment and when Crispin and I meet up there's always a degree of 'gear-envy' as one or the other has found the solution to a problem that we maybe didn't know we had. (Insert here your own view on guys' fascination with equipment for any pastime - golf, fishing, cycling, etc - as well as generally just dressing up). Over time I reckon I've sorted the best waterproofs but the pack was always wanting in some respects. So, the new backpack: unless you're into this sort of thing it can be very nerdy, so feel free to skip this paragraph. 

it looks a bit, well, sad and deflated I suppose! However it's an improvement on my previous pack as it has provision to stow walking poles in a way that allows easy access - it's a bit like drawing some long sword - which means that (a) I'll use them more because it doesn't require the faff of taking off the pack and (b) consequently I'll always take them with me. In case you don't know, these can be a real godsend (whoever (s)he is) - as Crispin will I'm sure attest. It also has a separate base compartment (probably for a sleeping bag but in my case for after lunch rubbish and sweaty gear - nice) and various easy access zips and pockets, particularly on the hip belt where I can now carry binoculars for spotting wildlife (e.g. Peregrine on this walk) as well as the next stile. Lots of other great features but even I'm getting bored with this now.
Oh and if you're interested, it's called an Osprey Stratos 36. Who knows why.

Back to the walk and lessons learned: 

• good idea to take a change of top - whatever the weather it can get sweaty under a pack harness
• gaiters essential - it gets muddy out there!
• I much prefer a water bottle to a bladder system, cooler and untainted
• coutesy of Komoot I now know that my average speed on this terrain, with a fair amount of climb and a 1/2hour stop for lunch, is just under 3 mph. This is very useful to know for later route estimation.

Hope all that's of interest. More to follow.....

The promised blog

Karen Martin 14.11.1951 - 20.09.2017

7th February 2018

Well, the blog begins.

I found this photo of Karen from way back in 2011, before the Mesothelioma diagnosis. She was a fantastic knitter and the bird she is pointing to was (one of) her knitted contributions to an exhibition at the Bridport Arts Centre. From memory it was on the theme of a picnic. She was well chuffed, as you can see, to have been included and of all the photos I have it probably shows her at her happiest.
She was always creating stuff and loved to go beachcombing, even for just an interesting pebble or two!

Planning for the walk is now complete, all B&Bs booked, emails all sent. All I have to do now is get into training and do it!

Peter






26th February 2018

... and the training starts!

This is probably the first time you've seen the blog, the first entry being a test run that I thought I'd just leave up there as the walk's about Karen as much as me or the SWCP. I'm going to try and post weekly until I'm actually walking and then hopefully daily, subject to wifi availability etc. I hope you enjoy it - let me know what you think, anything you'd like to know etc.

By popular demand, here's a map of the SWCP to give some idea of where all the places are. It's not very detailed - a better one can be seen here . Follow the link to the interactive map.


So, to the blog - wonderful walk last week, with John who I used to work with at Whitbread's. From Lee on Solent (I confess, I'm jealous of anyone living next to an airfield, as well as the coast!) the general idea was to keep the water on the left for about 8-9 miles.

This took us along and through the Titchfield Haven bird sanctuary, the site for the new French electricity interconnector cable, areas of erosion (where we cheerfully ignored the official but unsigned path diversions - we both hate following instructions, as you probably know) and large areas of mudflats, a haven for bird wildlife. All while enjoying my favourite weather of cold and sunny, the constantly fascinating marine activity in the Solent and glorious views of the Isle of Wight and beyond towards the Needles. Not to mention the refinery at Fawley and the old flying boat station at Calshott, the start point for what must have been an amazing service to India and, presumably, back.

More prosaically and recently (well, 1980s) a restored Sunderland flying boat took off here to cover the start of the Whitbread Round the World yacht race. They had to go to Canada to find a pilot qualified to fly it (from the airborne forest fire fighting service I believe). Not his (her?) fault I expect but I think it subsequently crashed somewhere. Shame, it was a magnificent sight. To this lapsed pilot, anyway.

Along the way we passed this pub in Warsash. It's an old Strong's of Romsey pub from before their incorporation within the so-called Whitbread umbrella and has retained the beautiful old tiling which you can just about make out. Warsash was also the site of considerable activity around D-Day and various plaques and information boards give some idea of what it must have been like. Of course now it's choc-a-bloc with yachts, marinas and associated facilities as well as considerable property porn. I like the juxtaposition of filthy, smelly mudflats and rotting hulks alongside £1 billion of white GRP slowly depreciating into the same condition and posh housing doing likewise but a bit slower. Ashes to ashes .....

The walk ended up at the Navigator in Swanwick where Sheila most kindly met us with a change of shoes. I won't be getting that kind of service on the SWCP.

More next week - probably on walking gear (I have a new backpack - most exciting) unless I get in another walk in the forecast Siberian weather.

Peter