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On Saturday our weekend of walking started after lunch with a 6.75 mile walk from Hardy’s Cottage
car park at Bockhampton. The walk participants arrived at various times, some having been into
Dorchester before the start time of 13:30. A pleasant afternoon walk took us initially through
grassland on to Stinsford church where the writer Thomas Hardy’s heart is buried (with his second
wife), and ended with a section through the woods around Hardy’s cottage. The satellite dish
(Colin Brickwood’s description for a GPS) helped in navigating through the latter stages of the
woods. Some members looked round the Hardy family cottage where Thomas Hardy was born, and lived
for quite a few years. After the walk the main party of 18 moved on to Portland Youth Hostel and
the other six to separate accommodation they had arranged.
The Sunday morning walk of 5.81 miles from Pilsdon Community had a false start as we had
inadvertently parked on what had been the graveyard of the local church, and were kindly allowed
by members of the community to move on to a nearby field. The walk took in several ascents and
descents and incorporated Pilsdon Pen at 277 metres the highest point in Dorset, and an iron age
fort with excellent views all round and across to the coast.
Sunday afternoon's walk of 5.08 miles from Seatown took in several ascents and descents
including the highlight of the walk, Golden Cap, the highest point on the south coast at 191
metres.
Monday morning's walk of 6.66 miles from Abbotsbury started with a climb to a ridge walk, then
down to Chesil beach for a stroll along it to an unexpected but welcome refreshment break at a
café (tea/coffee ice-creams and cakes). After this the main party took a diversion with a
steep ascent up to St Catherine’s chapel overlooking the Swannery, then down into Abbotsbury; a
few took a flatter route back to the cars. The intended afternoon walk from the Admiral Hardy
Monument was called off because of poor visibility due to rain (the only rain during the weekend).
Tuesday's walk of 6.66 miles from Cerne Abbas passed the site of the ruined Abbey and below the
famous figure of the Cerne Giant. It continued round through superb scenery with varying views of
the giant figure cut into the hillside. Only one car parked at the intended start of Kettle Bridge;
the rest were just round the corner at the main observation point for the figure (where David said
he didn’t want to start).
After lunch and an excellent weekend, with some spectacular scenery, we eventually had to make our
way back home with fond memories of our time spent on it. Many thanks from all to David Craddock
for organising this event.
Peter Hawes
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