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squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 2882 |
7th September 2019 Hiking - Walking: Portland circuit and HT Hardy Monument Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: Max Speed: Distance Covered: Saturday 7th September – walks **** Portland circuit and HT Hardy Monument – sunny periods. A lovely quiet night sharing our spot with the hippies in their old converted van opposite use with great views of the sea on both sides, I didn’t sleep that wellbeing wound up about losing a lot of the gps data from yesterday’s epic 120-mile windsurfing session! The day started well with a relaxing morning reading in bed, followed by exercises and breakfast and then another old rusty van arrived and the older couple didn’t look best pleased as I think we were in their spot but that’s the way the cookie crumbles and we took no notice as they gave us the evil eye as they parked behind us! The sun even managed to come out as we had breakfast outside and then it was time to explore, there was a fort just below us but the path was a little on the steep side so we headed back to the lane and turned left towards the Verne an old prison surrounded by a high fence. I nearly took the footpath down towards Castletown in the hope of walking around the high hill offering great views of the harbour, lucky for us you can’t actually get around as the port area in private! We turn right and come across a free petting farm full of goats, pigs, ducks, sheep, horses, funky alpacas and even three wallabies, so we take a walk around it is a popular place full of families each buying a cartoon of food to feed the animals:) We follow the footpath signs still hoping to walk around the hill but after following an overgrown path we reach a tall metal fence planted black, we both touch it and get covered in anti-climbing plant to stop the inmates escaping! We then retrace our steps ending up at HM Youth Custody Centre at Grove, a huge prison with impressive buildings made of Portland stone. We saw a footpath leading to the coastal path so decided to walk around the prison and try and find the path. It was a long way around but in the end we found a footpath sign which went down and down to the sea where we did actually meet the coastal path and turned left, big mistake and for the second time today we reached a dead-end and had to retrace out steps all the way to the top! The walk was turning out to be longer than expected now and we were getting knackered but the end was in site as we left the prison behind, found a large working quarry and then found a 18th century fort where the metal doors had been unlocked and loads of lids were having noisy fun in the dark tunnels! It was then a steep scramble up to the van for a sandwich and as the weather had clouded over, we decided to move on. I had spotted another NT site, Hardy’s Monument on a hill a few miles out of Weymouth so headed there. After a quick stop at the shop we turned off the main road and climbed up through the lovely rolling Dorset countryside. We soon found the monument, a tall stone tower, a memorial to Nelson’s famous Flag Captain at Trafalgar and was designed to look like a naval spyglass and commands wonderful views towards the sea:) We parked in a top spot near the tower with amazing views down to Portland and went to look at the tower. You can walk to the top but sadly it was not open today, perhaps tomorrow. We learned that this is a great place to walk or bike with loads of ancient barrows, mounds and even stone circles and forts so perhaps we can explore further tomorrow. Mag made one of her yummy omelettes and we were treated to the most amazing sunsets as the sun dropped behind the tower:) Photo Gallery Here NT Hardy Monument |
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