Friday 19th January 2024 - South Haven Point to Old Harry Rocks

Well, this is it, the walks are to begin!  I am so excited to be finally starting after so many years of dreaming, and what a perfect day for it.

I have chosen to do the path from South Haven point to Old Harry Rocks for my first walk, to break me in gently. Half of the walk will be on a beach with nice firm sand and half will be a gentle ascent and descent.

The day was one of clear blue skies and a frost, perfect, or so I thought.  I was a little late in getting away as I had to drop Molly off at her Grandmas house first with Maggie and then get fuel.

My journey down to the Isle of Purbeck was not the best, to say the least.  Being a clear day in January, what I hadn’t realised was that the sun was due to rise just as I got underway and yes, I was heading east directly into it. Even with my sun visor down it still shone directly into my eyes, further exacerbated by it reflecting off the wet roads after them being salted the previous night. Fortunately, I had my sunglasses in my car so I stopped to put them on, I couldn’t have safely continued otherwise.

But, this is me remember, nothing is simple. Once I hit the busier main roads salty spray from other vehicles started to get on my windscreen and only smeared when I used my wipers creating a further visibility issue in the sunlight and yes, due to the night being frosty my washer bottle was frozen, great.  I must have pulled over at least half a dozen times to clear my windscreen with baby wipes before my washer bottle unfroze.

On reaching the Isle of Purbeck and Studland I decided to park my car in the Knoll car park.  My thinking behind this was that this was roughly half way between the two main points of my walk. I wanted to see how comfortable my new boots were and being here meant I could do half my walk then have my dinner and if my boots were ok continue with the second half of my walk.  I would also have a lighter backpack as I could leave my dinner in the car. Good planning eh.

I walked towards South Haven point first as this would be the easiest to do, walking along a lovely flat beach all the way.

The weather was perfect and the views looking over to Bournemouth were amazingly clear. Looking further East I could see the Isle of Wight in the distance. My progress along the sand was easy as the outgoing tide had left the wet sand nice and firm underfoot.

I decided to do some filming as it was my intention to have a video record to look back on and show to family.

Now to be honest I have always been one of those people who hates being filmed and hates even more the sound of my own voice on video, so of all the hundreds of hours of family filming over the years, I hardly appear on any of them, though this could also be because I was the one stood behind the camera filming.

I don’t know what happens as we get older but things change and now I really couldn’t give a poop.  So, sod it I thought, not only will I film the scenery, but I will also film myself, and not only will I film myself, I will bloody well talk to the camera to.  I’ve watched hundreds of YouTube videos of People doing this, some good, some not so good so what the hell, I’ll give it a go.

Now that’s all well and good and I’m happy to have decided to do this, but, the beach was quite busy in places and no way am I going to film myself or talk to the camera whilst people are nearby. I know that’s not just a me thing because so many people I watch on YouTube stop filming when people are within earshot or in view of them.

I did manage to find one or two quiet spots and I did film myself, but it felt a bit embarrassing and weird doing so, even with nobody close by.

I reached South Haven Point and took a few selfies and a video by the start and finish sculpture. It felt good being at this point as I got the feeling that I was really starting the walk properly.

Walking back to the car was just as easy, only this time the view in front of me was of Old Harry Rocks which to be honest, looked a bloody long way away from where I was.

On getting back to my car I had a great feeling of achievement, not because I’d managed to walk to South Haven point and back without any incident, lets face facts, it was only a very short walk and completely flat. No, the feeling I got was from the fact that I had actually started doing what I have wanted to do for soooo long. What a buzz.

I had my dinner, crackerbread and fruit, hmmm, no buzz about that, whilst smelling the lovely aroma of cooked food and coffee from the nearby beach café.  The temptation to buy a pasty was getting greater by the minute so I finished my last crackerbread, locked my car and set off along the beach in the opposite direction towards Old Harry Rocks. There was a small detour towards the end of the beach due to erosion but other than that the walk was very pleasant and no steep inclines. I came across a place called Fort Henry which is a bunker built by Canadian troops in the second world war.

Winston Churchill, Dwight Eisenhower and King George VI all met here to observe live ammunition rehearsals for the D-Day landings.

Old Harry Rocks were an amazing sight with sheer, white chalk cliffs and incredible views.

A place to spend time and take in the splendour.  I stayed well away from the cliff edges, knowing my clumsiness, and looked over towards South haven which seemed so far away.

What a lovely first walk to get me started on my long journey. I began my walk back to my car safe in the knowledge that I would be seeing Old Harry Rocks again soon when I walk to them  from Swanage to meet up with the point I reached today.

As I had been out most of the day, I soon realised when setting off home in my car that, yes, I was driving straight into the sunset, the sun glaring into my eyes again. This time I didn’t curse or complain as I’d had such a lovely day and felt on such a high.

Bring on the next walk, I can’t wait.