Tuesday: 6th June: Weather: 9°C to 17°C: Cool morning, sunny warn afternoon, light Northerly
Swannage to Bournemouth: 14.2k walk: 4hrs 30mins: 7.30am to 12pm: 1 x 30min stop: Ascent: 270 metres
Accommodation: Studio Apartment 10/11A Southcote Rd Boscombe, Bournemouth
SWCP Swanage to Shell Haven
Uphill out of Swanage
Highlights of day 24. The big highlight was that after 434 Kilometres over 24 days we finished the second half of the South West Coast Path at South Haven Point, Shell Bay. A magnificent coastal walk with not a drop of rain at an average of 18k per day.
We’re awake at 5am having a cup of tea and sorting out last minute details for our flight home. As per usual we’re going standby - but giving QATAR another chance after a few hiccups on the way over. There’s lots to do today - pick up a Poste Restante parcel at Bournemouth Post Office, change the old £ for new plastic £, book a bus to Heathrow, look for a suitcase, find our apartment and re-arrrange our gear for the flight home. After a quick breakfast and a shower, we’re packed and out the door by 7.30am.
It’s still beautiful weather, cool and sunny, as we walk along Swanage esplanade watching the early morning swimmers in the freezing water. We follow the signs to Old Harry’s Rocks, a set of rocks off a high white vertical cliff just a few miles out of town. The track is good and we walk quickly, getting to Harrry’s Rocks then rounding the headland and down to Midland Bay.
We’ve been walking for three hours and at this rate we should get to the ferry from South Haven to Bournemouth by 11, but as soon as we think we’ll be early, the SWCP switches to the beach and we’re told by a lady sunbaking in front of one of the many beach sheds that the SWCP used to go along the beach, but with beach erosion, you can’t walk it even at low tide - you’ll have to do the dune walk. Yes, and we could see it was all soft sand.
Time for a coffee at 10.30 while we consider our options - sand dunes or road. We take the dunes, thinking the road will be busy with cars to the ferry, but for the first time in three weeks, our shoes are filled with sand as we trek over the soft dunes, often getting lost and continually checking our GPS. We walk out to the road and we’re met by a stream of people walking towards us - it’s not a holiday, not a weekend, not a swimming carnival, so we wondered what it was. Then we see the sign that says “Naturists, please dress before passing this point”. Turns out it is one of the officially recognised nudist beaches in the UK and when we get out to Ferry road, it’s lined with cars and vans on both sides for several kilometres. When I ask someone what’s the occasion - he confirms - it’s a Naturists Beach!
It’s about 1k on Ferry Road to Shell Bay ferry terminal, but at least there’s a wide shoulder. At mid day we arrive at South haven and after an "end of the SWCP” photo, the Purbeck Breeze Bus number 50 arrives and we hop on. Soon we're on the ferry along with a dozen cars and we’re away to the Sandbanks. Thirty minutes later, the bus arrives at the Town Square of Bournemouth and the Post Office is just a 20 metre walk.
Lots of bunny rabbits digging holes
Views across to Bournemouth
Blue skies open fields Harrys Rocks
Harry’s Rocks
Sand dune walk for 4k
Nudist Beach
Official end SWCP at South Haven
On the bus on ferry to Sandbanks
Cup of tea in Bournemouth Park
Poste Restante Box and new suitcase
We pick up our Pose Restante box with our airline clothes etc, that my brother has posted from Newquay, and change our old £ for new plastic £. Lucky for us, Bournemouth was one of only a handful of Post Offices where you can change old £ for new. Then over the road to a park where a twosome band is playing 60’s and 70’s music, and we find a spot in the shade for a cup of tea and biscuit.
Our posted box has two handles, so we grab a side each, and stroll up Old Christchurch road looking for a charity shop to buy an old suitcase for our back packs on the flight home. The first charity shop doesn’t have one and the second one, the Red Cross, is closed for staff training. Next stop is the train station, where the National Express Bus company also has a ticket office. It was easy to buy the two tickets to Heathrow Terminal 4 for £22 each, at 3.50am in the morning. The bus station attendant suggests we try the ASDA supermarket on top of the railway station for a suitcase, and when we first walk in the door, guess what we see. Suitcases!
We leave with the biggest we can find for £50, and then it’s only a five minute walk to 11A Southcote Rd, our Air BnB Studio apartment which we enter with a lock code key, once we work out from the photo that its 10/11A Southcote Rd. It’s small but suits us with a mini kitchen. After two hours of re-packing and sorting, we wander back to the ASDA, to buy some basics for dinner - bread and two pasties, but their beer isn’t cold, so next stop is the Co-Op for 2 bottles of Czeck beer, then back to the studio to have dinner and tidy up our bags ready for a 2.00am get up.
A hot chocolate and we’re in bed at 10pm, alarms set for 2.00am in the morning