Windy Weymouth Weekend

A windy Weymouth weekend describes the overwhelming weather condition that accompanied twenty-seven EFOG members over the Easter weekend.

Whilst the larger number travelled to Weymouth by train, I elected to join Louise, Pam, Fritz and Ian, who was driving. We left Wanstead at 6.30am, and had an easy journey to Weymouth with relatively little traffic on the roads. The roads we used through Hampshire and into Dorset took us through some lovely countryside, a few easy villages, and with great views of the magnificent Salisbury Cathedral and equally impressive Maiden Castle.

Weymouth BeachOn the beach at Weymouth, with the Royal Hotel overhed

Shearing's Royal Hotel at Weymouth was reached by the five of us quite a while before other Group members began arriving, but getting out of the car on the sea-front prior to booking-in gave us an instant foretaste of the wind and wind-chill that was to stay with us all of our stay. There was sand blowing down the High Street and just about every other street, and we were soon tooth-crunching on it, too.

130329  efog weymouth game 60968artAn afternoon of intense concentration...A quick look around the town, a visit to a tea shop, then a walk along a lovely, sandy, easy-to-walk-on, tide-out beach before going back to the hotel to play table-games whilst waiting for others to arrive, and of course our meal in the evening and chats afterwards, completed the day.

Saturday morning was bright – and windy, and chilly. We split into two main groups for our walking day, with Ken leading a walk of something like 9 miles, I believe, starting and finishing at Abbotsbury. I led an alternative shorter walk from Dorchester, which proved to be a nice-enough town although we didn't look around for too long. As we walked out of town, we visited the Neolithic henge and later Roman amphitheater of Maumbury Rings, which I thought would make a nice precursor of what was to come. At the edge of the town, a children's playground proved irresistible, and we had fun on swings, slides, a trampoline and a zip-wire.

130330  efog weymouth jill 60981Jill making light of a tube-slideThe landscape opened out to rolling chalky countryside with the horizon ahead dominated by Maiden Castle - an Iron Age Hill Fort and the largest in Britain. We gained the top of the hill-fort then made our way back down to gain a footpath leading towards the west end of Dorchester. Sheep, cattle, skylarks and wheaters were all commented on during our walk along an easy-enough path. This eventually set us near to a roundabout on the busy A35; a footpath shown on my O.S. Map was not only non-visible on the ground, but would have entailed crossing the by-pass. Luckily(!) there was a brand new gravelled track leading in the direction we needed to go. A temporary fence which had presumably closed it during construction had been trodden down, which left the path open for us to follow. It led us to a farm track, which fortuitously passed underneath the A35. Chatting merrily, we walked up the track... to be met by a padlocked, barbed gate. 130330  efog weymouth maiden 60998artGill, Fred, Tina and Fozi en route to Maiden CastleA few feet away was a path leading between the houses to a Dorchester suburban road, but the padlocks and barbs were something of a deterrent. Somewhat reluctantly, we turned back to take the farm-track leading in the opposite direction conveniently to the access road we'd used to get to Maiden Castle. At the junction of our farm track and the road we desired was a locked, barbed gate! It took a bit of limbo-ing for each of us to get under the gate, but we did so, had a lunch-stop at a real caff (a very real caff!) in a Dorchester car-park/bus station, then caught the bus back to Weymouth. This was a 6.5 mile walk for those who'd preferred the shorter option: Fozi, Gill Light, Tina, Fred and myself.

130330  efog weymouth happy days 60973artHappy Days... Lynne awaiting the next busSunday's walk was led by Ken, and most of the Group joined it. So as to allow other passengers than EFOG members to travel, we caught two separate buses 15 minutes apart to Fortuneswell on the Isle of Portland; we were a large group and they are only single-deck buses!

Portland Bill is a bit of a strange place with something of the feel of a remote part of Britain. The villages are perhaps slightly down-at-heel, and much of the architecture a mix of military and prison. It's one of the few parts of Dorset that has much industry, and this of course is the quarrying of Portland Stone. Our route followed the SW Coastal Path, so of course we were well accompanied by winds and wind chill. 130331  efog weymouth lunch 70026artLunch overlooking the sea on the Isle of PortlandOur views of the sea itself was also one of lots of white horses, but the sky was blue and the visibility showing the whole length of the Jurassic Coast between Weymouth and St. Adhelms Head. There were a few places that people could easily access the bus route if they'd had enough of the walk, and some took advantage of these as we walked towards Portland Bill. There are just a few beaches on the Isle of Portland, and one of these is at Church Ope Cove, with its lovely collection of beach huts – not the multicoloured regimental ones we find typically in Essex but rather dark and strange ones scattered around the cove. Shortly before descending into the cove we'd sat by the coastal footpath beneath climbers practising on the cliff, and ate our packed-lunches just about out of the wind and with enough warmth in the sun to actually feel warm!

130331  efog weymouth bill group 70034artL-R: Parviz, Jill, Fritz, Ken, Pam, Ian, Ralph, Lynne, Gill and Paul at Portland BillWe gained Portland Bill with a final contingent of 10 people, took a group-photo at the obelisk, did not avail ourselves of the restaurant at the end of the island because most of the car-visitors had ensconced themselves out of the wind there already, and made our way back towards the village of Southwell, where we had been warned via mobile by Val that there were no buses. This news – which we'd received earlier - meant an extended walk back to where we might catch a bus, but apart from hitching or getting a taxi or two, we set off for Southwell with the prospect of a few miles before we got to the bus at Easton. At Southwell the farm-track we'd followed gave way to a main road. At the main road was a bus stop, and in a minute there was a bus! Val had obviously been misinformed – to our somewhat relief as by now we were perhaps a bit walk-weary, and certainly a lot wind-chilled. This amounted to 7 miles for those that did the whole walk.

Monday morning dawned not with the wind and sunshine as the previous days, but with wind and drear cloud. After breakfast Louise, Pam, Fritz, Ian and myself set off for home, choosing the route we'd travelled down on for our return journey. We didn't take the prescribed M25 route, and – considering the Easter Monday – had an easy journey back to Wanstead.

Paul Ferris, 2nd April 2013

for an alternative view of this trip - click here