15th June 2005 – Isle of Portland and Weymouth
We had wind and rain for the first night since our travels and neither of us wanted to leave the tent. However, it wasn’t exactly cold, just miserable. We finally decided to venture out, and all of a sudden the sun came out. A walk to the Isle of Portland was in order, a walk of 8 miles or so which isn’t too bad when it’s a nice day. We covered a coastal path down the west side of Weymouth, heading southwards. To our right was the Chesil Beach, made only of pebbles. Legend has it that those who moored could locate themselves by the examining the size and roughness of the pebbles.
Nav spotted a large dune of grass, exclaiming that they had built a golf course. Seemed likely – some sort of driving range, maybe? Getting closer we found that he other side of the dune was carved away, made concave and was filled with sand. Must be a golf course then. Dull shots rang out and we soon realised that it was a military firing range. We were soon to be guided by military personnel around the ‘red flagged’ region – it didn’t seem like much of a job to do, sitting in sentries and guiding walkers around. Nav suggested a bit of Jason Bourne style camouflage to sneak into the area, except I doubt think we’d pull it off.
Close to Portland, Chesil Beach closed off a small pond of sea and joined onto Portland. I decided that a bit of Beach would be a good souvenir, only for Nav to have then read a sign that asked people not to take Chesil Beach away: “One stone is too many.” I kept it anyway and it’s sitting on Nav’s dashboard.
Morton looked around a few places in Portland; Cenotaph, west side view of Chesil Beach, and a quarry. It seemed that the entire of Portland village was built on a hillside (and also at the top), as walking anywhere was exhausting. And because it’s a local village, all the shops shut by 4pm or so meaning we couldn’t have a proper look around. We did find a house that was selling carved local Portland stone (of dogs in various positions) and also what seemed to be a snake:
The walk up to the Cenotaph was exhausting but the reward was a great view of the Beach which faded into the horizon, Weymouth town seemed like a miniature toy town, and Portland’s local houses all had great views of the sea. There were a number of quarries although what with grass growing on it, they hadn’t been used in a long while.
We took a bus back to Weymouth town, essentially to buy some things for the night. The beach shops had all turned their attention into becoming tourist-friendly shops and other than that there wasn’t much else. We bussed it halfway back to West Fleet camp and walked the rest. We seemed to have another windy night ahead of us.
-- steven
Nav spotted a large dune of grass, exclaiming that they had built a golf course. Seemed likely – some sort of driving range, maybe? Getting closer we found that he other side of the dune was carved away, made concave and was filled with sand. Must be a golf course then. Dull shots rang out and we soon realised that it was a military firing range. We were soon to be guided by military personnel around the ‘red flagged’ region – it didn’t seem like much of a job to do, sitting in sentries and guiding walkers around. Nav suggested a bit of Jason Bourne style camouflage to sneak into the area, except I doubt think we’d pull it off.
Close to Portland, Chesil Beach closed off a small pond of sea and joined onto Portland. I decided that a bit of Beach would be a good souvenir, only for Nav to have then read a sign that asked people not to take Chesil Beach away: “One stone is too many.” I kept it anyway and it’s sitting on Nav’s dashboard.
Morton looked around a few places in Portland; Cenotaph, west side view of Chesil Beach, and a quarry. It seemed that the entire of Portland village was built on a hillside (and also at the top), as walking anywhere was exhausting. And because it’s a local village, all the shops shut by 4pm or so meaning we couldn’t have a proper look around. We did find a house that was selling carved local Portland stone (of dogs in various positions) and also what seemed to be a snake:
The walk up to the Cenotaph was exhausting but the reward was a great view of the Beach which faded into the horizon, Weymouth town seemed like a miniature toy town, and Portland’s local houses all had great views of the sea. There were a number of quarries although what with grass growing on it, they hadn’t been used in a long while.
We took a bus back to Weymouth town, essentially to buy some things for the night. The beach shops had all turned their attention into becoming tourist-friendly shops and other than that there wasn’t much else. We bussed it halfway back to West Fleet camp and walked the rest. We seemed to have another windy night ahead of us.
-- steven
posted by Steven | 11:21 am
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