Log No 294. Thu 24th Apr 2014 - Langton Herring to Weymouth, 21 miles (4502 miles walked)

After meeting Scott on Tuesday and him telling me he was going to have abandon his walk because his shins were painful mine have just become painful too.

My left shin was sore right from getting up on Wednesday and then my right shin started towards the end of todays walk.

It was to be a long walk today so I was glad to leave the tent and just take a light pack, setting off at 07.30. The day was cloudy but dry with no wind.

Leaving the campsite I made my way to the Fleet Lagoon to pick up the Coast Path, after yesterdays rain the footpath was muddy and slippery in places.

Coming up to the MOD Firing Range I could just make out a flag hoisted above the targets, it was just hanging flat to the pole because there was no wind. The flagpole on the path was bare but as I had heard firing last night I presumed they would be shooting today and so took the detour round.

By the time I got to the other side of the range a soldier was just hoisting a flag!

I got to Ferrybridge, where the road joins Chesil Beach to get to Portland, after 2 hours and took a short break.

Chesil Beach was formed 6000 years ago by rising sea levels and storms pushing pebbles on shore and it is still on the move. Apparenly the pebbles at the east end of the beach are potato sized while at the west end they are pea sized (which I can vouch for).

The clouds were breaking up as I got onto Portland and the Coast Path at the sea front in Chiswell.

The path wasted no time in climbing up to the top of the cliffs.

It was a fine, easy walk along the top of the cliffs with just the odd minor detour because of erosion or instability.

It was difficult to tell whether some of the rock features were natural or man-made as most of the area around Weston appeared to have been quarried.

One area had a lot of carvings in the rocks, from abstract designs to buffa & elephant heads.

Past Weston it was a flat grassy path, descending slowly, all the way to the lighthouse at Portland Bill.

This was a very popular spot and there were quite a number of folk with big tripods and telescopes & cameras looking out to sea.

It was 11.30 when I got here and I resisted calling in at the cafe, having a quick sandwich on a bench instead. I wanted to catch the15.30 bus back to the campsite, the next one was 17.30 and the camp reception would have been closed for me to collect my phone battery which was on charge there.

Coming up the east side of Portland the path kept to the coast and went through some disused quarries before heading up to the road.

I was only on the road for 5 minutes before the path found its way down and along the slopes to Church Ope Cove with its jumble of beach huts.

The path climbed back up again to go along the track of a dismantled railway.

I was getting to the highest part of Portland and the track was about half way up the slopes with a high inland cliff face, at the top of which was a prison complex.

The path zig-zagged up the slope to the round round the prison then on a track passing another prison, which didn't look in use any more, and finally a footpath straight down through Fortuneswell to the quayside.

It seemed a long walk alongside the road back to Ferrybridge. With the east side of Portland longer than the west it had taken me an extra half hour and it was now 14.20. I still had 3 miles to go to Weymouth town centre and I needed to call in at Asda to get food.

A cycleway went along an old railway line which very handily had a turn off onto the road close to Asda.

After a quick shop I found my way to the bus terminals with 5 minutes in hand and my bus waiting ready to load the queue of passengers.

It had been a good walk of 21 miles but my shins were hurting and I decided it would be a short walk tomorrow.

Writing the log and looking ahead I realised I was closer than I had thought to some friends who I havn't seen for 10 years. I phoned them and as luck would have it they were home but going away on Sunday, so a quick change of plan and I'm having a rest day tomorrow and going to see them.