It’s been really nice retracing my steps from 2023. I’ve been thinking about how I felt at each stage and comparing it to now. How I was making some of the same mistakes but how, in other areas, I had improved.

It’s so easy to focus on what you’re doing wrong and not on the improvements and what you’re learning.

Worth the worry

To say I was relieved when I finally found a spot the previous day and got my tent put up is an understatement. I guess skirting around disaster is always satisfying once you’ve got away with it.

I didn’t end up having the best night sleep but I think that was partly because of the adrenaline and also because I was still dreaming about websites!! So what a relief when I woke to see that my post had actually worked. Only a day late as well.

I took time to rest but did manage to head off by about 7:30. Soon walking past my first ever wild camp. It was fun to think of how I felt that night compared with the one I’d just had. I did wonder why I didn’t pick the one I’d just had that previous time but maybe I decided it too small. It was a bit of a squeeze.

Play it nice and easy

I don’t know if there are coast line designers (well actually I do – there are not). However, I was thinking how the meeting went when the SWCP was made. I can imagine someone saying, “ok, first do an easy bit along a beech. Get them in a good mood. Right, now test them a bit but give them some nice rocks to look at. Ok, now into a town for food and drinks. What next? Oh I know, let’s put in some of the toughest climbs we can. One after another. Keep easy sections to a minimum. Ok, fair enough, but at least do an easy couple of miles before Weymouth, but then I want to put in an island you have to walk all the way around, only to come back to the spot where you started 8 hours before. Brilliant, excellent start”. That’s what I think happened anyway. I then think that someone’s boss reviewed it and insisted on an easier day walking inland from Chisel beach to give the walker hope that things would get easier.

Then the sadist got involved again and made the path run on the shingle from said beech slow everyone down.

It’s just a theory. But, it’s worked, the first half of the day was pretty each and I really enjoyed it.

Cow water

Before getting to Abbotsbury the path goes inland across farmers fields.

I met a couple walking the other way who’d nearly completed the whole path over 8 years. They were very friendly and gave me advice on how to tackle Chisel Beach.

The first was to stay inland for a little longer after Abbotsbury which would actually keep you on the coastal path but off the shingle for a while. And the second was when you were forced onto the beach, with no path alternative, to make your way close to the sea where there would be some firm sand that was much easier to walk on.

I really hoped this advice would be good as I remember how hard it was to walk the couple of miles on the beech.

Just as we parted ways I noticed a water trough for cattle and that the cistern part was exposed. I remembered last time walking along here that I’d run out of water so took the opportunity to fill up all my water containers from the cistern. In the past I might have been embarrassed to try to do this while people could see me, but getting water was important.

The advice the couple gave me worked and vastly improved things. The first part was sort of obvious so I don’t know why I didn’t do it before. There though is a permissive path that goes directly to the beech which is easy to follow by mistake. So I think that’s what happened last time. This time though, I realised I was making the same mistake and backtracked to the path proper. Sometimes following you nose, and where you think the path should go, is not the best approach.

The second part, finding the firm sand, was a little more tricky. I spent some time right next to the water on the shingle not thinking it much better. But then I saw the sand, set back a bit, and things improved considerably. Chisel beach was tamed.

The same but different

As I approached West Bay I was noticing some distinct similarities from last time I was here.

For a start, I didn’t know where I was going to camp. Secondly, it was really hot. The big difference now was, I was not sunburnt, I did not have blisters, I had food. The same anxieties were kicking in though. I would have loved to have stopped there and then, and if there’d been a suitable campsite then that’s what I’d have done. That, unfortunately, was not an option.

The big problem with wild camping is that you need to pitch up late. With summer approaching, that can be at about 9pm. That’s quite late. So if you find a spot at 5pm, you could hang around but I feel strange doing that, so I tend to press on. But then it starts to get dark and then I worry that I won’t find anywhere. It’s a bit of a predicament.

However, I noted to myself that so many things were better this time than last, and carried on along the coast path. Eventually, as I always do, finding a spot to camp, overlooking Sea Town. And what a spot it was.

I kept on finding potential places but kept on deciding to press on to see if there was something better as each time I was worried I’d get moved on. Which is odd because so far, I’ve never been moved on.

I think though, I stopped at exactly the right time.