The day started brightly with Swanage being revealed in bright sunshine, a vast improvement on yesterday’s torrential rain. A walk around the harbour gave some good views of the bay and pier and the climb up to Dirlstone castle gave a last view of the Isle of Wight.Dirlstone is an area of paths and gardens…

It was an early start as I had to walk four miles to get my lift across Poole harbour at Sandbanks.Sadly my route did not take me in front of some of the most expensive real estate in England but round the back to the Yacht club.There I met Mike who was going to ferry…

The day started a little oddly as my hotel didn’t start serving breakfast until 9;30am, a fact I had not spotted on the booking. However as it was included and I didn’t have a long walk to do I set off late.I passed through the splendidly named Chewton Bunny nature reserve then worked my way…

Today I was going to be walking with Mark who I had met via work. This piece of the coast held particular memories for him so he wanted to show it to me.We had an ideal day for walking and made of time as we worked our way along the coast towards Barton on Sea.We…

An early start today as not only did I have a ferry to catch but I was meeting a friend who was going to walk with me.The ferry to Hythe wasn’t a long trip but it passed quickly as I chatted to the husband and wife team working on the boat told me about their…

My ankle wasn’t too bad in the morning and I made my way back to the coast.Crossing a long stretch of shingle at Browndown was a good test and all seemed ok.My mission was to work my way to Hamble by lunchtime to catch the ferry. I passed through the Titchfield nature reserve where there…

After leaving Porchester I followed the path round the edge of the estuary towards Fareham. There were plenty of walkers taking advantage of the good weather so I had lots of opportunities to chat to them about my walk.I then managed to turn my left ankle over on an uneven stretch of path. Luckily for…

After my break in Portsmouth where I visited the excellent D Day museum, I left to work my way round to Porchester.Despite being on the England Coast Path signs were in short supply. Their favourite was a sticker on the lamp post. This was made less useful as, breweries, fringe political parties and local DJs…

Once again packing up a wet tent I made my way through a part of the island where there were big estates and big houses. As a result the path went no where near the coast and moved round the shed of the estates.I saw another red squirrel before the rain came down in earnest…

Today was a relatively short day thank goodness so I could start a little later having taken the opportunity to dry out my tent. The path made its way back to the coast but heavy rain and a high tide made a bit wetter than expected. One part of the path had suffered badly from…