Sunday 22nd Feb. - More of the same!

I woke up quite early but lay in bed a bit longer than I had planned, for some reason I didn’t have a great night’s sleep, probably because my mind was very active after the excitement of the day. I went down or I should say along for breakfast just after 8.00 and took some rolls and cheese portions back to my room to make up some lunch for the day along with refilling my flask. I was very sluggish to get going the main reason for this being the weather the beautiful sunny morning of yesterday was just a memory, Sunday dawned grey with the hint of drizzle in the air.

I finally got everything packed and checked out by about 9.15 and back on the bike for the short ride down to Sandbanks and the ferry back over to Studland. The first photo of the day shows some rain off shore down towards Swanage, luckily throughout the whole day it did stay dry.

At this point I have to thank the guys on the Ferry, as soon as they knew why I was riding, they wouldn’t take my fare which was a really nice gesture, thanks again.

I retraced some of the route from the previous day, down through Studland then turned off towards Swanage and along the seafront as the weather was so dull at this stage I didn’t stop and took the B3069 then off through the small villages of Langton Matravers and Worth Matravers before coming back onto the 3069 just before I got to Kingston I looked over to my right and got another view of Corfe Castle. This really showed me how it was sited there to plug the gap in the Purbeck Hills.

After rounding Corfe Castle I took the back road towards Church Knowle and then off via Puddle Mill farm Bradle Farm before coming out at Kimmeridge and then down a very winding road to Kimmeridge Bay the very grey morning was very, very different to the last time I had been here a few years ago in the height of Summer.

There was a small Folly overlooking the bay that intrigued me as well as the sign giving instructions re: compressors well the latter I was informed relates to the oil well that you can see behind the beach. And the Folly has an equally interesting past.

Clavell Tower provides one of the few manmade structures in Kimmeridge Bay.The Tower was built in 1830 by Reverend John Richards Clavell of Smedmore as an observatory and folly, with three storeys and a distinctive Tuscan colonnade. Thomas Hardy courted Eliza Bright Nicols here and used it as a frontispiece for his Wessex Poems. More recently, it inspired P. D. James’s novel, The Black Tower. For almost two hundred years Clavell Tower has provided a point of destination for the many who have walked the cliffs. It had been unused since the 1930s and had fallen into disrepair. In recent years the tower had been perilously close to falling into the sea due to coastal erosion.

Following an appeal in 2004 The tower was dismantled and re-erected 25 metres back from the crumbling cliff face. In addition to moving the building, services such as electricity and water were installed. New stone was carved to replace the missing sections of the parapet in a bankers' (or stonemasons') shed on site and a kitchen and bathroom put in.

After leaving the estate, without evening stopping for a quick cup of coffee, I headed back up the Purbeck Hills, through Steeple and onto the military road through Lulworth Ranges. I had been here before and knew there was a good stopping point at the top pf Povington Hill, which gives you views for miles around on a fine day, it really is worth the trip, on one side you see the targets and the sea and on the other side of the hill you see back towards the tank ranges inland and yes they do throw the shell from one side to the other, I believe when they are on exercise.

After breaking into my coffee and sandwiches I carried on and pushed on through East and West Lulworth, past the Army camp and down to Lulworth Cove. The time was now getting on and I still wasn’t anywhere near Weymouth so I just went down to the turning point in at the bottom of the village and then back up the other road out via, Winfrith Newburgh and the Chaldon’s going through West Chaldon, I also came a cropper as the road goes through a farm yard and you cannot see the tarmac it was just dry mud and gravel so when I came to the bend it was like riding on marbles.

The road took me back up to the A352 Wareham Road, which on turning left takes me all the way into Weymouth via Overcombe, although looking at the map when planning this, there should have been a couple of turnings to the left to a couple of villages they were all dead ends and given the time I decided to avoid them. I then turned on to the A353 which goes down on to the seafront and round to the harbour and Ferry Port. Given how busy all the other resorts had been the day before in the beautiful weather I was slightly surprised at how empty Weymouth was on what was now a very sunny and warm day.
I wasn’t going to hang around for long as it had now taken me over two hours to travel just 37 miles, therefore in hindsight it was a damn good idea I didn’t try and make it to Weymouth the evening before.

After a quick run through town it was out on to the road to Portland as I was heading out on to the peninsular I could see a large transport ship going around the headland I tried my best to catch up with it but by the time I reached Portland Bill it was well on its way towards Plymouth by the look of things.

Heading back up the around the other side of the Peninsular gives you a quick idea on the amount of Portland Stone that has been quarried here over the centuries there are certain parts that resemble a moonscape.

I head back to Portland itself and then turn down the small road that goes to Portland Castle and some of the former military defences. Portland Castle (5th) was built by Henry VIII during his reign of 1540. The fortress was built to protect Weymouth against possible attack from the armies of France and Spain.

Built with Portland stone, this 450 year old Tudor fortress remains intact and is now under the care of English Heritage. The history of Portland Castle stretches back from the reign of Henry VIII to the Civil War Sieges, when it was used as a jail for prisoners and enemies of Oliver Cromwell. During the Victorian era, the castle became a private residence for Captain Charles Mannering, the man who built what has now become known as the largest man-made breakwater harbour in the world.

Portland Castle was also used as a Seaplane Station during WWI and as an embarkation point for the D-Day invasion of Northern Europe during WWII. During the subsequent research I found that I had missed it’s twin, Portland Castle was built as a pair with Sandsfoot Castle on the Weymouth side of Portland Harbour to provide a very secure harbour.

After crossing Portland Beach Road again towards Chesil Beach I then turn off to take the B3157 towards Portesham and eventually Bridport, I have time to take a few more back lanes and hence I head off through Langton Herring, Rodden the Abbotsbury stopping first of all near to the Swannery to take a quick picture of a chapel on the hill side, I don’t know much about it, but like the Swannery was part of the Monastery the area is famous for.
Back on the B3157 it was a fairly quick blast down through Burton Bradstock and into West Bay, where to my pleasant surprise there was a bike meet, in one of the car parks overlooking the estuary. It turns out riders from all over Dorset turn up here on a Sunday lunchtime, admire each others bikes, swap stories then either head off for home of group up for a bit of a ride.
It was now after 2pm and after a stretch of the legs and the last of my coffee and sandwiches, I then had a look at the map and this was an ideal point to break off and head for home. The A35 was close by which would take me to Dorchester and then onto the A31 to Ringwood and eventually the M27 and M3.

I could carry on a little further to Lyme Regis but I would just end up retracting my steps later on and I did have to get back and pack my bags, as I was due to be away all the following week. So the head took over and at 2.30pm I restarted the bike and headed for home. I won’t say how far it is but it took me almost exactly 2 hours of hard riding to get back.

Before you all start thinking I rode like a hooligan, I don’t do that, I do make good progress in overtaking traffic. On top of all that, in the part laden configuration the bike is in at the moment she is not the quickest thing on the planet, the top speed I’ve had out of her was just over 110 mph but you wouldn’t to do that for long as she is not designed for that, she can however comfortably cruise above the legal speed limit all day long.

When I got back home, I didn’t have time to sort her out so she was put away looking worse for wear, Sorry girl! (I was also stiff as a board, my knees refused to bend properly until I had, had a good soak.

Take care and as I say on this occasion ‘I now feel a sense of achievement and can’t wait for two weeks time’