Rach & Mark - SouthWest630

SW630 Day 74 OUR LAST DAY!!!
Swanage to South Haven Point

AND YIPPPEEE ....We made it to the end!!🤩👍

We awoke early from our wild camp on Peveril Point and quickly packed up and went off to find breaky and toilets. Gotta love a toilet!

Fitted in a swim in Swanage bay before breaky at a beach cafe and then started our walk up towards Old Harry's Rocks.

Only one hill today, and only about 8 miles, so easy peasy by coast path standards, and we had time for stoppages, which was a good job as we had alot of stoppages! First stop being the swim and breaky of course... then a choccie bar supplies stop...then drone flying at Old Harry's Rocks...then cider at the pub...ice cream at a beach cafe... and before we even left the cafe we basically stopped again for Mark to get chips!

Eventually having seen the rocks and made it through the obstacle course of refreshment opportunities (where were they yesterday when I had just 2 satsumas for lunch?!)...we were finally on the last leg: the beach towards the finish point!

There was however more obstacle to overcome...the nudist beach !! We knew it was coming but we weren't quite ready for how many people would be on it! Yikes! We didn't know where to look... 😱 😆 ! As most of the people walking along the beach towards us were completely starkers Mark even halted his usual 'chat with everyone you meet' approach, which did admittedly speed us up and make up for some of the snacks stoppage time!

Premier Support Crew Mum & Dad Kirk and Lou and Nat Yat from Youth Adventure Trust were there to meet us when we reached the official end of path. Cue lengthy photo shoot at the sign, a run into the into the sea in our pirate dress and a celebration with a glass of that well known pirate tipple... champagne.

So it's done! Mission SW630, Complete! Ta-Dah! Once again a massive thank you to everyone who has supported us along the way, with homestays, dinners, taxi services, bag drops, likes and comments on our posts and donations to Royal British Legion and Youth Adventure Trust. Your support has been amazing! Fundraising update to follow but for now sleep beckons!

SW630 Day 73
A ridgeline near Kimmeridge to Swanage

Currently cooking up a last night on the path romantic dinner for one (a mush in a bag meal) while Mark goes in search of a kebab shop - he had a mush meal for lunch and two in a day wasn't enticing !!

We have made it to just short of Swanage leaving no more than 9 miles we think for tomorrow! Whoo hoo!

Today has some tough sections with overgrown paths, some beasts for hills - definitely tough enough to rank in the worst hills league table and a long day by our standards as we wanted to push to get as close to Swanage as we could...and as Mark would point out it took 3 miles to even get to the Coast path at Kimmeridge thanks to my highly disapproved of diversion!

We also were running low on food supplies so have been pretty hungry all day and there were no shops or cafes. And rookey error we didnt realise that early enough to stock up. Mark was too preoccupied moaning and grumping about my diversion to Corfe Castle and I was too preoccupied defending my reasoning. So limited food stocks today. Disaster!

Anyway we made do, but it wasn't ideal. What was ideal was a kind couple called Terry and Ann taking inviting us for tea, toast and biscuits at their home when our paths crossed just outside Swanage! First brew of the day at 6pm = Best Tea EVER!!!

One day to go! Aiming to get to South Haven Point in Poole by 2pm....can see the route from here over towards Old Harry's Rocks. Seafront, then one hill, bit of cliffs and a long sandy beach we reckon and we will be done! 🤩

SW630 Day 72
Weymouth to Lulworth and around the Lulworth Ranges

Having left Pugwash and Pearl with Nicky and got a lift back to Weymouth we were happily surprised to be met at the clocktower by Youth Adventure Trust's Fundraising Director Lou Balaam to wish us on our way for the day. And the socialising continued as shortly after Mark's mate Polly joined us again for the walk along the seafront.

Once out of Weymouth though it was back to just me, Mark and Boss the Parrot. The morning was pretty easy walking, but we knew it would get harder in the afternoon as we hit the iconic rollercoaster of hills around Durdle Door. But to be honest, we bossed it! 70 days of hill training must have paid off! Of course being without Pugwash and Pearl is a game changer but even aside from that we definitely found it easier than the last time we'd done it on a very early date - something of a distant memory now we have experienced tent life together (trying to avoid being too graphic about tent life specifics as I keep getting told its TMI!)

It was exciting to pass the well known coastline of Durdle Door and felt like we are really near the end now!

In Lulworth we were met for a cup of tea by Dave Turnbull (also ex Navy!) & his wife Karen who have been following and chatting to us on SWCP FB and have also been walking the path themselves in sections. Then we were whisked off by Nicky to Corfe Castle where she looked after us with a delux car park picnic with castle views and delicious home-made veggie curry. Amazing!!

Saying our goodbyes to Nicky we took back Pugwash and Pearl and set off to find the sea again. Sadly this is where it got a bit depressing when we realised we could see Poole from the top of the ridge we were walking along... we could even see the end point at South Haven Point! This would have been super exciting...other than the fact we were walking away from it, heading West not East to get back to Kimmeridge. Aaarrrggh!!

Mark would happily have been dropped off directly in Kimmeridge but I didn't want to skimp too much on mileage so instead of a massive inland road diversion around the closed Lulworth firing ranges which we had been told was not fun and not worth doing, we had opted for this Corfe Castle solution recommended on the SWCP website...not realising after 70 days heading to Poole how demoralising it would be to be walking away from it! I hadn't realised that we'd be able to actually see it!!

Anyway the moral of the story for anyone wanting to walk the path is hit the Lulworth ranges when they are open! Which is quite tricky when they as so close to the end of the trip, and at this time of year only open at weekends (and not every weekend). But there is basically no good option to get around them!

That said, we did just wake up camped on top of a ridge with gorgeous views of sunrise over Poole. And some interested cows peering over the fence! So it ain't all bad really! Even Mark seems to have cheered up about it!

2 days to go now!