The South West Coast Path: Abbotsbury to Weymouth

We woke up in Abbotsbury aching a bit from our previous two days of walking but ready to get going on our final leg for this particular trip which involved walking round to Weymouth to finish on the beach meeting up with where we had finished our walk last time. It was the middle of the UK heatwave so the sun was already blazing aggressively at 9am when we had finished our breakfast, lathered on some sunscreen and set off on the days walk. The plan was to follow the South West Coast Path round the headland, skip the Isle of Portland (which we collectively decided was not worth it as we wanted to be in Weymouth for lunch before the parking ran out) and end in the town centre. Walking along Chesil beach is the most direct route but thankfully for us, who did not fancy another day of trudging through shingle, it was closed for the summer to protect the migrating birds living. This meant that we walked the wiggly route along the coast inland of the lagoon which involved walking through a lovely wetland area displaying signs telling us all about the lovely birds we should be seeing. We, however, only managed to spot a few pigeons, some seagulls, and I think a crow so the wildlife for us was not top tier.

Lovely view looking East on the SW Coast Path

Around 11:30 we stopped at a lovely hotel called Moonfleet Manor for an iced latte and a look at google maps. At this point I was already getting hungry and the walk was looking like it would be a long long way. It was at this point we made the decison to cut inland off the path and walk across the headland to get to Weymouth. Some may view this as cheating the coast path but we decided to view it as the best decision logistically so after a few more km along the wetlands we cut inland and basically walked along the edge of a motorway the rest of the way to Weymouth. This was neither fun nor pretty and we were STRAVING by the time we finally made it to Weymouth town centre after what seemed like the longest walk of my life. In actual fact we ended up covering around 17.5km and were please with the decision we made.

Looking at a sign showing us what the birds (none of which we saw) looked like

Once we were in Weymouth and Strava had been stopped for the trip, I had possibly the best M&S meal deal of my life, bought some handmade fudge from a shop near the beach (a must when you visit the English coast) and we hopped in the car to drive home. Three days of walking and we had ticked off some more of the South West Coast Path. It's going to be a long process completing the whole thing and it will probabaly take multiple years but I'm excited for more adventures with my parents.

Pointing at some cows that we had just successfully circumnavigated

In terms of geology, given most of the walk this day was across a motorway, I can't say there was anything that exciting to be seen. But we did start the day with some nice views of the coast and the walk along the wetlands was lovely. Instead of geolgy pictures, heres one of the classic sign that directs along the path. My dad and I had a converstaion about this and how amazng it is to have a fully sign posted path going along the South West Coast. We really are lucky in the UK to have all the public footpaths and walkoing routes availble to us so if you haven't alreayd, I highly recommend getting out there and doing some walking!

Classic acorn sign post that showed us the way along the path