At the beginning of May this year I took my caravan and my best mate to Dorset where we stayed on a site just outside Swanage and my aim was to walk the Poole Harbour Trail, a route of 45 miles that hugs the edge of the harbour to finish up a short distance from the start point.
Starting at Studland we were soon on the trail over heathland which is unlike anything we have in Cornwall. It is very low lying and no real height was gained all the way around with the exception of the top deck of a double-decker bus back to Swanage!
The track was a well-made stone road which passed a few remote cottages and farms where the soil was thin and the ground poor, it must have been hard to scratch a living in days gone by. Being so flat it was easy walking but lacking any real views but this was compensated by the abundance of birds singing their hearts out. Cuckoos were in earshot and close by for most of the day and it was a joy to hear them but after a while it was becoming a bit wearing and I thought the sooner they all find a mate the better!
The majority of trees were silver birch, with areas of willow where the ground was wetter, and stands of old Scots pine where numerous other birds were setting up home and the closer I came to the out of sight shoreline I could hear oystercatchers and gulls. It was a very lonely walk and I only met two cyclists and another couple walking with a dog. Being bird-nesting season dogs had to be on leads so as not to disturb any of the ground nesters which Eddie was reasonably happy about but when I lost the path in a boggy area I had to let him go and the daft beggar took it as a sign that he could do exactly what he wanted so started doing ‘Zoomies’ with his tail tucked down and off he went at high speed. I crossed the wet area treading carefully as I went to avoid getting too mucky but Eddie came back in an awful state. With him back on the lead I soon came across a pool with murky, stagnant water and managed to get the worst of the mud off, though he was still filthy and it was a few more miles before we came across a river that he could get really clean again.
The track came out onto a tarmac road that was the access to Wytch Farm, where the nodding donkeys were steadily pumping oil. Wytch Farm is the largest onshore oilfield in Europe and it also processes oil that is extracted at Kimmeridge on the Dorset coast. The nodding donkeys have a lovely smooth rhythm and make a soft tapping noise at every stroke which I found quite soothing.
Once I reached the RSPB Arne nature reserve there were a lot more people out walking and cycling and the cuckoos were in full voice all around, with one just keeping one tree ahead of me for a short way. Leaving the car parking area behind we were soon on our own again with the exception of the occasional lizard that ran across the track and there was evidence of the wild boar or feral pigs that had been rootling around doing what pigs do, I also saw a peahen on her own and wondered if she had a nest hidden away close by.
Before reaching Wareham I found myself on a disused tramway that was used to take china clay from the open sites on the heath, where the clay was extracted before being turned into the nature reserve it is today. When the clay had run out the workforce was employed in levelling off the waste piles and generally restoring the heathland back to its original state.
Over the next few days Eddie and I walked the rest of the trail, passing through Wareham forest before reaching the villages of Lychett Minster and then Upton, before catching the train at Hamworthy, which absolutely made Eddie’s day. The final stretch of the trail was all around Poole, which was more built up and where we went past lots of boatyards and moorings as well as the very busy harbour where cargo ships, ferries and pleasure boats are doing their business. The last mile or so was along Sandbanks which is where some of the most expensive houses in the country are found but I would be afraid of the threat of rising sea levels due to global warming swamping everything.
It had been a pleasurable and easy route with such a variation of landscapes and crammed with history in every mile, not to mention the wildlife all around, and we will be off on more adventures soon.
Erica
