22/9/2020 - Ferry Bridge to Abbotsbury (11.54mls)

This was our least favourite walk of the week mainly because it was primarily a flat walk along the banks of the Fleet which is a 8mile stretch of water separated from the sea by Chesil Beach. It was also a very dull day with not much of interest to see which probably explains why there aren't any photographs worth publishing!, apart from 3 bedraggled walkers arriving at Abbotsbury Swannery.

The day got off to a stuttering start as, although we were aware that there was a path diversion from the start at Ferry Bridge, initially, we couldn't see where the diversion started, but once we found it the diversion was the best signposted route we came across taking us through a housing estate before delivering us on to the SWCP.

It was then a slog along the edge of The Fleet with only 3 things of note before reaching our lunch stop at Rodden Hive.

1. there was a small diversion around an army operational training compound where there was an exercise going on involving many soldiers using a very large "lego" kit to build a bridge, plus another group in a small powered inflatable on the Fleet practising retrievals from the water under time pressure.

2. just past there we were asked to look out for a missing golden retriever called Holly but when we later met the owner she seemed relaxed that the dog had probably raced back across the fields to home

3. being near Abbotsbury Swannery it was not a surprise that there should be swans on the Fleet and we were treated to a perfect formation flypast of the White Arrows including some test landings at speed

After lunch the path turns inland towards Abbotsbury, passing through the car park at Abbotsbury Swannery where Fiona was waiting with the car having spent most of her time at Abbotsbury Sub-Tropical Gardens. By this time we had walked through heavy and soaking drizzle for the last couple of miles ...

On the way back the dreaded Starbucks word arose so we had to divert around the back of Weymouth to a drive-thru on an industrial estate which kept our 2 little helpers in the back of the car happy on the way back to Lulworth, although because DavidL had set the sat nav destination to Ferry Bridge we did several circuits of Weymouth before finally arriving home!

Another 11.54 miles at an average speed of 3mph.

Fiona had an enjoyable time at the sub-tropical gardens ..