Day 5 Wednesday

The Jurassic coast was our destination today and I was looking forward to this as I had never been to Dorset before but what a difference a day makes. The weather had turned cloudy and wet and it was also cold and windy. I decided that there was little point doing the 'A' walk as visibility was very poor and I didn't feel like toiling up those hills with no view to keep me going, so I opted for the 'B' walk led by Frank. Speaking of views if you follow this link you can get a taste of what we missed!

We set off from Seatown where the wind was blowing and the waves were rolling in.

There was a fair amount of undulation but it was difficult to tell where we were as the cloud was very low and visibility was poor to say the least. This is the best I could manage along the route. Unfortunately the coastal footpath had been diverted due to a landslip and the final part into Lyme Regis was mostly along roads and inland footpaths. By the time we reached Lyme Regis we were all ready for a cup of tea and a scone and were surprised to see that the 'A' party had arrived just before us. They had finished the last part of the walk along the beach, fortunately missing the areas of quicksand!
Whilst the 'A' and 'B' parties had been doing the coastal path a smaller group had been to visit Thomas Hardy's cottage. This is a walk that Jackie Wilkes would have led if she had been there and she sent me the following pictures taken by Sheila Hogg.

Anyone who has read a Thomas Hardy novel will know that the weather, particularly bad weather, is a strong feature and influences his characters' actions and feelings. Hardy wasn’t representing Dorset’s conditions realistically, he was exaggerating for artistic effect. So it was obviously Hardy's pessimistic influence that caused us to have the one day of bad weather when we visited his native Dorset!