South Dorset Ridgeway

Having walked from Lyme Regis to Poole before, I decided this time to do the South Dorset Ridgeway, an alternate route—still legitimate—but less popular.  First of course, I had to figure out how to access it.  While looking for the trail, I meet this blue couple:

Looking back at the sweet town of Abbotsbury through the mist on the way up to the ridge:

THE sight to visit on this route is the Hardy Memorial.  What a surprise to find out that a) the memorial was not a statue and b) though it is in memory of Thomas Hardy, it is not im memory of Thomas Hardy the author, who did live in these parts, but of Sir Thomas Hardy who fought with Nelson.  Story has it that when Nelson was fatally shot at the Battle of Trafalgar, Hardy was walking beside him on the deck of the ship, and as Nelson lay dying, he asked Hardy to kiss him, which he did:

There are animals who run away when you pass by:

And animals who run eagerly toward you:

I was kind of scared to do this route segment.  Would it be well marked? (It was quite well marked.)  Would it be tricky?  (It was tricky in parts.)  And when you are in a space like this:

you want to make sure you are crossing where you should be crossing.  In the fifteen miles of the walk, there were no facilities at all and I did not see a soul.  That is not so unusual, but this route felt especially remote.

One of the few buildings along the way:

 I got stung with nettles—that really hurts, even hours later—lost HAT (I have a spare), dropped GPSy and had to go back about 1/3 of a mile to find her (GPSy, I would walk back five miles to look for you), and it rained.  Oh....part of the walk was picture-book beautiful.