Chapmans Pool

There were two worlds of weather at the coast today.  The upper world, walking along West Hill out towards Houns Tout summit, a world shrouded in moist low cloud and wracked by strong winds and the lower world of clear tranquillity, which you entered as you descended to the shores of Chapmans Pool.  There was a point on the descent were you stepped instantly from one weather experience to the other, a strange sensation.  The tide was out at Chapmans Pool revealing slippery clay ledges, spotted with the exposed and eroded sections of ancient fossils, ledges which stretched some distance out to sea. We sat sat a while on the small stone slipway, surrounded by its gnarly pitched wooden boat houses and remnants of the sea, before making our way up the winding track from Chapmans to Renscombe. Once wide enough to accommodate vehicular access, the track is now little wider than single track after land slips during last winter truncated its course, lowering a 50m section by 2 to 3m. I didn't see another soul walking today. It's always a pleasure walking the Purbeck coast, but more so out of season when you have the place almost to yourself, the sense of freedom and closeness to nature is exhilarating.