Kimmeridge

Although the sky was a clear blue and the young sun shone brightly over Kimmeridge Bay, still on the surrounding hillsides and in the valley and hollows beyond, snow clung on. It was a great day for walking, the air was crisp and clean, and there were few people about. I was expecting to walk out around the Kimmeridge bowl to Townley Shenton's seat, though I found the range gates locked when they shouldn't have been. I don't know what that was about. So, anyway, instead I took the cliff top east towards the base of Swyre Head. Man, the cliff top path along here feels sketchy walking at best, it's very narrow, and slightly slopes towards a high sheer drop, add mud and ice and it was terrifying at times.  Some way along the path, over the fence in a field, is an abandoned military observation post, which at one time clearly had other features associated with it, now long gone, with only mounts and rubble remaining. I stopped for a while, the views through the posts small embrasures along the coast in both directions were fantastic. It must have been a nice posting in the summer, though I'd imagine bleak and foreboding in bad weather, or the depths of winter. Back on the scary cliff top the path rose and fell, with several little foot bridges crossing narrow gullies through which water raced before cascading off the cliff. Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity, my route turned inland, away from the frightening cliff path and I could relax. I don't know why take routes that scare me so, maybe it's a to challenge my fears, or maybe I'm just a fool. I walked back through the valley below the snow capped ridge which makes up the eastern length of the Kimmeridge bowl, before climbing back up to quarry overlooking Kimmeridge. As you can imagine, if the snow endured on all the sunny southern faces of the Purbeck Hills, the predominantly north facing slopes of the Purbeck Ridge remained firmly under winters snowy embrace. The roads over the ridge at Grange Hill and Cocknowle were both glazed and treacherous driving, as I found out descending from Cocknowle, I thought I'd be through the fence at one point.  Another memorable day at the coast.