Stacks

[puddleshark]

I have stacks. Not stacks of money. Not stacks of time. Just stacks.



I don't often do the walk from Studland up to Old Harry Rocks and Ballard Down. It's extremely popular with visitors, attracting great crowds in good weather. But if you set off very early, while it's still grey and cold, it's a lovely peaceful walk.


The first stretch of path, green and shaded and pleasant. The land is owned by the National Trust and there are lots of little marked walks through the woods beside the path. The damp morning air full of wrensong and the scent of wild garlic.


A well-worn path through a clifftop field.


Old Harry Rocks, at the end of Handfast Point.



Sat on the dry grass to drink my coffee, and watch the gulls pass by.


Gull. No idea which. I'm terrible at identifying adult gulls, and the juveniles completely defeat me.


Great Black-backed Gull. I'm pretty confident about this one. Enormous? Check. Black back? Check.

When I was planning where to walk this morning, I had a sudden hankering to wave at the cross channel ferry as she passed Handfast Point. I thought I would have a longish wait for the Barfleur to appear - she sails at 08:30, then has to make her way through Poole Harbour. But at 08:30 she was already out of the harbour and in sight, well ahead of schedule. Either the weather is on the change, or all her passengers had checked in early.




Mv Barfleur, and in the distance GT Vela at anchor. (Couldn't quite see her name in the image, so looked her up on vesselfinder, then got sidetracked, looking at all the vessels in Poole Harbour, curious to see what names people had given their yachts... Lots of girls' names.)

Once the Barfleur had sailed off into the hazy distance, set off again, past the Pinnacles.








Up on Ballard Down, following the wide well-worn grass path, through fields carpeted in yellow wild flowers: Buttercups, Hawksbeard, Bird's-foot Trefoil, Kidney Vetch.


Hawksbeard.


And hovering above the yellow on their slender stalks, the blue flowers of Pale Flax.


Lots of runners out and about now, but these were not just runners, they had a bag and a litter-picking stick, and were picking up rubbish as they went. Superheroes of some sort.


Studland and Poole Harbour from Ballard Down.




Swanage from Ballard Down, the bay full of sailing dinghies and rowing gigs.

The path cutting back down to Studland was a lot further on than I remembered, and I worried I had missed it, but still it was glorious to be out walking on the high downs, the sun warm and the wind cold, and a skylark singing directly above me: It's raining song, halleluja...

I hadn't missed the path. Like all the paths across the downs, it is unmissable, the grass worn well down, and it soon becomes a steep chalk track.


The Glebeland Esate, a weird little industrial estate of modern villas and seaside bungalows with picture windows.




Early Purple Orchid.

The path comes out on a lane that runs along the side of the Glebeland Estate, past villas hiding behind high hedges and electric gates. There are cars in the driveways, so the houses are occupied, but the easycare front gardens - tarmacked or paved, and devoid of plants - give the game away. These properties are nearly all weekend homes or holiday lets.


Back down the lane to Studland, and the stumpy tower of Studland Church hiding behind the trees in the distance.

Comments

[heleninwales]

That does look like a lovely walk, though I can imagine it gets crowded later in the day, especially in fine weather. However, it was the Bank Holiday last weekend and we've noticed that the weekends either side of a Bank Holiday tend to be quieter than normal. People are either waiting to go away at the Bank Holiday or have just been away. I don't know whether that's the same where you are though?

[kaishin108]

I love those Chalky looking cliffs.