Not a cloud in the sky as I meet my new walking partner for the day Quiver Brown, another long time friend who I spend a lot of time with. We meetb on the quayside at Seatown beach and the world is not quite awake on a glourious Sunday morning. Except for the beautiful sail boat moored just off shore, and the odd early dog walker. Quivers introduction is an immediate climb to the top of Thorncombe Beacon, not far short of the heigh of Golden Cap. The view is just stunning and the sweep around Chesil Beach, Portland and well into Dorset is a sight to behold. Inland there are a number of camping sites, and people shaking themselves after a Saturday night. We descend to the beach at Eype, and immediately climb again, the path flexing its muscles once more. A drop down into West Bay brings some releif, and the world is certainly awake now, with a myriad of cafes and tea rooms bursting at the seams with happy campers of all shapes and sizes. The harbour is a pretty distraction from the masses, but we reach a closed section of the path due to more landslips. This section of the coast is so vunerable, and the association do so well to keep the path open with diversions. This diversion takes us inland and around Bridport and West Dorset Golf Club. The golfers are obviously not too happy as we cross some of their land, but in general all semm to accept the reason for this. Now for a nasty surprise. The path drops to the shingle beach after Burton Cliff and there is no obvious escape. The walk in the shingle for two miles is draining our enthusiam and we spot a path inland across the wetland at Burton Mere. However this is short lived and we re-emerge onto the beach, the target of West Bexington in the distance. Quiver equates it to being in the foreign legion, and the sun beats down. We can here music in the oasis and there is a beach side cafe/bar/resturant where we take on lime and soda and some nibbles. A wonderful stop with a live jazz singer, it is difficult to get the feet to move once more but we must plough on, the target is in sight. There is no way we are walking on that shingle again, and the alternative, and still part of the official path is to walk a mile inland to the South Dorset Ridgeway, that seems like a plan. Well it does but the clue was in the title, “Ridgeway”, so another long and big climb gets us to the amazing path from where you can see for miles both inland and out to sea. Lots of references to Hardy on this path and we debate if this was in fact Thomas Hardy and agre it must be. There are Tumuli (Burial mounds) around us and the remains of an old fort, history has touched this part of the world. We eventually see the magnificant buildings of Abotsbury between us and the sea, with Chesil Beach. A long path down, and my friend now has carmp in his calfs, and there is a lot of calf to cramp, blisters, and a longing for a hot bath. So a real mixed bag of a day and once again so different in all aspects.