The Wednesday Walk 4th March 2009

The Plan
We will meet at Whitecliff at the usual time of 0945. Then we will take the bus from Sandbanks to Swanage. We will walk back along the front from Swanage town in order to have lunch at The Pines.

The Leader
Wendy

Who Turned Up
Wendy, Trisha, David. We were pleased to see you well enough to join us on a walk, Trisha.

The Walk
How lucky we were with the weather today! The forecasters predicted snow, sleet, gloom and despondency. In fact we had a lovely day along the shore at Swanage.

We caught the bus at Sandbanks, using our OAP free passes. From the bus station at Swanage we immediately went for a cup of tea. Well, we had to get our priorties right. Then we walked along the shore front until we got to the steep steps that lead up to the Pines Hotel. On the way, we saw a man swimming in the sea. As he headed towards the shore we speculated on whether he would walk up to us and say, "I am Pierre from Calais. Is this Angelterre?" In a French accent of course.

Trisha counted ninety steps up to the hotel. When we got to the top we were nicely ready to sit down and eat.

After lunch we walked back along the same route and continued out to the end of Swanage Pier. It was at this time we spotted heavy rain showers over Bournemouth and the Isle of Wight, but they didn't bother us.

Finally, we caught the 1525 bus back to Sandbanks. All-in-all it was a very pleasant day. No snowdrops, but Wendy did spot some other early flowers to make up for it.

The Pub

Lunch today was in the bar of the Pines Hotel. The food was good and reasonably priced. The poached salmon with plenty of potatoes and vegetables came to £6.50. Wendy's pork came out at the same price. The hotel do plan on layout changes so we would need to check before going there again.