The Wednesday Walk 11th January 2012

The Plan
A trip to Swanage.

The Leader
Wendy

Who Turned Up
Wendy, Trudy B, Ros, Beatrice and Tony H, David

The Walk
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday dear Beatrice,
Happy birthday to you.
And what a glorious day it was for a birthday walk. The sky was blue and cloudless and the air was calm. Given another ten degrees of temperature and we could have believed it was summer. We left our cars at Canford Cliffs Village and caught the Swanage bus. We used our OAP bus passes for the ride which took us across the Sandbanks ferry and through Studland village. Bearing in mind we are in the early part of January, the bus was an open-top double decker. We had a choice of cooking in the heat downstairs or enjoying a cool breeze upstairs.
Once we arrived at Swanage, our walk took us up the hill to Durleston Head where we inspected the rewly refurbished castle. They've done a very good job on it and we took enough time to enjoy the glorious views over the English Channel and Swanage Bay as well as the visitor centre attractions. The only disappointment was the new cafe. The old one was was quite good, but the new one hasn't a hope of staying in business. It had gas supply problems so couldn't give us a hot meal, and maybe that was fortunate because the prices were totally extortionate. £20.12 for a set lunch!!! And £7.50 for a sandwich!!! And the menu wasn't much to shout about either. The twelve pence added to the price of the set lunch was - so we were told - to reflect the year.
We walked back down the hill into Swanage - still enjoying the views which included the Needles standing out nicely on the horizon -  and had lunch at the White Horse Inn. We then wandered back to the bus station outside the Swanage Steam Railway. All in all, it was a very pleasant day out. The views and the weather couldn't be faulted.
Trisha very kindly offered tea and cakes at her house after the walk. Thank you Trisha.

The Pub
The White Horse Inn at Swanage. A cheap and cheerful pub near the sea front. The steak and ale pie with chips and vegetables was £7.45, which worked out at five pence less than a sandwich up at the castle. The pie was okay (said the pie connoisseur) although the pastry was a touch stodgy, and the salmon salad was very good. The tea and coffee were free so we couldn't really complain about them.