It’s been a while since I’ve posted here – work’s been a bit busy! But I have been thinking, planning and tinkering with kit over the time.
This weekend just passed I did a 2 day test which didn’t go quite as well as I’d hoped, but I learnt a lot.
The Plan
The plan was 2 days, walking from Swanage to a camp site in Osmington (on the outskirts of Weymouth) on day 1 – around 30 miles – and then back the following day.
I loaded my pack up with everything I’m planning on taking for the full SWCP Plod, so even though it was July I still had colder weather gear (gloves, base layer, jacket etc). Total weight without water was just around 8kg.
The weather was… how to put it… toasty. 26c on Saturday, officially the hottest day of the year so far. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky as the pictures show, so no break from the sun.
To be honest though, other than the heat sapping a bit of energy towards the end, and having the extra weight of around 2kg of water, it wasn’t that much of a problem.
I had a set of times on a sheet for a pace that I hoped should be sustainable over the full 3 weeks later in the year. And obviously, with all that careful planning and decisions about timing, I threw it all out the window and stormed along like a speed demon 🙄
On the whole, it went pretty well. I started around 0830 with 1.25 litres of water, grabbed a pasty and salt & vinegar crisps in Swanage and headed on up to Durlston. There’s a refill station at Durlston which I knew about, so I topped up my other bottle and refilled everything I’d already drunk, so headed off with 1.75 litres of water all in.
It’s fairly flat for the first section, along past Dancing Ledge, Winspit and on to St Aldhelms Head. Then you get to the steps…
I’ve run up and down these before, but today was just about trying not to fall down while going downhill, and then trying to plod up going uphill! With 10kg ish on your back, things are a bit different to being in shorts and t-shirt.
You go inland for a little bit, then round to Houns Tout and up another set of killer steps to get a beautiful view in both directions from the top – Chapman’s Pool back where you came from, and onwards to Kimmeridge and Weymouth/Portland in front.
Another steep descent, then again moderately undulating rather than hilly all the way to Kimmeridge at around half way, 15 miles in at exactly 4 hours after I left Swanage.
Down in Kimmeridge, I topped up water bottles (I’d finished the last of my water on approach to Kimmeridge), and grabbed an ice cream, some more salty crisps and a can on Coke from the van in the car park.
Then it was on to the Lulworth Ranges – stunningly beautiful (mind you, so’s the rest of the coast here!), but quite lumpy!
There’s a big hill to start, then relatively flat along to Worbarrow Bay. Then there’s what I think is the steepest climb of the whole section to Weymouth – possibly anywhere on the SWCP (there’s about 450 miles I’ve not experienced yet…) – up to Flower’s Barrow. In the picture above, it’s the hill on the right by the orange cliffs – doesn’t look much in a photo, but it’s an absolute beast!
From Flower’s Barrow, you head along flat for a little bit, then down to Arish Mel on another steep descent, to immediately go back up the other side on another decent bit of lumpage – poles at the ready for this one too!
Another mile or so of undulating terrain then a big descent into Lulworth. I grabbed a sausage roll, some more crisps (for salt!) and a couple of sugary drinks here. I had enough drink to get to the end point from here, which was around 10 miles away.
From Lulworth, the next 3 miles – “The Rollercoaster” – are continuous, steep up or down hills. Up from Lulworth, down to Durdle Door, up again and down to Scratchy Bottom (*snigger*), then up to Swyre Head and down again to Middle Bottom, then there’s the final longer but slightly-less-steep climb up past the obelisk to White Nothe.
Things get easier again here, although with over 20 miles in my legs and the constant heat of the day I was starting to get worn out.
The path drops down to Ringstead, then through the pub at Osmington Mills and I carried on a little further until turning North up to the village of Osmington where my campsite was.
It was good to finally arrive at the site. I set up the tent (a “Lanshan 1” from 3F UL Gear which goes up with a walking pole), had a shower and changed into clean clothes (tomorrow’s return clothes).
Slight balls-up with the campsite – it turns out the fish and chip shop wasn’t the expected “400m along an idyllic path”, but more 1 mile down a busy A-road with no pavement. Which meant – after a 30 minute wait for food – I had another 1 mile uphill trek up said aforementioned busy A-road with no pavement.
Still, I survived, enjoyed my cod + sausages + chips (pig!), and settled down for the typical rubbish nights sleep I always get in a tent.
I wasn’t disappointed (or rather, I was). After about 10 times of waking up, I decided to start packing things up at 7am. Despite ridiculously hot daytime temperatures, there was dew everywhere in the morning and the tent was soaked on the outside. I did my best to shake it off but it was still considerably heavier in the bag than the day before.
I felt in a bit of a daze leaving, I’m not great with poor sleep (which is a bit of a concern for doing multiday adventures). My legs ached a bit (not hugely, but enough), I was tired, my pack felt heavy and it was starting to get hot again early on. Any positivity I may have had evaporated pretty quickly and I started thinking that there was no way I could do the whole SWCP – if I can’t even cope with one night, then how am I going to cope with 3 weeks?!
I got on with it for a bit, but then decided that I’d much rather be having a beer and watching a film at home than trudging through to the evening, so I called my good lady wife, decided on an extraction point and got on with covering 12 miles and a bit over 2000ft climb.
Not a terrible day, but not what I intended.
Lessons
These are mostly just notes for me…
- Hot weather drains you many times over. First, it’s hot and it saps your energy. Second, you have to carry a lot more water. And thirdly, it’s just less comfortable that it could be when cooler. Take that into consideration and go slower, take it easier!
- A poor night’s sleep will affect your mood in the morning. Try not to let it get you down too much, know that things will get better and just get on with it. Not what I did, but what I have to do (and what I’ve done before in long ultras, albeit without the sleep during the night).
- Pack organisation – think about what you need and when you need it. I got things mostly right, but there’s a lot of different dry-bags open during the evening/night and if I need to pack up quickly it could be awkward.
- Everything just about squeezed into my 30 litre pack. I’m considering swapping for a larger one but with the same gear – so the weight will be the same, but I have space for a pasty and bag of crisps without crushing them to death!
Photos
I took a load of photos – some are above but here’s the complete set.
