The Vagabond Hiker

Hiking, trekking, and climbing the world

The Southwest Coast Path: Sandbanks to Lulworth Cove

The most recent section of the Southwest Coast Path (SWCP) I had completed, in September 2023, encompassed the western half of Dorset, from Lyme Regis to Lulworth Cove. At the time the Lulworth Ranges were closed, so my trekking ended there. Last month I returned, joining a friend from California, to complete the eastern Dorset section of the route in four days, traditionally the end of this 1014 km* long distance path. A couple of train changes got me in less than 5 hours from Hastings to Poole, where the afternoon before I met Allison, who had just arrived from California.

* – alert readers may have noted that in the last post I used strictly metric distances. I will continue to employ the system that 90% of the world uses for good reason. One kilometer is roughly 0.62 mile and one meter about 3.3 feet.

In point of fact, the SWCP actually begins/ends at Shell Bay, at the terminus of a short ferry from Sandbanks in Poole. We were doing this section “in reverse” of the usual direction.

Allison on the Sandbanks ferry, all of a five minute trip.

Day 1: Shell Bay to Swanage

13 km, 220 m elevation gain

With Allison at the start/end of the SWCP
Shell Bay, a sandy slog to start!
Old Harry Rocks. Can you spot the natural window?
Tiny Persian Speedwell (Veronica persica)
View towards Swanage, where our first night’s accommodation lay.
Wall Bellflower in Swanage
Purbeck House Hotel balcony view, Swanage

Day 2: Swanage to Kingston

20 km, 760 m elevation gain

Roman columns at the Swanage amphitheater, an outdoor music and theater venue
Durlston Castle, Durlston Country Park. A lovely section of wooded paths began near this interesting Victorian-era building.
Allison and Anvil Point Lighthouse
Chalk Milk-wort
An Early Spider Orchid. We might have missed these little fellas if some avid botanizers had not pointed them out to us.
A field of rape (rapeseed oil is called canola oil in the Americas).
The Vagabond Hiker
Coastal vista, emphasizing some steep climbs
Admiring the view. . . and resting my knees!
Hill Bottom Plantation. We turned inland at Chapman’s Pool towards our accommodation in Kingston.

Day 3: Kingston circular via SWCP and Hardy Way

18 km, 600 m elevation gain

Limited lodging gave us an opportunity to stay two nights in Kingston and also do some inland walking.

Twins. It was lambing season and most of the Ewes seemed to have two lambs.
Chapman’s Pool, where we had left off the SWCP the day prior
Houns-Tout Cliff view. I have to love some of the place names!
Clavell Tower, a 19th century folly
Kimmeridge Bay, seen from the Hardy Way. The next morning we (read: Allison) arranged a taxi down to where we left the SWCP.
View from Swyre Head. Perhaps this flat block was used as a triangulation point. Any other ideas?

Day 4: Kimmeridge Bay to Lulworth Cove

13 km, 635 m elevation gain

Broad Bench, Lulworth Ranges. We would be walking most of the day through the ranges, run by the MoD and closed much of the time. They were open for more than two weeks at Easter, however.
Wild cabbage and Tyneham Cap
Worbarrow Tout & Gad Cliff (background). Despite all the clouds, the rain for the most part left us alone.
Allison climbing up Rings Hill
View towards Bindon Hill. We would remain in the Lulworth Ranges until Lulworth Cove.
View looking back along the coast, with Bindon Hill the obvious high point. We did three steep climbs this day, which proved the hardest for me despite the shorter distance. Allison’s in the middle ground near some signage.
Mupe Bay with its eponymous cliffs looming in the near ground
Looking back at Mupe Bay Beach Cliffs with some prolific gorse
Lulworth Cove pano. It was still a walk around to the cove village and then inland for 2 km to our West Lulworth hotel. I just got tired of taking photos!

The weather was great and the days’ walks were amazing. Hiking with a friend who has a similar pace and who I had not seen in more than a year was a huge bonus. Just to be clear, while I walked for 4 days and then returned to Hastings, for Allison this was the beginning of a 66 day trek to complete the entirety of the Southwest Coast Path in one go. I, in contrast, will soon be on the 8th year of what be will be at least a 10 year plan, beginning in Westward Ho! Devon in late May 2018. Stay tuned for my future (shortish) endeavors to complete this project.

I am currently in Hastings, supposedly training for a two-week trek in Peru later this month. I have some walks from a last minute surprise trip to share with you before that expedition. Until then,

Get your daily dose of nature wherever you may be!

The Vagabond Hiker

Malta redux

Seven years ago (though it doesn’t seem nearly so long) I published three blogs on hiking the country of Malta. The first, on the Island of Malta, was necessarily short as I stayed only one week and spent much of the time investigating the numerous architectural ruins (not surprising as I was traveling with my brother, Mark, and his wife, both architects!) Returning to Malta for 21/2 weeks last month gave me an opportunity for a deeper dive into some of the trails in the more rural, northern end of the island.

After a wet winter, this past March Malta was far greener than I recalled, boasting many more wildflowers, photos of which were noticeably absent from my 2018 post. Let’s start with a geography refresher. . .

A map of the country of Malta, situated about 80 km south of Sicily, reproduced from my 2018 blog post

The trailhead for most of the hikes was the door of my apartment in Mellieħa, a ridge-top town in northern Malta. All except one hike were variations on a theme. . . the theme being the Mellieħa peninsula. The final hike out my door was a loop to the south, out to Il-Majjistral Park on the west coast. (Foolishly, I failed to extend the hike to include Xemxija’s Old Roman Road Heritage Trail).

Balcony view east from my top floor Mellieħa apartment.
A farmer with Il-Palazz in the background.
Tree mallow (Malva arborea), many of which were a meter or more tall
The ruins of Ras il-Griebeg, along the northern coast of the Mellieħa peninsula
Field gladiolus (Gladiolus italicus)
The coast near Imġiebaħ Beach
The town of Mellieħa. My apartment is denoted by the arrow on the left.
Il-Palazz, sadly closed for renovation
A morning view east, on the descent to a coastal loop walk.
Statue of St Paul, to the east of the peninsula.
A rural road on the peninsula. These roads weren’t so bad to walk as the traffic was somewhere between light and non-existent.
A field and coast view along a path north of my apartment
Imġiebaħ valley
Azure stonecrop (Sedum caeruleum), native to Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Sardinia, Corsica, and Sicily, according to Wiki; and apparently Malta.
Giant Fennel (Ferula communis). Though not one of my faves, I had to be impressed with these burly guys
A gorgeous flower of the caper bush (Capparis spinosa)
A rural road/path to my south, heading towards Il-Majjistral Nature & History Park
Italian Bugloss (Anchusa azurea). The hike to Il-Majjistral was fantastic for botanizing
Branched Asphodel (Asphodelus ramosus)
Vista north from Il-Majjistral. The cliffs south of Dwejra Bay on Gozo are in the distance.
Scarlet pimpernel (Lysimachia arvensis), blue form. A gorgeous macro of a scarlet pimpernel, taken by Clifford, was the only wildflower in my three blogs from 2018.
Rock Cut Observation Post, Il-Majjistral
View from the Rock Cut Observation Post. The white blobs are small islets far below
A Brown garden snail. They commonly emerge during wet weather in winter on Malta. Indeed, there were several days of some rain showers while I was there.
Castor oil plant (Ricinus communis), which is extremely allergenic. Castor beans contain ricin and are highly toxic.

A half-hour bus journey south from my apartment brought me to the town of Mġarr, which was the starting point for a loop hike to Fomm ir-Riħ on the west coast.

Castello Zamittello, immediately to the west of Mġarr
The Windrose Giant Cat Weathervane, Fomm ir-Riħ
Fomm ir-Riħ bay and headland

Another hike requiring a short bus journey was to the L-Aħrax peninsula, at the northern end of Malta Island. It is located to the east of the Red Fort and Ras il-Qammieħ, where I hiked with Mark in 2018. Despite some paved roads as well as a couple of new resorts under construction (yuck!), there were still a few nice rural and coastal spots on this hike.

Coast view towards Gozo
It-Torri l-Abjad. The path near here disappeared into sharp talus for several hundred meters before resuming.
A rural road/path on the southern portion of the L-Aħrax Peninsula. Some prickly pear cacti were almost as large as the shrubby trees.
A field of crown daisies and poppies.

Altogether I identified about 22 wildflowers blooming in March. I thought that was a reasonably good tally, until I discovered the Malta Wild Plants website, a 20-year effort by Stephen Mifsud. It will be a great resource if I ever return, or if any of you, my dear readers, visit Malta.

Currently, I am in England enjoying a warm and generally sunny April in Hastings, East Sussex. My next blog post will be of the South West Coast Path. Last week I completed the last few days of the Dorset section with a friend from California.

Stay tuned and enjoy the spring weather and wildflowers,

The Vagabond Hiker

Trekking in Oman

Long contemplated and in February finally realized, a 12 day trekking and cultural trip to Oman certainly met my expectations. Although KE Adventure’s offering was not a continuous trek – featuring a mid-trip cultural stop in the ancient capital of Nizwa as well as daily 4×4 transport for our luggage (and us) to each campsite – nonetheless, it was a fine experience of a location that for me was a Blank on the Map.

One does not usually think of the Arabian Peninsula as mountainous. Indeed, the Empty Quarter and the holy cities of Mecca and Medina more often come to mind. However, in the Hajar Mountains (translated as the Rocky Mountains or the Stone Mountains), Oman boasts one of the highest mountain ranges in the Arabian Peninsula*, shared with the United Arab Emirates. They separate the low coastal plain of Oman, including its Capital, Muscat, from the high desert plateau, and lie 50–100 km inland from the Gulf of Oman. We explored some of the most dramatic sections of the Al Hajar range. Unfortunately, the high point, Jebel Shams (3009m), is closed due to a military installation, and though its slightly lower South Summit (2997m) is accessible to trekkers, it was not on our itinerary.

* – pub trivia question: what is the highest mountain on the Arabian Peninsula? Answer, Jabal an Nabi Shu’ayb in Yemen, at 3666m.

Enjoy this often overlooked outdoor destination in a safe, very friendly country!

Oman and its neighbors on the Southeastern Arabian Peninsula
Muscat Grand Mosque. We visited this impressive complex before heading out on trek.
Day 1 consisted of a short hike up Wadi Bani Auf, a narrow gorge that is the entrance to the pretty village of Bilad Sait.
Bilad Sait village
On Day 2 we did the most popular hike in Oman, the balcony trail from Al Kateen Village though the “Grand Canyon of the Middle East”
An abandoned village along the balcony trail. Rockfall was a continuous problem for precarious villages built below the high plateau.
A pool at the terminus of the balcony trail. Spot the trekker in his yellow shirt.
A goatish siesta
Our Lebanese leader, Toufic, in lunchtime contemplation, en route to our 2nd night’s camp.
View from our 2nd camp. (Our 1st camp, which I termed the “generator camp,” is not to be recommended at all).
Day 3 trek vista in the Jebel Akhdar. Apart from the balcony trail, we saw virtually no other trekkers the entire time.
View during our Jebel Akhdar village walk. The first half of our trek consisted of fairly easy days, with some long drives between the trek and camp.
Sunset view with a fort from our 3rd camp
Day 4, the descent of Wadi Muyadeen, was more strenuous by far, and particularly hard on the knees!
Another view along the Wadi Muyadeen
Our Day 5 desert camp, one of our most scenic. (Note that on the previous night and day we had a cultural break at Nizwa with hot showers at our hotel. I was indisposed with GI issues and took no photos).
Day 6 was a very early start as we climbed the Selma Plateau. This is a trailhead view at dawn.
Morning view back towards the trailhead. We gradually ascended about 1650m this day over a distance of 17km, by far the toughest day’s trekking.
Our group along the Selma Plateau route. There were 11 clients along with our guide, Toufic. Keeping the group together was challenging for him.
Vista along the Selma Plateau. Our high point was about 2150m.
On Day 7 we continued our plateau traverse and then descended the Wadi Tiwi to the coast. Here are a couple feral burros we saw in the early morning.

Perhaps it was because of the early season, but the botanizing was disappointing on this trip. However, as we descended on Day 7 to more humid climes toward the Gulf of Oman, I finally had some limited success.

Morettia canescens. Another wildflower without an English common name.
Syrian oregano (Origanum syriacum)
Prunus scoparia, a wild almond primarily found in Iran and Turkmenistan, but perhaps seeds had blown across the Gulf
A not very good photo of Aerva javanica, the kapok bush or desert cotton
View towards the Gulf of Oman on Day 7.
Another vista on Day 7, with the Gulf in the background. Plenteous clouds (accompanied with a bit of rain!) made the light good for photography
View of Wadi Tiwi far below. This final day’s trek was a tough descent into the heat of the day.
Relaxing at our final camp on Wadi Shab beach.
View of the Gulf from our Wadi Shab beach camp. As it was the weekend, numerous Omanis were car camping along this beach.

On the last morning we enjoyed the highlight of the trip, a walk/swim up the Wadi Shab. The three pools and waterfall at the end of the last one were absolutely amazing. Cleansing ourselves of the dirt, sweat, and salt (for those of us who swam in the Gulf) before our 4 hour drive back to Muscat was an added bonus. I did not bring my camera, choosing to live completely in the moment. Sorry.

I am now in Hastings, East Sussex, after more than 2 weeks walking in Malta. I was not planning on sharing any photos from that trip, but the wildflowers were far better than I had expected, so I will work on that post as I enjoy lovely spring weather here in the UK.

The Vagabond Hiker

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