New Year's Day walk

The beach near Lodmoor looking towards Bowleaze

New Year's Day just isn't New Year's Day without a good walk to clear the fug from New Year's Eve.

So, after lunch we wrapped up and hopped in the car down to the car park at Lodmoor Country Park.

The weather, as you can see, was stunning; what a lovely day to start the year.

There were dozens of people strolling along the sea wall - or riding on their shiny new bicycles and scooters - and a few, like us, on the beach. This is actually an artificial beach created with shingle dredged up from the seabed near the Isle of Wight and constantly being scraped back to keep it in place. The wall behind with the walkway on top helps keep the beach in place and protects the road and houses beyond from being showered with shingle thrown up by the waves.

After a stop for a coffee at the very busy beachside Café Oasis in Overcombe we thought we'd walk back through the country park. Big mistake! Being a wetland area with several small lakes and having had loads of rain recently, the ground is, of course, absolutely sodden. We just managed to squelch along the path until we were able to escape and cross back over the road onto the sea wall again.

Weymouth, 4pm on New Year's Day 2013

By 4pm the sun was setting and it was getting decidedly chilly. Not too chilly, however, for two horses and their riders we could see in the distance to go for a swim! We weren't close enough to get a picture and by the time we got near they had emerged from the water and were on their way home.

Time for us to turn back, too, and wend our way home.