Tuesday 8th July Weymouth to Osmington Mills

By: Mike

 'Octogenarian completes 600 mile hike, climbs four times the height of Everest '. Good story, no? Well not for ITN maybe,  but OK for regions on a quiet day. One ex-ITN News editor thought so. I'm looking at you Derek Taylor. Derek tipped off Spotlight in Plymouth. However, as a former news editor  myself,  I know when a story falls off the list. It just happens we are beginning our walk as the Raynor Winn story is breaking.  

So no TV crew from ITV Spotlight is coming to interview me.

Old age is a bugger (OAIAB-1). One aspect is losing things, or not remembering where they are. So our day is held up because neither of us can remember where the car keys are. After a frantic few minutes they turn up. We drive to Osmington Mills and park in the car park of the Smugglers Inn. The plan was to walk up TO Osmington and get the bus to Weymouth.  But we make a snap decision to do it backwards. It will be nicer to wait for the bus in Weymouth,  and the walk down to the Smugglers in the afternoon with be OK. This breaks our golden rule - never walk towards a waiting taxi or bus.  But the walk is short and easy and there are lots of buses in Weymouth.  

It is a beautiful morning and its an easy 4.5 miles. The path is busy.  We meet a group from a nearby campsite. 

"How far is it to civilisation ?"

Me: "sorry?"

Campers: "to get off this path!"

Me:  "it's about an hour to Osmington Mills. There's a nice pub"

Campers: "an hour we can't walk an hour "

Two hours later, we are safely back in Weymouth and at the bus stop for the ride back to Osmington.  A great first day .


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