Colwell Bay

Just a short walk today, as I had a couple of spare hours to fill. I parked in Colwell Chine Road by the car park (but not in it as the lane was free and the car park wasn't!). I strolled down the lane to the sea wall and turned left to walk to Warden Point, past a restaurant closed for the winter and a row of brightly painted beach huts. Just past a WW2 gun emplacement, or the remains of Warden Point Battery, the path was closed off due to a bad landslip. Here there was a lovely view to the distant Needles which I stopped and admired before turning back and walking along the wall until I came to a footpath on my right; this was in reasonable repair, and had steps and a makeshift bridge of sleepers and led up the cliff. At the top I turned right and strolled past some more huts until the path ran out. I'd gone wrong again, taking the wrong path from the beach. I retraced my steps, following the seawall until I had to duck under a railing and scramble along the rocks that made up the cliff protection.

Warden Point

Beach huts at Colwell Bay

The rocks led to the beach, which was sandy and backed by cliffs of blue slipper clay, and interspersed with groynes. There was a flock of oystercatchers sunning themselves on the sand, who flew off as I approached. The view across the Solent was glorious in the February sunlight, with blue skies and fluffy clouds above and Hurst Castle on one side and Fort Albert on the other. Another scramble over rocks brought me to a slipway that led up to Brambles Chine and the Coastal Path.

At the top of the Chine I turned left on the Coastal Path, along a wet path between hedges that came out in a holiday camp, and led through it. This brought me out after a while on Monks Lane, so I turned left and walked as far as the stile that I used last week. I turned round and retraced my steps through the holiday camp then followed the coastal path past Brambles Chine and up to the main road, passing Brambles Farm and barking dogs on the way. Turning right at the road I walked along until I got to Madeira Road, turned right here and followed the road back to Colwell Bay and round to the car.

This was a lovely walk with good views and plenty of fresh air to blow away the cobwebs. I must learn to map read though!

Distance: 2.7 miles
Footpaths: Coastal Path, F10, F13, F67,
Route: http://gb.mapometer.com/walking/route_4023410.html