The Final Day

The final day started with news that Oscar hadn't had a great night, he'd had a further seizure and been heavily sedated to keep him calm and rested. Although there still wasn't any conclusive evidence of what the cause of the seizures might be the hope was that it was something he had ingested and it would work it's way out of his system.

I only had 9 miles left to walk, so we made the decision to get the walk completed this morning and then collect Oscar from the vets in the afternoon when all his tests were finished. This wasn't quite how I imagined the final day of the walk would be!

I started the day in Compton Valance somewhat distracted, but looking forward to completing the walk. There were some steep up and downs on this section, but the weather was pretty much perfect, it was a lovely bright sunny day with a cool breeze.

Kingston Russell Stone Circle

I passed the Kingston Russell stone circle (not quite Stonehenge) but it is Neolithic or early Bronze Age (ie it's very old!), The circle is made up of 18 stones, it's purpose and use is not really clear, but the fact that the circle is at the convergence of 5 footpaths underlines its ancient significance. The photo to the right doesn't quite do it justice.

It's at this point that I started to get glimpses of the sea in the far distance, something to spur me on. I had a couple more steep climbs, one of which, I'm sure was the longest and steepest climb on the walk, (either that or I was getting very tired) and then suddenly over the brow of a hill, the sea came into full view. I'm not sure if it was just the relief to see the end of the walk, but everything looked very picturesque. Abbotsbury nestled at the bottom of the hill, some green rolling countryside, St Catherine's Chapel on a hill in between Abbotsbury and the sea and Chesil Beach in the background. (Chesil Beach forms part of the Jurassic coast, a World Heritage Site that runs from Exeter in Devon to Studland Bay in Dorset).

The View on the way to
Abbotsbury with St Catherine's
Church in the distance.

As I started the descent into Abbotsbury, I crossed over some exposed limestone, this is from the same limestone belt that I have followed for the majority of the walk and that I first passed at Kate's Bridge on day 3 some 260 miles ago.

As I entered Abbotsbury, I met Alison and we walked the final 1.5 miles together.  We headed towards the beach following the last stretch of the  Macmillan Way which joins the South West Coast Path. We walked around the hill on which St Catherine's Chapel stands. The chapel was built in the 14th century by the Monks of Abbotsbury as a place of pilgrimage and retreat.

Eventually the Chesil Beach car park came into view, then on the left a boardwalk that crosses over the shingle beach to the sea and the end of the walk. My little mate wasn't with me to celebrate, he would have loved being on this massive shingle beach, splashing in and out of the sea.

That was it 290 miles completed over 22 days. A fantastic experience with some ups and downs along the way (both physically and emotionally!) I've raised just over £856 for Macmillan Cancer Support. Seeing the donations come in has been a real motivator for me. If you've not managed to donate yet, it's not too late to add to the total. Just click this link to my Just Giving Page and donate directly to Macmillan Cancer Support.

As we made our way back to Abbotsbury, I called in at the Post Office stores to add my name to the completers book, which is held in the store - be warned if you are a completer it may take some finding!

Thank you to everyone who has supported me, through sponsorship, words of encouragement or just the general 'how's the walk going?' conversation in the pub. Most of all thank you to my wife, Alison, (the back up team) who as always is so supportive when I have these mad ideas, and has been such a massive support throughout the walk.

I hope you have enjoyed reading the blogs as much as I have enjoyed writing them.

290 miles completed 

Now it's a mad dash to collect Oscar from the vets, he has stabilised, so we are going to make the journey home tonight, so he can hopefully recover in familiar surroundings.

What next? Well there is talk of completing the Coast to Coast cycle ride. I'd better dust down my bike and start getting into training!

Watch this space!

Macmillan Way Home      Donate      Map      Blog Home