Freshwater to Chale
Our B&B host warned us that the coastal path had been diverted for the first few miles east of Freshwater, because of road work on the road just inland from the path. We found our way back to the coast (we had detoured a couple of miles from the path to get to Freshwater), arriving at the roadworks, with the coastline showing why the road had to be moved.
We got back down to the coastal edge, and the views back toward Freshwater and Tennyson Down were great.
| On this part of the path, it was clear where the next landslip will be: | One has to be careful not to follow the path when it goes over the edge: | |
|
|
A little further along we crossed a car park, where recent damage hasn't yet been repaired:
As the cliffs in this area fall down, many dinosaur fossils have emerged. One guidebook even assured us that we were likely to see casts of dinosaur footprints, in chunks of stone that had fallen from the eroding cliff. We looked. Maybe we didn't know what to look for, but sadly nothing seemed to us to be a dinosaur footprint. All the same, we picked up some rocks that we decided to claim as dinosaur bones!
The path continued pleasantly along the coast, before coming to Whale Chine.
 |
||
 |
"Chine" is the term for an inlet cut by a stream. The path sometimes goes down into a chine and back up the other side. Whale Chine is particularly steep-sided. The wooden steps down into it have been closed, for safety reasons. |  |
The village of Chale had been in sight for a good while. It finally came close, and we walked in, past its church.
 |
 |
