Date: Location: Distance: Parking: Lunch: | 28 February 2019 Bere Regis 5.1 miles Town car park - free Drax Arms |
We set off from here and made our way along a few paths that lead down to Elder Road where we turned left to join Southbrook Road and then first right into Southbrook Road. The Hardy Way starts at the corner of Southbrook Road by the cemetery although we could not see a Hardy Way sign. We followed the Hardy Way to Turners Puddle but found the route over Black Hill a little difficult to find at the start. The rain started to become a bit heavier as we reached the top of the hill and continued to come and go with quite a few sharp showers until we turned right at Yearling’s Drove.
We had come across a couple of quite muddy patches on the stretch from Damer Hill to Turners Puddle. We had not expected this as it seemed to have been quite dry warm weather recently. When we crossed the bridge by the watercress beds we found that the water was flowing really fast so a lot of water had come from somewhere!
After lunch we paid a short visit to St John’s Church which has a superb 15th Century nave roof. There is a notice inviting visitors to “light up” the roof and a series of lights pointing upwards but unfortunately we were unable to find a switch. See https://www.britainexpress.com/attractions.htm?attraction=4556 for more information.