The End of The Promenade

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Two sisters recently reinstated a charity walk we did regularly in the previous decade; no T-shirts or requests for money, we just paid to take part. The original walks started at the Hengistbury Head end of the promenade in Bournemouth and we walked to Sandbanks in Poole at the other end of the promenade. As it was for fun as well as charity, walkers could join and leave at any point. Along the way we stopped for morning coffee on Bournemouth Pier, lunch at Sandbanks and afternoon tea on the way back. Poole Bay claims seven miles of beaches, so in those pre Fitbit and smartphone days we probably walked about fourteen miles. We took all day, but talking you don’t notice the miles.

This time it was decided to start at Bournemouth Pier as everyone was older and it was the easiest point for everyone to get to on the bus from all over the area. It was such a nice day I walked from home in Southbourne, not quite the beginning of the prom. The cliff top was lovely with gorse in full bloom. Friends who couldn’t come donated money. How did we get on?

A busy sunny Saturday, everyone was out.

But DANGER lurked

The cliff is always falling down.

Coffee Break

Have we reached the end?

Yes, the very end of the promenade, but the Jazz cafe is too busy so we make a detour onwards to the promise of lunch…

…around Poole Harbour….

Well not all the way round…

Cafe in sight, but turns out it’s being renovated…

However, this is Sandbanks and a kiosk is selling designer sourdough sandwiches

Lunch with a view and some walkers get a lift home..

Four of us make it back to Bournemouth and disperse to our buses after a cup of tea. I round off my pix with a walk to the end of the pier, but don’t linger as a strong easterly wind has sprung up. With my high tech devices and a note book, my phone tells me 12.7 kms were covered on the main walk and my Fitbit notched up eight and a half miles. I walked 18 kms since leaving home, or nearly ten miles since getting out of bed. Not quite the marathons of celebrities, but we raised enough money to share between two local charities. Thanks to Brenda and Sheila for organising the walk.

Looking towards home

Have you been on any interesting, dangerous or even totally insane charity walks, runs or climbs?

32 thoughts on “The End of The Promenade”

  1. When I was young and fit, and still at school, I did a 25-mile walk. It was too long ago to remember which charity/ies benefitted.

    Then, around 10 years later, I did part of the Lyke Wake Walk in support of friends and colleagues for a famine in Africa. It was a memorable day for too many reasons to go into here. Suffice it to say that it was then that I met the woman who became my fiancée (although never my wife). So, mixed feelings about that!

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      2. I was born by the Thames, but our last home when we lived by Heathrow was near the Grand Union Canal – not as wide as its name suggests, but nice walking along the tow path. I always wanted to live by the sea.

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    1. Yes most of the beach huts are more colourful than mine. The cliff erosion is just nature. Before people interfered the cliffs would crumble and just become sand without affecting anyone. As soon as a promenade is in place it doesn’t work that way. The beach gets washed away and has to be artificially replenished with sand dredged from the sea bed!

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    1. Hello Carol, there are frequent big charity walks and runs along the sea front, a men’s walk was setting off the same time as us in the opposite direction. Its easy to organise as nobody should get lost! But I’ve never taken part in the big ones. We were lucky with the weather.

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  8. I would like to have done that walk, Janet. The Jazz Cafe looks like my kind of place too. Jazz played there perchance? I don’t ever recall seeing that in Bournemouth, but I haven’t been there in over 20 years.

    Best wishes, Pete.

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    1. Hello Sally, glad you enjoyed the walk. I am often surprised how many bloggers pop up to say they know this area, perhaps I shouldn’t be, as I often bump into people in real life I have known from elsewhere. I’m sure the steak house is long gone, you would probably have been managing one of the designer beachside restaurants these days.

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  14. My running partner and I accidentally got caught going the wrong way on a trail being used on one of those three day Komen breast cancer walks. They came partying down the trail by the hundreds and swallowed us up. It seemed scary at the time!

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    1. Three days, that is impressive. I give money straight to ‘Breast Caner Now’ to save me going on the walk and expecting friends to pay me for what I do every day anyway! I know well the experience of walks like the wildebeest migration – If there is one of the frequent runs along the promenade there is no chance of crossing it to get to the beach.

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