Making Headway

"Where shall we go tomorrow?" I asked Bob on Monday evening. He immediately replied "I fancy climbing up Hengistbury Head"...so I packed coffee mugs, snacks and sunhats, and Bob made a couple of important phonecalls, then off we went.
HH is to the east of Bournemouth, south of Christchurch Harbour. It is an amazing area of heathland- and yet, thousands of years ago, it was believed to be Britain's busiest port! We parked [free for one hour] on the approach road [the Car Park is quite pricey] and walked up to the Visitor Centre. They encourage walkers, cyclists, and there is a Land Train, for people who cannot manage the climb. I liked the thoughtfully provided cyclists repair station.

The views were amazing, and the weather was lovely. The sheer diversity of wildflowers was overwhelming too - golden gorse and brilliant buttercups, stunning sea pinks, dainty daisies, furling ferns, green, green grass...I took dozens of pictures, I wanted to recreate a patchwork of shades and shapes.

The sculpture depicting the strata of the cliffs was striking. There were many attractively carved memorial benches showing just how popular this site is.

This is somewhere I would definitely like to visit again. We spent a useful 20 minutes or so in the Visitor Centre, which gave us a good idea about the place and its history - but another time, I'd like to spend more of our minutes outside, appreciating the surroundings, just being quiet, and looking, and listening...