Pete’s Ride to Swanage

The Solent Ride from Ower Services to Durlston Country Park on Saturday 29th June 2024.

This was my first ride as a Group ride Leader for Solent, though I am not a stranger to ride leading.

As a long-term resident of Dorset, a county with no motorways but many country lanes and
tractors, it seemed appropriate to lead the ride on my Harley-Davidson Sport Glide.

The weather on Saturday was excellent and eight riders joined at Ower in Hampshire.

The first leg of the ride passed through Lyndhurst in the heart of the New Forest then used
minor Forest roads to Burley Street, avoiding Burley village centre, before passing the Owl,
Raptor & Reptile Centre at Crow Hill before briefly joining the A31 through Ringwood to continue
to our Coffee stop at Blandford via Alderholt, Cranborne, Horton Inn, Tarrant Hinton and
Pimperne.

Unfortunately on arrival at the Cafe, a handwritten sign on the door read “Closed due to an electrical issue” so a comfort stop was achieved by
an impromptu deviation from the route to Tesco Blandford. The jewel in the Crown of the ride was the Purbeck Hills Ridgway from East Lulworth past Tyneham View to Corfe Castle. This road crosses a military training area and is only open as shown on the government webpage “Lulworth range walks and Tyneham village access times”.

As we continued from Corfe Castle to Swanage on the North side of the Purbecks there was another magnificent view, across Studland Heath to Poole Harbour and Brownsea Island. After a sunny lunch at Durlston Castle Cafe overlooking Poole Bay to the Isle of Wight, we returned through more Dorset countryside with a comfort stop at Cranborne Garden Centre before crossing the top of the New Forest on the Roger Penny Way from Fordingbridge to Cadnam and finishing back at Ower services. The ride had gone well and participants stated that they had enjoyed it. I had a most enjoyable day too so
now I have the problem of how to follow it next!

Thanks to Neil Escott for being tail-ender.