Arne

View towards Middlebere Lake

Yesterday's planned walking was rained off and the forecast fro today wasn't much good either, but by late morning it seemed bright enough for a walk on the good tracks around the RSPB reserve at Arne.

Like the last time I walked here in March we followed the red route up past the church of St Nicholas, beside fields, through woodland and heathland to reach the edge of Poole harbour.

Once of the little pools by the track had some wonderful waterlilies ...

... as well as a couple of dragon flies which would not pose long enough for a photo.

We walked on to Shipstal Point and along the beach, quite a bit of which was visible at low tide. Just as we left the beach, there was this nice view towards Long Island.

We continued along the Red route which would have led back to the car park, but spying a gate on the left we nipped through it and headed a track across the heath towards the other section of the reserve. The heath was alive with purple heather and made a wonderful sight with the subtle variations in shade.

It turned out however that this track did not quite lead to the other section of the reserve, even though there were some lovely views towards Middlebere Lake. The path inexorably bore right and we ended up on the edge of the overflow car park. Still, it had been a delightful stroll across the purple heath.

We decided to call it a day there as lunch was now overdue. We had seen remarkably few birds, a possible sighting of a Green Woodpecker being the most interesting, but it was great to get after after a frustrating day yesterday.

Conditions: bright and sunny, about 19 degrees.

Distance: about 4 miles.

Map: Explorer OL15 (Purbeck and South Dorset). Not that you need it, except perhaps to find your way to the reserve from Wareham. Otherwise, the paths are very well marked.

Rating: three and a half stars.