The Blue Pool and East Creech

A short afternoon walk with our friends Dave and Chris. We started at Furzebrook, south of Wareham and headed along the road to find the first landmark described in our walk book: a telephone box. Alas this was now defunct.

We turned left along the track which led to the Blue Pool and paid the entrance fee to see it. We followed the path anti-clockwise and soon had our first glimpse.

There was a general feeling that it wasn't as blue as expected, and this was strongly borne out from another angle further round.

The gardens were just beginning to come into flower and when the rhododendrons are fully out will no doubt be delightful.

We left the Pool and resumed the walk route along a track which emerged into an area of heathland. We followed a clockwise arc through heathland, gorse and heather, and then a damp area with moss and lichen and overgrown pools. We had now joined a section of the Purbeck Way. We emerged onto a quiet road and now had some fine views of the Purbeck Ridge, looking towards the west.

We passed East Creech farm and its associated buildings and continued up the road to turn right at the next farm. I loved this tree in full blossom.

A field edge path soon brought us to an area of very attractive heathland.

We soon discovered however that a large area of it had been cleared and many trees felled. It seemed to be part of a nature reserve and we supposed there was some robust habitat management underway. We left the heathland and passed an isolated house, agreeing that none of us would want to live there, to soon reach Furzebrook again.

Conditions: bright and reasonably warm.

Distance: four miles (including the Blue Pool).

From: 50 walks in Dorset (AA).

Map: Explorer OL15 (Purbeck & South Dorset).

Rating: four stars. A delightful stroll.