Sarah’s employers had tasked her with an onsite visit to a customer in Yeovil. We took the opportunity to combine this with a visit to Bournemouth to visit my brother, Chris.

Having travelled down on a Sunday we had met up in the evening, where we also stayed that night. The following morning Sarah drove up to Yeovil while I took the opportunity to get on my bike and cycle there. It was a wet and windy morning, and it would have been easy to query whether I was going a bit mad! The answer of course is I am a cyclist, so yes 🙂

Leaving the hotel I dropped down to the coast and picked up NCN Route 2.

And cycled straight in to a headwind as I headed to Poole …

I took the ferry from Sandbanks across to Studland.

On the other side I picked up Ferry Road.

Before soon turning off and into the heart of Studland Nature Reserve.

It was a lovely place to be be cycling the rain and wet surface made for tough going.

  

Indeed at one point the cycle path had become impassable (at the bottom of the path below) and the route sign was a pole in the middle of a lake. Sadly the detailed photo I took didn’t come out.

It therefore meant a three mile detour.

That was the only detour required but the rain certainly made other sections of the route ‘adventurous’.

Leaving Studland Nature reserve I next skirted Hartland Moor National Nature Reserve, and then through Wool and Moreton before eventually reaching Dorchester.

This was my lunch stop, and after a tough morning of cycling I was ready for it! I found an excellent little cafe just off the high street called Walnut Grove Coffee Shop.

  

Refuelled, my journey continued initially alongside the A37.

Soon however the route turned off and it was back along the quiet lanes and villages of Dorset. As you can see, the rain had finally abated but the south-westerly winds continued to prove challenging.

I was now following NCN Route 26, part of which also forms the Frome Valley Cycle Trail.

This cycle route also had interesting off-road sections.

Next I made my way through Cattistock and Rampisham as the clouds once more darkened.

  

I had been steadily climbing all day. This created the opportunity for a sharp downhill into Halstock.

I crossed over Sutton Bingham Reservoir.

After one final hill, Eventually I arrived on the outskirts of Yeovil.

After 59 miles of cycling I was ready for one of these …

You can view my route to Yeovil below:

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