West Bexington to Abbotsbury along Chesil

A 7.4-mile there-and-back day behind the Chesil bank, three and a half hours on flat shingle track and reed-fringed field path with barely 90 metres of climb, and the whole eighteen-mile pebble bar stretching away to Portland. Start at the West Bexington beach car park, a Dorset Council pay and display of about 80 spaces at the end of a dead-end lane, which is windy, exposed and rarely full. There is no shade and no fresh water on the route, the shingle is punishing on soft pads, and the seaward side of Chesil beyond the Abbotsbury tank teeth boundary is closed to the public entirely from 1 May to 31 August to protect the tern colony, so the summer version of this walk stays on the landward path.