June 1997

I suppose many of the walks Jemima and I took together in the summer of 1997 could be categorised as either escape, duty or reminiscence. The escape was always from the stress of being in a losing financial situation, the duty was to Jemima and the need to exercise an effervescent young dog who was often cooped up in a two bedroom house and the reminiscence was of visiting past haunts that often meant feeling close to the pain of memories. The walk at Studland Bay was all of these. The location had previously been that of a riding holiday with Catherine as well as a weekend with her family. It is a particularly pleasant part of the world and I enjoyed being there anyway so to drive there even just for a few hours felt entirely natural. Plus I wanted to share it with Jemima.

We arrived and parked in the centre of Studland and we started to make our way towards the small length of beach below Old Harry Rock. There is a particular field that one can walk through where at the end there is a path that takes you down to the beach. As was my way when I reached open ground where there was no fear of Jemima running onto roads I let her off the lead. Normally she would charge off, and today was no different, in different directions and explore the area. This time though she set off in a straight line directly towards the path down to the beach. One would think that she could have no possible way of knowing what was at the bottom of the path but thinking about it, Jemima being a Dog, she could probably smell the sea. I had so desperately wanted to be there when she hit the beach that I tore off after her as fast as I could go but to no use. I got down to the beach and she was already in the water and turned around to me as if to say “what took you so long?!” As was her way in the New Forest when she first discovered water she dashed up and down the beach in and out of the surf. It can perhaps explain why the scene from Marley & Me where John Grogan lets Marley off the lead on the beach touches me every time I see it. Although this was an English beach, there was no ubiquitous end to the moment with the Dog messing the water, and the ‘moment’ went on for 20 minutes or more. We strolled up and down the beach with the place to ourselves, due to the cloud and the rain, and it was perfect. I took photo’s and Jemima seemingly posed or was perhaps curious about what I might actually be doing.

After we had enough we set off back towards the village but I decided to take a left turn and before we knew it we were climbing up through fields towards the main path on Old Harry Rock. Jemima was in her element – she seemed to sense the adventure and cantered off careering this way and that through the long grass looking for any kind of adventure. Her tail was held high and the ever present ‘smile’ was there for all the see. We climbed for a while and then eventually came to the path upon the flat at the top – a place where a year earlier I had ridden with Catherine up to the turning point at the corner of Old Harry Rock – the corner where you turn right towards Swanage. A little way before the right turn I had ventured towards the edge of the cliff, which is perhaps 200 feet high or more, to look over the edge. I was a little disturbed when I glanced over to my left and saw Jemima careering towards me to have a look at whatever it was that I had found. For a split second I thought it was over – there was no way she could stop. My heart leapt into my mouth and she came to the edge in too much of a hurry. Stop she did though. I will never know if she knew there was a sheer drop or not but she certainly gave me a fright. She looked down at the sea and rocks far below and then looked up at me briefly before heading off in the other direction. I breathed a sigh of relief and thought perhaps I will walk along the other side of the path from now on!

The walk carried on and we came over the crest of the ‘hill’ to see Swanage laid out before us. I took a slight detour down the slope and was as amazed as Jemima to find Sheep stuttering around on some rather precarious inclines although I should imagine they were used to it. I took the slope adventure as far as I could dare before turning right and heading along the top of the hills with Swanage to our left. A little way along after going through a gate we came across a small herd of Cows. As with the Sheep Jemima took only a small passing interest at the Cows – well initially anyway – after about 30 seconds she stopped for a mutual nose to nose sniffing moment with a curious Cow. When their noses touched Jemima almost did a flip and set off in wide looping circles with her tail between her legs. It was another of those ‘child’s’ moments of discovery that brings a smile and meaning to a parents life.

The remainder of the walk was as uneventful and peaceful as a walk can be before the inevitable return to the world. Five hours after we set out we arrived back at the car and set off for home.