In spring 1995, I took my three small boys for a Sunday walk near Niederpframmern (in Oberbayern), a place where you could wander along unmade tracks across fields and forest. We had often seen raptors or roe deer there.

The area had plenty of voles which provided food for raptors and mammals. The snow had just thawed and the grass was still not a proper green. Suddenly we saw a movement and a dash of white. I had seen stoats in England but never in the white ermine coat before.

I was really surprised as the stoat was about 20 metres away - I'm afraid that these photos with a 500 mm lens are not quite sharp! However I later read that stoats are short-sighted but have an acute sense of smell. We were able to watch the stoat because we were downwind and presumably not clearly visible.

The Isle of Portland is a prominatory on the Dorset coast jutting out south into the Channel. It is attached to the mainland by Chesil Beach and by a causeway (this strip is only 200 metres wide). Although it is a major prominatory on the south coast I have never been there and had no idea what it would look like. I knew that a lot of stone from there had been used in London in past centuries.

The Isle of Portland is visible from both east and west as it is a lot higher than the coastal area around Weymouth. It is about 6.5 km from north to south and 2.7 km at east to west at the widest point.

There is a car park near the war memorial (OS Map 194, Grid reference SY690731). From the war memorial there is a great view north and following the coast northwest. Part of the coast path goes in a loop around the island and I picked this up in the car park yesterday and went round the whole island.

I picked up the path and followed it between the Verne Citadel - Victorian fortifications overlooking Fortuneswell - and the High Angle Battery. The Verne is the highest point on the island; no height is given on the map but it is higher than locations marked as 103 or 102 m. The path turns south and you get views across Weymouth Bay to the cliffs between Osmington Mills and Lulworth. The cliff is not steep so you feel well away from the coast. There was not a lot of bird life other than carrion crows and jackdaws; maybe most were grounded with the wind.

The path skits an HM Young Offender Institution and then there is the noise and traffic of quarrying on the inland side. There seem to be a lot of both disused and actively used quarries. The path drops down close to sea level at Church Ope Cove and for a while the east coast looks interesting.

The cliffs at this point were not very high - roughly 30 metres. When the path was lower there was a welcome shelter from the North wind!

The path goes for another short spell inland along a road (the inevitable quarry on the other side) then returns to the coast at Freshwater Bay. The coast follows the line of the cliffs southward and it is noticable that the cliffs are petering out. I was surprised to see that there were three lighthouse structures within about a kilometre of the Bill; two are disused.

Approaching the Bill there were numerous structures like garden sheds - holiday homes or beach houses without a beach? At this point I got the full blast of the wind again. Portland Bill itself is an anticlimax.

Just rocks going down into the water. No wonder I had not seen photos of it! I imagine that the Isle of Portland has layers of rock titling from north to south. Many of the rocks in the area appeared to be flat.

So next, it was north into the face of the wind. After reaching the third lighthouse it was clear that the west cliffs looked a lot more interesting than those on the east side. They seemed much steeper and were rising. The path is easy walking just gently sloping upwards to the north. There were a number of great black-backed gulls but few birds seemed to be in the air.

The path passes west of Weston then the final stretch is near an area that was obviously once quarried. There are large blocks of limestone on the cliffside of the path and even stone arches over the path. Finally Fortuneswell comes into view again and you can return to the car park.

This was not the most spectacular coast walk I have done but you can easily get a feel for the Isle of Portland. Based on the OS Map I estimate the walk to be 12.5-13 km.

Having walked the Jurassic Coast today, I forgot to mention a secret I uncovered in November. There are still real dinosaurs around...

This stegosaurus was very quiet and probably needs some oilD

If I think of the big cliffs of the English south coast what do I think of? The White Cliffs of Dover, Beachy Head, Old Harry Rocks, the Lizard and Land's End. But Golden Cap? Never heard of it!

Surprisingly Golden Cap in the West Dorset sandstone area is the highest point on the south coast surpassing the White Cliffs (roughly 50 m), Beachy Head (163 m) and all the other ones.

Today I drove to Seatown. OS Map 193 (Grid Reference SY420917). It was blustery with a strong North wind.

From Seatown you realise that the Golden Cap is quite substantial. The name is also appropriate as the summit is in "golden" sandstone atop a grey sandstone. The Dorset coastpath is diverted away from the cliff edge at Seatown presumably due to instability.

About halfway to the top there was this great example of a windswept tree. Obviously the wind prevails from the South here, though not today! Slightly further along in the lee of Landon Hill there was a single buzzard lazily hunting. During the whole day I could count the number of gulls I saw on one hand - much less than normal - plenty of magpies though.

There was a great view from the top. This shows Doghouse Hill beyond Seatown with the East Cliff at West Bay in the middle distance. I carried on the coast path (steeply downwards from Golden Cap) along to Westhay Farm. I then turned inland skirting Stonebarrow Hill - a gorse covered heathland area - towards Morcombelake.

The final stretch was back on a track below Langdon Hill to Seatown. On this stretch I was surprised to see the first oilseed rape flowers. That seems a good month early to me. Normally the full bloom is around May Day. Along the walk there were patches of primroses.

Now, I'm out of the wind in my inn...thinking of dinner...and blogging!

In my childhood I was familiar with the sandstone hills at the western end of the Wield. They had a distinct ridge line with a scarp slope and dip slope - much like the chalk hills. Indeed they reach a similar height to the chalk hills - Black Down above Fernhurst is the highest in the sandstone ridge with a 280 m summit while Butser Hill the highest in the South Downs is 270 m high.

When I first visited West Dorset I was surprised to see sandstone hills at all. I was familiar with the chalk and limestone cliffs of the Isle of Purbeck and with pictures of Lyme Regis with again limestone. I never realised that there was a substantial sandstone area in betweekn. What struck me too was that the form of the hills was quite different to the sandstone ridges of the Weald or the Isle of Wight.

There is no real ridge structure and all around Bridport there are a lot of individual hills. Some are rounded or flat but many have steeper sides.

Colmer's hill between Bridport and Chideock is a good example. There are a fair number of contours in the area.

At West Bay there is a good example of one of these sandstone hills half eroded away by the sea. The East Cliff looks unusual to me. I do not know many examples of vertical yellow sandstone cliffs in the UK - many sandstone cliffs have had major landslips e.g. between Shanklin and Ventnor on the Isle of Wight - though of course there is a mixed sandstone cliff at Alum Bay and red sandstone cliffs in East Devon.

The harbour entrance has caused a big buildup of shingle on the east side. Longshore drift brings shingle westwards along from the Chesil Beach direction and it builds up against the harbour entrance. Conversely the beach is washed away on the west side.

I have outstanding annual leave which I need to use by the end of March; otherwise I lose it. My wife persuaded me to go away on my own for some hiking and reflection. There is a 50% chance that my job will be eliminated this summer so after 14 years with one employer it is time to research alternatives.

Although I was brought up in East Hampshire I never got to know Dorset well. Last June my wife and I camped at West Bay one gorgeous weekend and I was impressed by the sandstone countryside. We returned for walking last November. This week I got a good deal at the Marquis of Lorne in Nettlecombe (OS Map 194, grid reference SY517956). Breakfast was served at 09:00 and I was awake well before that.

When I was a child in Central Southern England I enjoyed watching wild life and was especially interested in raptors. Unfortunately apart from the odd kestrel hovering at the side of the road there was nothing to see. The effects of DDT had resulted in raptors dying out in many parts of the UK due to producing infertile eggs. Also raptors had been persecuted by gamekeepers and only did relatively well in Scotland, Wales and Northern and Western England.

When we visited my Granny in the Highlands there were plenty of buzzards to be seen, though she was always telling me that the golden eagle was the "real thing". With so little to see my interest in raptors totally waned in my teens.

Twenty years later, living in Bavaria, my eldest son started to ask me what the birds with hooked beaks were that were often sitting on fence posts. The were (common) buzzards. Together we took more and more interest in raptors and ended up seeing an impressive list of birds.

We realised that in winter there were rough-legged buzzards and hen harriers visiting from Scandanavia and Finland. In Summer there were hobbies visiting from Africa and we even once saw a rare Montagu's harrier. We realised that there were plenty of sparrow hawks hunting in our town. We even saw the odd goshawk or peregrine falcon.

When I started the Food Fun blog, I had no idea if I would even continue it for more than a month. I have not posted a lot recently and have been bogged down at work. However I have enjoyed it as a medium and I have wondered about covering a wider range of topics. So yesterday I took the plunge and signed up for a Pro account...

I will probably record some experiences as they happen would I would like to publish some older photos from a few years back. I had a go scanning some of them last night but was very disappointed with the quality. Later I would love to publish some wild life videos but I first need to find out how to get Hi8 recordings from the 1990s onto my computer.

Well, that's the vision...we'll see if I actually manage any of it.