This page gives some help for those wishing to recce the 100 route in advance. This is advice only and may be out of date when you want to do the recce. Make sure you check carefully before setting out as some of these buses are very infrequent. If you are looking for food or accommodation on the route in darkest Dorset, the following is a list of pubs along the route. If you are wanting to use public transport, the best source of information on the buses is the Dorset County Council website. The transport hubs for the part of Dorset covered by the route are Dorchester and Bridport.

There are some short sections of route (about 2.5 miles in total) which are on private land with no right of way, which you will not be able to recce. The route provided for recce has alternatives over public rights of way.

Do not mark the route in any way during your recce as we do not want to forfeit the goodwill of landowners, and especially do not enter any school grounds. This includes the area around the Powerstock Hut.

The recce route description and recce GPX files are still available for those wanting to recce the route in the two weeks before the event. Do not recce the sections of the final route over private land.

Recce route description

Download the recce route description.

Recce full route GPX files

Full route gpx is an accurate overlay of the route with reduced waypoints.

Recce route section GPX files

Section gpx files are joined walked tracklogs recorded from a Garmin eTrex 30.

Section_1_Start_-_CP3_Dewlish_Recce_v2.2_230416.gpx

Section 2 CP3 Dewlish to CP7 Evershot

Section 3 CP7 Evershot to CP11 Powerstock

Section 4 CP11 Powerstock to Finish

Start to Tolpuddle

For the first part of the route, park at Briantspuddle or Tolpuddle. Take the 187 bus to Dorchester and get off at Dorchester South station. Walk out of the station to the main road, cross the road and walk a few yards to the right to the bus stop outside the market. Catch the number 10 bus to Weymouth, and get off on Dorchester Road close to the Wey Valley School. Walk back to Briantspuddle (17 miles of fairly flat walking) or Tolpuddle (19 miles).

Tolpuddle to Beaminster

The next part of the route to Beaminster is between challenging and impossible by public transport. It has recently become even more challenging as the local authority has cancelled one of the rural bus services you might have used.

There are two services, 307 and 311, that come from the surrounding villages into Dorchester in the  morning. The 307 goes through Buckland Newton, and the 311 through Milton Abbas, Ansty and Dewlish. However, because the 307 and 311 are school / shopping buses, the buses only run into Dorchester in the morning and back out in the evening, so you can't get from Dorchester out to these villages in the morning.

For the segment between Evershot and Beaminster / Melplash, you can get from Beaminster or Melplash to Evershot by bus (40 and 212) via Yeovil bus station, but it will take two hours.

Beaminster to Loders

From Beaminster on, public transport becomes an easy option again.

For the segment between Beaminster and Loders, you can park in Bridport, take the number 40 bus from Bridport (the stop near the Colfox School is best) to Beaminster,  walk to Loders and then back to Bridport. If you feel like doing it in one hit, it's 25 miles of route plus a mile or so of walk from Loders to the bus route. You can divide this into two sections by using the bus stop in Melplash. First day do the 100 route from Beaminser to Melplash and then walk back to Beaminster; second day get the bus from Bridport to Melplash and walk back via Loders.

Loders to the Finish

For the final segment between Loders and the finish, you can use the X53 bus which runs regularly up and down the coast road between Bridport and Weymouth. Park in the Park and Ride or near the school close to the finish and take the  Park and Ride bus or the number 2 or10 bus into Weymouth (King's Statue). Then catch the X53 bus to Bridport (get off  in the centre of town rather than the Coach Station), walk to Loders, and follow the 100 route back to the Wey Valley School (about 20 miles). The Park and Ride is just up the road from the School. You can break the walk in Portesham if you want to take two days over it - it's a beautiful bit of countryside.

You could also do it from Dorchester. Take the X51 from Dorchester South Station to Bridport. Get out at Firch Lane south of Loders before you get to Bridport. Walk back to the Wey Valley School and take the Number 10 bus back to Dorchester. Or you could start from the Wey Valley School, take the 10 and X51 buses from there to Bridport, and wallk back