An idling town-sort on The Isle of Purbeck.

We really did, finally, make it to Dorset although it may turn out to be our last adventure - it's going to rain soon.

It all went wrong at the start because I followed some advice on the internet and parked in West Lulworth to walk down to 'Durdle Door'.

The walk was up hill and long. The traffic was bad, almost dangerous.....I was not popular.

We did get to the coast in the end but it took a while;

But it was a terrible struggle getting down to the cliffs. The path was steep, crumbling and breaking up. Lots of people were slipping but I couldn't afford to do that. I've got a broken back so one slip and I'm back in hospital....I ended up struggling and walking down like a disabled crab.

Not a pretty sight.

It hurt!

As we got nearer it started to be worthwhile - there wasn't a cloud in the sky and the sea was a glorious azure.

On the horizon we could just make out the outline of The Isle of Portland. We were there about a month ago and we looked out to the cliffs on the horizon and dreamed of going there.

Now we were looking back at where we were;

It was just magical, it could almost have been the Mediterranean (I wish it had been) ;

It just got better and better;

But this was what we came to see - 'Durdle Door';

It's an amazing sea arch formed out of Purbeck Limestone and it looked just about the same when I was here as a teenager and that was a long time ago.

We sat at the top of the cliff, looking out to sea, eating our lunch and basking in the sunshine.

Then we set off back up the hill;

It was glorious;

We took a different path on the way up and I was OK this time, I just had to keep going;

Then we decided that we had nothing to lose by walking back to Lulworth Cove - we had to get back to the car anyway.

Except that Robyn decided that the cliff path was too steep for me so we went across country instead. Actually it was beautiful too, a view of the great ridges of chalk that run along The Isle of Purbeck;

I love this countryside in the sunshine;

And we made it, down to the sea at Lulworth Cove;

It's almost completely circular with a narrow entrance because the coast is protected by a ridge of tough limestone. When the sea breached this layer, it quickly eroded a round cove out of the layers of clays and chalk behind which are much softer.

Here's the limestone entrance;

There's the mixture of chalk and limestone pebbles on the beach;

It was a beautiful afternoon;

There are still a few fishing boats;

And a couple of locals suning themselves, the guy in the hat was selling scallop shells he had painted;

West Lulworth is charming;

 

 

While this Thomas Hardy poem on one of the walls could not have been more appropriate;

 

 

 

 

Then we headed off to Swanage.......

 

Neil Harris

(a don't stop till you drop production)

 

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