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)

 

Home:  helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

 

Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com





Portland

Did I mention we were on our way to Weymouth? We nearly made it but then I dragged Robyn to Portland.

Portland is almost an Island, connected to the mainland by a shingle bank that actually runs for over twenty miles.

 

It's amazing.

 

This is the view of Chesil beach;

 

 

We'd waited for a nice day all week and we drove to a part of the country that had a good chance of being fine and we were very lucky.

 

We sat at the top of the hill listening to the sound of far away waves breaking and looking down on a turquoise sea.

 

We never bothered going to Weymouth.

 

We had to get this picture taken of us at the Olympic Rings (the sailing was in the sea around Weymouth) but the nice lady who took it for us wasn't very good at photos. You should have seen it before I edited it!

 

The Olympics meant a  lot to each of us - separated by thousands of miles. Robyn couldn't get here and I was too ill to go and see any of the events.

Portland is a working Island - full of quarries and prisons. Stone is all around either great blocks waiting to be bought or big piles of quarry waste dumped over cliffs and into hollows.

 

Portland stone is all over London and 'Portland Cement' is named after the process that was invented here.

 

 



 

There's a lot of stone that went wrong and got dumped.

 

This is how you split stone by hand; you drill a line of holes by hand then you put a 'feather' in each one (it's a split piece of steel that expands) then you put a steel wedge in between the two arms of the feather and then you hit each of the wedges in turn with a hammer.

 

It's not too hard but takes a while. A crack develops between each hole, they join up and then the crack spreads until the stone splits....like this; 

 

 

 

 

The views off the island were wonderful;

I think this is the Isle of Purbeck - if the rain ever stops we'd like to go there;

Portland stone is Oolitic Limestone, built up from the fossilised bones and shell of ancient animals. This stone has been eroded and you can see the fossil shells sticking out of it;

Just look at those rocks;

We headed back to Fortuneswell and the beach;

This is Chesil Cove, the very start of the shingle ridge which goes as far as you can see. It was a tough walk for my back but I made it;

This was why - a whole summer in a day;

We came back along the tidemark, beachcombing.

Unfortunately we didn't find gold or silver. Instead we were horrified by the pollution, mainly fishermen's lost tackle - a tangle of plastic line, weights, lures and hooks amongst the seaweed;

We even found a whole spine, tangled in fishermen's line. It was a bit gruesome so I've spared you a picture. I'll only say that it looked a lot better than my spine does these days.

My guess is that it was a porpoise or a dolphin killed by line.

We picked up as much as we could and brought it back to put in the trash.

Each piece of this is death to any bird or fish;

Most of it are 'long lines' of simple lure to catch mackerel; lines of hooks with simple cloth lure which mimic tiny fish. It's from commercial fishermen who should take more care of their environment.

When it's gone it's gone, like this old business;

The whole story of Portland is in this picture;

 

 

 

 

The limestone cliffs, the scarred land and piles of quarry spoil where useless stone was dumped over the edge of the cliff.

 

The stone walls are an artwork built as a reminder of the Islands heritage by local people from 1986 to 1993, at the direction of the artist John Maine. The walls are built to look like waves and the stone comes from the old quarries - each wall is built out of one of the five layers of stone the quarrymen used.

 

We saw a family eating fish and chips and followed their directions to find the shop - they didn't mention how far and how steep it was to get to the high street - I think they drove there.

 

It was agony!

 

We staggered back down and ate watching the sun set over a crystal sea.

 

After that there didn't seem any point in going to Weymouth at all.

 

I did my injection in the car park and we drove home in the autumn dark.

 

Good day.

 

Neil Harris

(a don't stop till you drop production)

 

Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com