Corfe Castle, Swanage and Lulworth Cove

After a lovely start to our travels in the UK, we seem to have had more rain than is reasonable but we’ve not let it stop us doing anything yet. Other than bike riding. Modern bikes don’t have mudguards, why is that? The idea of a mud soaked backside has no appeal to me and waterproof trousers are no good in our situation, as they would need to be dealt with as soon as we returned to The Goddess.

We decided on a day out at the coast, with a stop at Corfe Castle on the way, the weather was grey but at least the rain had stopped.

Corfe Castle just looks so dramatic, so a stop and a walk was a must. Although we are National Trust Members, so free admission, we decided not to go up into the castle ruins, as Mike doesn’t like heights, so probably he wouldn’t have enjoyed it.

Swanage was where Mike had once had an enjoyable holiday, so he wanted to have a look at the place and see how it had changed in 30+ years. On a grey November day, it didn’t look too inviting but the beach was good and we parked up and let Rowley have a run.

The photo above is the Isle of Wight

Next was Lulworth Cove and Durdle Door. We’d been there 25 years ago and I’m sure we must have parked nearer to Durdle Door as I don’t remember walking a mile up a steep hill, which looked about like going up one of the Malvern Hills. I have never been able to do hills very well, even when I was young, skinny and fit and we’d left it a bit late in the day and I am doing all the driving, so was feeling tired.

 We did start the climb and I knew I wasn’t going to enjoy this one bit and also now had a good idea why there is a permanent Ambulance and Paramedic Car parked at the bottom. So we turned around and just did Lulworth Cove and The Stairhole instead and that involved more than enough steep slopes for me, thank you very much!

At The Stairhole were two men, in wetsuits, who obviously don’t get enough excitement in their lives. The second one to jump seemed like he’d changed his mind about the wisdom of taking the plunge but after a little prevaricating he took off, which was a great photo opportunity for me.