Delightful Dorset

We’ve just spent a few days on the Dorset coast, a stones throw (literally) from the mighty Chesil beach, an 18 mile long shingle bank extending from the mainland to the isle of Portland. We stayed right at the Portland end where it stops and the Isle of Portland rears up. We shared a new build holiday home with my brother in law and his wife who’d hired it for the week.

I’d holidayed in this general area a couple of times with my family, too many years ago to remember (think late 60's) but bar a short break to not so far away Bournemouth last year, haven’t been here since.

The first day we arrived at lunchtime and quickly decided a short walk around Portland Bill was our plan. With one of our party struggling to walk far, a gentle 3 and a bit mile stroll on mostly level ground with a coffee and cake stop at the end proved ideal. The walk took in the spectacular red and white Portland lighthouse, and the coast where evidence of the massive amount of Portland stone quarrying had taken place.

Portland Bill lighthouse

An old derrick for loading boats with Portland stone

Day two started dull and soon became rainy, but we ventured inland in vain hope of visiting some gardens.  Driving through murk that might have been very low cloud, we quickly gave that idea up and retuned to the house. As the afternoon cleared we went up a short way onto the Isle of Portland and the Tout Quarry and Sculpture Park where there were many sculptures cut into stone in an old quarry. At the top we also had fabulous views over Fortuneswell where we were staying and Chesil Beach.

One of the many stone sculptures. The other side of this one depicts a T- Rex head, a nod to the  historic Jurassic coast that this part of the country is famous for

Fortuneswell and Chesil Beach with Weymouth in the distance

An added bonu s(if you like this sort of thing) was the arrival/departure of a couple of American Military V22 Ospreys from the helipad about a quarter of a mile away. Noisy or what? They’re the new Chinook.

A V22 Osprey

The afternoon cleared up beautifully to provide a stunning sunset as we ate out in a pub right on the beach front 

Dorset sunset

Day three started bright and windy. We’d already planned to drive 40 minutes or so to Lulworth Cove and walk to the famous arch at Durdle Door. Arriving we noted the steep incline as we paid for the expensive but well marshalled parking (£5 for up to 4 hours, £10 if you’re there for the day). It WAS a steep climb up the first hill, and then a steep descent down towards the twin bays of Man 'O War bay and Durdle Door, but it was worth it despite the inevitable busyness of the place even thought it was midweek and term time. Apparently in high summer it’s horrifically busy. People may remember the national news about crowds here when the end of the COVID lockdown was announced in England.

Anyway, it was worth the mile and a half trek for the views.

Durdle Door
It’s 144 sets down from the coast path!

Man 'O War bay (Durdle Door the other side of the promontory)

Man 'O War bay

Lulworth Cove

Near the top after climbing up from the car park at Lulworth

We’re back home tomorrow, but I have to say it’s been a wonderful few days down in this part of the country, and there’s so much to see and do. I’d love to come back next do some more exploring.

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Short Break to Sunny Bournemouth

Courtesy of a rather nice and at the time unexpected gift from someone, Anne and I last week had a two night short break to Bournemouth.

Bournemouth Pier from the cliff top

We set off on Wednesday morning, having planned a stop at Kingston Lacy (National Trust) which is close to Bournemouth on the way down. Though I knew roughly the way, I programmed (as I always do for any trip as much for traffic info as anything) the sat nav. All was well until we reached Bath, where for some reason the sat nav decided to not play ball, and started giving some really weird readings (like not being on the road at all!) and moving around all over the place. I held out for about 30 mins before deciding to re-set it, at which point the whole infotainment screen on the car decided it wouldn't load, rending us without sat nav, radio, or indeed anything else on the screen. (As an aside, the car's due to go in for some work and a software update soon and this has happened before, but not to this extent). Anyway, long story short, we reverted to analogue and a good old road atlas!

So we finally made it to Kingston Lacy on what started as an overcast day, but was getting brighter. As with every place we seem to visit lately, there was renovation work going on with fencing and builders vans and scaffolding around the place but nevertheless we spent an enjoyable couple of hours wandering the grounds. Anne went into the house for a look around (I was on the phone to the car dealer telling them I need this work done urgently!). Kingston Lacy is definitely worth a visit if you're in the area.

Kingston Lacy NT

We arrived at our hotel in Bournemouth, the Durley Dean, in time to dump our bags and go for a wander, down the cliff and onto the (very long and extensive) promenade. We went onto the pier (note it's chargeable - I think it was £1.70 each), before walking back up through the lower gardens into town looking for somewhere to have a drink. In my research planning, I'd seen a place called "All Hail Ale" a micro pub. It's a little out of the town centre, but not by much. It's a cracking little place, with loads of beers and ciders on keg/cask and a decent selection of spirits. We'd planned a quick drink before finding somewhere to eat, but there was a cracking pizza place next door Da Mario, in the top 20 places to eat on Trip Adviser in Bournemouth and you can order and have it brought round to you at All Hail Ale. So we did! And it was a fabulous pizza. 

Suitably replenished after pizza and a few *cough* beers we retreated back to the hotel for a nightcap. As is often likely the case in Bournemouth, our hotel seems to be occupied almost exclusively by older clientele and the odd contractor. Bingo was on offer for those of that persuasion! Not quite Fawlty Towers, but you get the drift! However, that's doing the actual hotel a disservice. It was clean, rooms and bathrooms have obviously been modernised, and it has a small leisure area with a pool, sauna and steam room which we made use of during our stay.

The next day dawned bright and sunny - the forecast had been cloudy. Whilst there are lots of places in the general area that we want to see, we decided to make the most of just being in Bournemouth, and walk along the beach promenade from town to Poole harbour/Sandbanks approximately 3 miles (each way) - at least it's flat!

First though we went for breakfast at the Olive Cafe, about 5 minutes from the hotel. A smallish cafe, it had an extensive menu with food cooked to order, and was first class. Fuelled up, we walked down through the gardens to the prom, and began leisurely walk along the fabulous beach with regular stops for coffee and ice cream to take in the sights including an ongoing groyne replacement programme, the little access cliff gullies or "chines" as I discovered they're called, and the many, many, many, many beach huts lining almost the whole promenade from Boscombe to Poole.

Some posh beach huts

More beach huts

The huge beach, stretching for miles

At Poole harbour, we skirted some of the houses (mansions!) on the beach - looking in an estate agents, there was a lovely 4 bed place for a cool £5.5 million overlooking Poole Harbour. We poked our noses through the windows at Rick Stein's restaurant which seemed to be doing a decent trade at mid-day. You certainly need a few bob to live here. The harbour was full of wading birds - oystercatchers, turnstones and we even saw an egret.

The sunny weather continued (we've been really lucky with glorious weather on recent getaways), and I was glad I'd packed and was wearing my shorts. Not bad for the middle of October! By the time we'd almost  completed our return leg, we'd done about 8 miles, so we were glad of the cliff railway that for the princely sum of £1.75 a head took you up to the top of the cliffs and almost back to our hotel.

After a swim and steam room recovery relax, we were ready to to head out for a meal. We'd pre-booked at Lola's, a Tapas bar in town which again has really good Trip Advisor reviews. We'd seen it during our walk in the morning , although it was shuttered up and on a main road through town, and didn't look very appealing. In the evening though it was a different place. Only a small independent place, capable of holding maybe 20-30 people tops, but really very nice and doing a roaring trade. Great service, fantastic food made for a lovely meal, and other thumbs up recommendation if you're ever in the area.

After our meal, we contemplated heading back to All Hail Ale, but instead went to the Goat and Tricycle (seriously, where do they get these names from?), a Butcombe Brewery pub serving an extensive range of decent beers. Although it serves food (who doesn't these days), it's a proper pub, even down to the old fella playing a piano in the bar! Well worth a visit.

By then, fairly knackered and replete, we went back to the hotel. 

In the morning we were up and away to avoid the inevitable Friday traffic (it's a minimum three and a half hour trip without any hold ups at Bath, Bristol, Newport and the current roadworks and on the M4 at J32/33. In the end, our journey back was pretty uneventful, driving through beautiful countryside - even the sat nav behaved.

All in all we had a wonderful break, and will definitely be back to this fabulous part of the country.