July 22nd 2017 - Durdle Door; Lulworth Cove; Corfe Church flower festival; Corfe Castle

It was a very nice morning so we decided to take a chance of good views and headed for Lulworth Cove and Durdle Door. When we got out in the car park at Durdle door it was very windy and very cold. Getting to see Durdle Door involved a long downhill trek on very precarious ground. Hand in hand we slowly negotiated the track though neither of us could see clearly because the wind was causing our eyes to stream. The place was packed with mainly young people and children and dogs none of whom showed much respect for the cliff side dangers. We stayed well into the middle of the path!

Durdle Door, the famous natural arch.

Beautiful Lulworth Cove and its horse-shoe shape.

We couldn’t get over the number of people swimming in Lulworth Cove as it was bitterly cold! Jim got his pictures and we set off again this time uphill - and not a spot to take a few breaks! I was positively luminous by the time I got back to the car. We decided that this was our exercise of the day!

However, it was too early to go home so we continued on to Corfe Castle. I had read that it was not easy to park near Corfe Castle so once we were in the vicinity we turned into a parking lot from which it was possible to walk along a pathway to the Visitors’ Centre. This brought us through a wooded area, along a field, across a railway and finally down some rather treacherous steps. It took 25 minutes. At the Visitors’ Centre we discovered that we could actually have parked there. From there we had to walk along another path (15 minutes) to get to the entrance to the Castle. We eschewed the National Trust Café and went instead to the café at the Model Village - which we had visited on our last trip to Dorset so many years ago. Following a crab sandwich (for Jim a baguette with 3 sausages!) we took a look around the village which is very pretty. We discovered that there was a flower festival on in the Church so had a look - very pretty but not a patch on the one we had in the Cathedral in Raphoe a few years ago.

Then we visited the medieval village at the castle.

We retraced our steps in the other direction - 15 minutes and then 25 minutes. The steps (25 of them) were easier to climb than to descend. The fact that it was raining dampened us and our spirits a bit! It was all worth it as we got a bit of exercise and had enjoyed the beauty of the Jurassic Coast.