Day 5 Dorset Coastal Hikes
We hiked for hours today. Hours and hours. It was so great. We went up some seriously steep trails and then down the other side. Down steep steps to the edge of the ocean water, and then up all the way to the top again. We put a lot of miles in today - I'm just sad we didn't have a Fit bit to keep track.
What a beautiful day. And I mean seriously beautiful. The sun was out, the skies were blue, the weather was perfect and it made it truly enjoyable.
We drove to Durdle Door, and went down to the cove to dip our toes in. After hiking all the way up again, we took to the trail up and over the hills over to Lulworth Cove. The trail that led down into Lulworth Cove's touristy area and car park was almost straight down. Forever straight down. People would occasionally slip on the little gravelly rocks on the brick path going down. All I could think about was, Dang. At some point we'll be going back UP this verticalness. Do you like my new word of the day? Verticalness. That's what we did a lot of today.
We did make it up the steep trail and back to our car. Then we drove over to Swanage and Durlston Country Park. We were really hungry by this point - it was around 3:00+ in the afternoon and all we had done since our proper English breakfast this morning was to drink water. Lots of it! So by the time we got to the restaurant at Durlston Castle in the park (like a state park), we were 10 minutes too late. They had stopped making hot food at 4:00 and it was now 4:10. So thank goodness in the gift shop they had some sandwiches and crisps (chips). So we kicked back and ate up on the deck overlooking the sea. And we could see our next challenge off in the distance: Old Harry Rocks.
We then drove over to Old Harry Rocks. Or at least a parking lot (car park as the English call it) that was close to the trailhead. This trail was very flat and wonderful. Our legs were grateful that there were no more stairs or steep inclines to deal with. And you'll see in the video that I chickened out and could not bring myself to "shimmy" across the narrow path to get further out on the cliffs. It was about as wide as my foot, for about 12-18 inches, with nothing but a sheer drop on either side. Hundreds of feet down. So I froze up. Couldn't do it. But Charmaine could, and did! I got a video of her on the way back to where I was. She said it was pretty anti-climactic on the other side though. The trail didn't go much further and there wasn't much else to see past that point anyway. But she did it! She was triumphant!
Because it was so late in the day by this point (6:30 pm) we decided to skip going over to Christchurch to see the old Norman house. It was not a specific family history location, but rather an example of old Norman architecture from that period that looked really cool. But it was an hour's drive and we were getting tired, plus it was getting late. So we headed back to Weymouth.
Walked around to find a bite to eat in Weymouth. And we happened to run into a couple of fishermen who had just returned from a day out fishing. I caught a cute video about their "catch." You'll see it in the link below.
And of course it's super late again. Dang it. For once I would love to be in bed by 10:00 pm. Maybe tomorrow night . . .
A successful day, a lovely day, an adventurous day, and a workout day. Tomorrow: some family history in Charminster, and Stonehenge on the way up to Bath.
Photos: (*You'll see several photos from downtown Weymouth - both this morning as we headed in to town to go to the post office and again this evening after a late dinner)
Much love,
Michele
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