Day 36: July 26th

We had a great catch up with Pauline, Craig and JenY in Lyme Regis. I had admired Pauline’s yellow jersey so she bought me one the same. She’s such a kind nutter!

We had dinner again at the Oyster and Fish House and again they were delicious.
The next day we headed to Corfe Castle which is also in Dorset but is more inland. Fortunately Mike was able to get a shop in Lyme Regis to remove the security tag from his socks so we didn’t have to divert back to Sidmouth. On the way we navigated to this little cove that is evidently a world heritage site, found a park and then walked in the opposite direction up over this huge hill to see some other cliffs. The destination was to view a formation called Durdle Door. The walk itself took about 45 minutes each way and was pretty steep. Fortunately the weather was good and it was great to see so many people out doing the same thing. Whoever owns the land with the car park was making a fortune!

Looking down on Lulworth Cove from part way up the hill.

This is the bay on the other side of the peninsula. Just as steep both sides (which is not surprising given the sea was at the bottom of both!)

I think Durdle Door looks like an elephant.

Notice there are no barriers or even warning signs – except on the path that goes out to the very end and which has mostly eroded away.

This is the little cove that is on the other side of Durdle Door. There are steps that take you down to the beach. We weren’t persuaded to add that climb to our exercise for the day!

Back down in Lulworth Cove we were turned away from a cafe and a pub that had no room for us and finally found a table at another pub. We were very happy with the soups and coffees that they managed to provide without too long a wait. And of course it started raining while we were in there.
Corfe Castle is very close to Wareham which has a very large military base and there is a big area where they do training. There is a big big music festival being set up on fields on the other side of the road from one part of it. Not sure how that works!

You can see burnt out tanks and stuff through gaps in the hedges and there are other signs warning about sudden gunfire.

By the time we got to our accommodation in Corfe Castle it was actually raining. I didn’t even notice the castle on our arrival.

Corfe Castle. First built around 900Ad although there is evidence of habitation in the area from centuries earlier.

We are staying at Moretons Manor which is in the centre of the village and is a Tudor manor house built in the shape of an E to commemorate the visit of Elizabeth l to the village in the 1500s. Foe such an historic building it is remarkably comfortable and well appointed!

We decided to go for a walk to the village and the castle despite the rain. It was really interesting and the National Heritage people had done a great job setting out learning games for kids such as archery (using suckers on the arrows) and other history related activities but it was all getting very rained on.

Mike looking surprisingly happy about being out in the rain.

We had a very nice meal at Moretons Manor with pre dinner drink in the oak panelled lounge.