With some places in the UK, going just once simply won’t do. For me, Dorset is one of them. Just a couple of hours drive from London, Dorset offers some of the most beautiful coves, picturesque villages and vast chalk cliffs along the coast. I went for the last summer bank holiday weekend with destination Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove, both of which I had already visited a couple of times before.
What sounds like the brother of the headmaster Dumbledore from Harry Potter is in fact an arch just off the coast near the picturesque little Lulworth Cove. When I saw a picture of Durdle Door the first time around, I couldn’t believe that this was actually in England. The arch is spectacular, but unfortunately draws an awful lot of people for that very reason, making it an annoyingly busy spot. Fortunately, not quite so many people go to the Bay of Man O’ War, located right next to Durdle Door and without any doubt, my favourite sunbathing and swimming spot in the UK. The waters glitter eye-wateringly turquoise from up top of the cliffs and I wonder if it’s the shape of the bay or just my wishful thinking that the water always seems a bit warmer than elsewhere in the English Channel.
Due to its popularity, this area of England has plenty of farm campsites, which I just love. Farm campsites cost between 8 and 20 GBP per night and person or tent; they usually have toilets and running water, most of them have showers and campsite shops or food trucks coming by in the morning so people can get supplies if needed. I’ve staid at Acton Fields Campsite before, which features wonderful views over the coast line. This time our trip was very spontaneous so the campsites that overlooked the sea were already booked out. Therefore, we ended up at Northdown Farm, which, at 20 GBP was more on the expensive end of the scale, but on the last summer bank holiday in England, we wanted to make sure that we had our campsite pre-booked. The campsite consists of several massive fields, so there certainly was sufficient space and campers didn’t have to live in each other’s pockets. When we got there, the sun was shining and after having spent some time at the beach, we felt it was time for a barbecue. My friend Amy has a very handy, portable barbecue, which we fired up as the sun was setting.
The next morning, after a relaxed cup of coffee in the sleeping bag thanks to Amy being an early bird, while the campsite was slowly coming to life and the morning sun made the tents glow, we set off to hike along the coast. We parked at Ringstead Bay and made our way down to the South Coast Path, going east towards Lulworth Cove. At first, the path remained even, and we hiked in a relatively fast pace along the coastline, thereby enjoying stunning views of the coast and the chalk cliffs. Behind us, we could see all the way to Weymouth and Portland was sticking out in the distance. The closer we got to Durdle Door, the more the path descended and ascended again. In addition, whilst we had hardly met any hikers all the way, the amount of people we encountered increased the closer we got to the popular arch.
By the time we reached Lulworth Cove, we were glad that we were looping back via the South West Coast Path Inland Route thus avoiding having to walk with the crowds again. We headed a little way up the road in Lulworth before looping back westwards through pastures with cattle and farmer’s fields. We made it back just in time for a shower and one of the best Sunday Roasts I ever had, at the Springhead Pub in Sutton Poyntz, just a few minutes walking from the campsite.
