The South West Coast Path stretches 1,014km across England's south western peninsula from Minehead in Somerset to Poole in Dorset. Part of the path goes across the Jurassic Coast, one of my favourite parts of the UK with it's spectacular geology, which is also home to the Belemnite Marls, the focus of my masters project that I'll be starting in October.
A photo of Old Harry Rocks, the famous chalk arch and stack at Studland Bay, marking the most eastern point of the Jurassic Coast.
My dad has always been one for a challenge, be it climbing Mt Kilimanjaro, white-water rafting down the Zambezi river, zip-lining across the jungles of Costa Rica or cycling from coast to coast of the UK. He first got the rest of the family involved back in the summer of 2021 when we completed the three peaks challenge, climbing the highest peaks in Scotland (Ben Nevis), England (Scafell Pike), and Wales (Snowdon) in less than 24 hours. Completing the challenge as a family made it extra special, and now my sister and I no longer live at home it is nice for us to all be in the same place at the same time. To continue this tradition we decided to embark on the challenge of walking the whole of the South West Coast Past. The expectation is that we are going to do it in sections over the next few years, as with busy schedules and life in general the time to do it all in one go just isn't there. Having 3 days this week when we were all together we decided to drive down to Bournemouth and walk the start (well end, we are apparently doing it backwards) of the trail to get the ball rolling.
Sign post showing the way to the South West Coast Path across the ferry at Poole Harbour.
The first day of our mini adventure was 22km from Bournemouth to Swanage where we stayed for the night. We drove down to Bournemouth and walked along the picturesque seafront until we got to the actual start of the path by Poole Harbour. This included a 10 minute ferry across Poole Harbour which was a fun little addition to the trip. As we went my dad (in typical dad style) provided us with some facts about the area. In case you were wondering, Poole Harbour is the second largest natural harbour in the world after Sydney Harbour, which is a fact I found kind of hard to believe but the internet does seem to confirm. Reaching the other side of the harbour we walked along the beach at Sandbanks, trudging along the sand was pretty frustrating and left us all with aching calves the next day. It also took us through a naturist area which was not somewhere I thought I would find myself going with my parents but we put our heads down, walked quick and minimised any family viewing of the naturists themselves.
After a long walk across the sand, and a cake stop at a National Trust cafe, we began the lovely walk up to Old Harry where I battered my family with 'fun' geology facts and then got cut off by a game ABCs which I have a suspicion was just to keep me quiet. Old Harry Rocks was a lovely sight when we got there. The wind whipped at us on the edge of the cliff but the sun was out and the chalk shined in all its glory. Then, pretty knackered at this point, we began our descent into Swanage, finally reaching the Inn we would be staying at for the night with Strava telling me we had covered 22.40km, a pretty impressive feat.
Me, mid trail with a view of the ocean behind me, Swanage bay just off to the right of the image.
Exhausted and starving we had rapid showers, and a well earned fish and chips sitting on the water front before heading to bed, ready to get up and do it all the next morning. This leg of path was a pretty easy one, apart from the energy drain of trudging along sand there was minimal hills to climb and plenty of cafe and water stops along the way, unfortunately, the same cannot be said for leg two.
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