After our long walk the day before we woke up ready to devour the cooked breakfast provided at the Inn before lacing up our boots and setting off on the next leg of the journey. If you remember form the post before we had spent the night in Swanage, however between Swanage and Lulworth lay the Lulworth militry firing range, and, being a Tuesday, we were informed it was firing day so the land would be closed. We were somewhat relieved by this news actually as the walk between Swanage and Weymouht that my dad had planned for the day would be something like 40km which is rather a long way! Instead we hopped in a taxi from Swanage to Lulworth, bypassing the firing range and began our now only 19km walk to Weymouth along the stunning cliffs of the Jurassic Coast.
A gorgeous view of the chalk cliffs at Chaldon Herring taken in the middle of our walk during a break after a particularly long and steep incline.
Having been to Dorset on a field trip at the start of my second year, I knew the geology of the area well, and this resulted in lugging my family up to see the Lulworth crumple before we started our walk. I personally think the Lulworth crumple is really cool. The crumple is an minor fold structure formed during the Alpine Orogeny, a geologically recent Orogeny when Eurasia collided with Africa to form the Alps. My parents at least pretend to think this was really cool, my sister told me I was a nerd, and then satisfied with my rock viewing we began the walk over to Durdle Door.
A photo I took of the Lulworth Crumple on the left and Stair Hole on the right. You can see the folding of the strata at the crumple.
Durdle Door is another field trip classic sight that I had visited twice before, once on a field trip and once with some friends. The magnificent arch was stunning against the blue of the water and the lovely summer weather as we walked past and on towards Weymouth left us in good sprits, and getting unknowingly sun burnt. The 2 or 3 kilometres after Durdle Door was probably the hardest bit of the walk. A total of 700m elevation was gained (according to my Strava) due to the undulation of the coast line with steep inclines up and then steep inclines down just to be faced with another steep incline up again. This bit was exhausting but after getting through the worst of it we were rewarded with stunning views of the coast line across to Weymouth and Portland.
A photo taken of Durdle Door looking out across the bay. It truly is a stunning place, especially when the weather is this nice.
At 12:30pm we were in the middle of nowhere and I was starting to get hungry. Anyone who knows me knows hungry Liv is not the most pleasant of people, and since I get this character trait from my mum, lunch needed to be acquired soon. Luckily for us the path took us through a hamlet with a National Trust cafe where we were able to secure sandwiches and flap jack before setting on our way again.
A photo of me, looking pretty windswept and starting to get sunburnt, at a pub we came across on the path a few kms out from Weymouth.
By about 4pm we made it to Weymouth beach. Weymouth itself is a classic British seaside town with fair rides, boutique hotels, and a long long stretch of beach. Walking from one end of the beach (where we were) to the other end (where our hotel was) took about 45 minutes and the extra walking after having 'finished' our walk for the day really was the final straw for my blisters. We crashed in the hotel after a 20km day (thank goodness the shooting range had been closed) and then went for a quick dip in the sea. Or, more accurately, I went for a quick dip in the sea while the rest of the family sat on the beach because the water was 'too cold'. Dinner was at a lovely beach front Italian place called Enzo's that had super quick service and super delicious food and then we headed back for a good nights sleep.
Unfortunately two days was all we were able to collectively get off as a family and Weymouth was as far as we made it for the start of our South West Coast Path trip. It was however a great fact finding mission and introduction to the path. Hopefully we will be back to complete more of it soon!
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