Spring walk: the Purbeck coast

It had been far too long since my last visit to the Purbeck coast in Dorset! Perhaps 1996-ish for my Silver Duke of Edinburgh’s award… Which was also the time I route-planned us along an electricity pylon rather than a bridleway! The Easter weekend gave us the chance to go and explore and we wanted a spring walk with some vitamin sea views! We weren’t disappointed!

We parked in Ringstead, not far to the east of Weymouth. I’d been looking for a National Trust car park sign but missed it.  A private land owner has cheekily made their sign far more prominent…

The walk is along the South West Coastal Path and starts through wood but after a short climb up Burning Cliff, these views greeted us! Stunning blues of the English Channel.

Our walk was about 18km and my legs definitely felt the hills, which were like climbing the stairs at times. But since I was chief route planner and hadn’t noticed how close together the contours were on the Ordnance Survey map when planning, I didn’t moan. I manned up and set the pace for Mr P!

We loved the old stone way markers along the coastal path. A little bit of humour caught by my naughty husband at ‘scratchy bottom‘… Potential smugglers captured near White Nothe!

Anyway… Back to the hills! Hills mean views so the climb is always worth it. On this walk you can see most of them at the start and thankfully the view is gorgeous. And steep. I kept smiling, mostly!

And in the long run (summer is on the way folks) my legs will thank me for their extra special Easter work out!

Most people love an entirely blue sky day. But by the sea, the cloud reflections dappling the water really make a view! It adds such texture and depth to the vista.

When the sun is out in force, the greens and the blues are so vivid.

There was on particular spot that we just gasped at the beauty. (And here’s a sentence I never thought I would write.) It was the view looking down to Bat’s Head from the high point between the west and middle bottoms that stopped us in our tracks!  We felt on top of the world…

But remember, what goes up must go down! Recall I mentioned stair like paths? Just look at the chalk path on the left!

Durdle Door is an impressive bit of geology and well worth the exertion up and down some very steep hills to reach. There is an easier option than walking the length of the coast as we did… A car park 100 metres from it! But lazy touristing is never my preference!

We chose not to get close to the masses and enjoyed the view from the hills above. Only a handful of people make the short climb to relative peace! I’m always grateful for small mercies!

So we looked down on the ant-people and enjoyed the unspoilt view. Which as you can see was stunning! The water was clear and azure, only the blustery wind reminded us we were in the UK, at the start of spring!

And took an obligatory selfie.

Lulworth Cove seemed like it must be a lot further along the coast but in fact it was only about 1.5 miles. We didn’t stray down to the village and cove (another human ants nest!) but enjoyed the view from a quiet hill, with a gorse bush as a wind break!

Lunch was excellent. Normally we are all about a pub lunch but we knew it would be busy. And since we had over-made guacamole the evening before we had bacon and avo sandwiches followed by Lindt bunny!

I actually have a collection of pottery rabbits from Lulworth – my Daddy used to work in Bovington and bring me back a new one from each visit. He also picked up a dangerous shell-fish allergy there… Another reason for packed lunch!

Sadly we spotted no spring lambs on this walk, but did find some inquisitive cows and calves in a luscious field.

For the walk back we decided to take a more inland path. There was far less up and down and the views, whilst still coastal, were more rural and varied.

The scent wafting off the yellow oil seed was intoxicating, another sure sign of summers impending arrival.

The contrasting green and blue of the views down to the sea were postcard pretty.

All good walks end at a beach.  We resisted the urge to paddle in the icy water at Ringstead Bay, but look how clear it is.

An excellent day on the purbeck coast by the sea and in the sun!