Saturday – Corfe Castle, Lulworth Cove, & Durdle Door

Saturday broke cloudy, but there was a promise of sunny breaks and only a slight chance of rain.  We decided to visit a couple of sights close to Swanage.  First stop was the Village of Corfe Castle.  It’s a cute little town just ten miles or so inland from Swanage.  There were still patches of blue sky as we arrived.  We parked downhill from the town and took a hiking path up to Corfe Castle.  The castle is maintained and administered by the National Trust (NT), a charitable organization that runs innumerable sights in the UK.  We are members of the Royal Oak Society, the US branch of the NT.  Over the years it has saved us a ton of money on NT admission charges.

The castle is an interesting and quite popular ruin.  We hiked through the grounds and then spent a bit of time in the cute town of Corfe Castle.  We saw the Swanage Railway steam train that travels to Corfe Castle from Swanage.  Perhaps another day for that.  Elaine visited the NT shop and purchased a pair of NT binoculars to replace the one she inadvertently left at a Fall League baseball game in Mesa.  And we visited the village parish, the Church of St. Edward, King & Martyr which was being readied for a wedding.

Then it was on to Lulworth Cove on Dorset’s World Heritage Jurassic Coast.  The cove has a huge parking area, and it was filling fast as we arrived at 11:30 AM.  As we paid our parking fee, it started raining.  The cove and the nearby Durdle Door (more later) are not very enjoyable in the rain.  Anyway, we hightailed it immediately to the Cove Inn, a popular pub at Lulworth Cove for a spot of lunch but more importantly to get out of the rain.  Elaine drank Aspell Cider while I had a couple of Kronenbourg 1664 lagers (French beer from Alsace).  Elaine had a chickpea and squash burger (“Lightly spiced and made with butternut squash, chickpeas, adzuki beans, seeds & pulses, with Monterrey Jack cheese, gem lettuce, tomato, red onions and our burger sauce”) with chips (fries).  She loved it.  I had a delicious Steak and Tanglewood pie (“Our signature pie – braised British steak in rich velvety gravy made with our award-winning Tanglefoot beer, served with buttered mash and seasonal vegetables”) which won the 2015 award for best pie in England.  Yum yum!  And I ate all my broccoli and carrots too!  No desserts.

The rain stopped and we wandered down to Lulworth Cove.  There was a group doing survival training in the very picturesque cove.  Delightful place.  Then it was time to decide whether we walk the mile-long gravel path to see the Durdle Door.  You could see the path winding up a rather steep hill.  Oh, well, we came this far, so we had to do it, especially since the clouds were dissipating and sunshine seemed likely.  Off we went.

So you finally get to the top of Mount Everest Dorset-style and you can see basically nothing.  The path proceeded to go down, down, down an even steeper climb to the overlook.  Down we went fully knowing that we had to eventually come back up again.  Finally we were there!  It’s a beautiful sight, the Durdle Door and the White Cliffs of Purbeck.  It was worth the walk!  I’ll let the pictures describe the panorama.

Pictures taken, we headed back up and down the steep hill to the parking lot.  Getting there, we were spent.  It was 3:00 PM now and we headed back to Rowena Cottage for a well earned nap.  On the way we stopped to buy some local strawberries from a stand along the road.

Elaine had planned to cook a light meal for dinner after our big lunch, but we were so tired that we didn’t feel like stopping at the store for the makings.  So dinner was mostly a repeat of last night after cocktails (vodka gimlet for me, red wine for Elaine) – crackers, cheese, and strawberries.  It was delicious and the strawberries were so much better than the usual store bought ones we are so used to.  A little TV – episodes of our favorite shows – the Chase and Dinner Date.  And off to bed!

PICTURES (CLICK TO ENLARGE)