Durlston & Anvil Point on a Very Windy Morning

Tuesday 31st March 2015

Last night was windy, very windy and I believe it was like it all over the country, and this morning the wind just kept blowing! We had a quick walk at Durlston Country Park, where looking out to sea the swell was unusually large, the waves were being blown parallel to the coast, not something you see everyday!  Despite the wind it was a lovely sunny morning.

Looking towards Peveril Point with Old Harry Rocks in the distance.

and the same view without the trees!

The sideways swell.

Looking towards the lighthouse at Anvil Point.

From this point it was difficult to stay upright, not great!  

Waves crashing near the Tilly Whim Caves.

There were plenty of sea birds flying around, and many stayed  hunkered down on the cliffs - I can't say I blame them, with the wind as it was they risked being blown to France in a few minutes! Actually it's a wonder we didn't get blown there too!  Despite the wind we had a lovely breath of fresh air on a perfect morning, it doesn't get much better than this. 

Chapman's Pool & St Aldhelm's Chapel - Near Worth Matravers

Monday 30th March 2015

This afternoon it was forecast to be wet but we went ahead anyway with our plan for a walk along the coastal footpath overlooking Chapman's Pool.  Itwas just as well we did because it didn't rain anyway.  The views along the coast were quite stunning and would have been even more so if there had been a bit of blue sky, but you can't have it all, at least there was no rain!

Overlooking Chapman's Pool.

We were planning to walk down onto the beach but the tide was on the way in and it was quite high so there wouldn't have been much beach left to walk on so  we'll save that for another day.  We walked instead along the cliff path and came across these stones set into the dry stone walls, there was no information about them anywhere so I have no idea what they are all about but I liked the inscriptions and the funky font.

Between turf and sky.

Exposed to weather.

Dark brought to light.

We then came across a war memorial and garden dedicated to Royal Marines that were killed between 1945 - 1990 and a second commemoration stone for those killed since 1990.

A very peaceful and unexpected place.

Luckily the stands holding up the wreaths were very well anchored, as it was blowing an absolute gale this afternoon.

This photo does this section of the walk no justice at all, it has flattened out what was a steep walk down quite a few steps followed by a steep walk back up 218 steps on the other side.  At the top of the climb up to St Aldhelm's Head there is a coastguard lookout, a radar memorial and an old Norman Chapel.

Radar Memorial (for details see here)

The Norman Chapel.

At this point as it was so windy and I didn't fancy walking along the coast again in the wind, we headed inland instead past a still active quarry.   Apparently much of their work is on stone brought in for cutting and dressing rather than that quarried on site.

Lastly we came across this man cutting the hedges, very neatly, considering the size of the cutting machine!

Then it was back to the car park for a coffee, having walked about a 4 mile circuit, another new area ticked off and explored.

Red Kite - Seen From Our Back Door - Awesome

Thursday 26th March 2015

I can't begin to explain how exciting my morning was today!  I was on the exercise bike, which looks out of our back door - you've got to have something to look at, after all it's a pretty boring part of my day, and it provides a welcome breeze (or freezing draught in the middle of winter!) Anyway, pedalling along nicely and building up a bit of a sweat, I saw a bird of prey and as usual assumed it was a buzzard as we do see these above the garden from time to time, especially in the summer.  I very quickly realised this was no buzzard and abandoned the bike (no real excuse needed) to get a better look, flying low across the rooftops was a red kite, definitely a red kite because I had a fantastic view of it and saw the distinctive v shaped tail, it's brown/reddish colour and the stripes under it's wings.  

At that moment I thought no-one's going to believe me when I tell them what I've seen but by the time I got back with the camera it had disappeared.  I spent the rest of the day looking out and up at the sky but I think I was just lucky to be in the right place at the right time - good old exercise bike! (never thought I would hear myself saying those few words).  

I got out the bird books just to confirm what I thought, and there is no doubt about it, it was a red kite.  Last year I saw red kites for the first time in the wild in the New Forest and at Farley Mount, so I suppose they are fairly local but to see one from home is just awesome - a word that Google seems to use a great deal but really it was.  Amazing.  Although we live on a smallish estate we are less than quarter of a mile from open farmland and woodland, so hopefully ideal for red kites.

Having read up about these kites, they are nest building at the end of March in deciduous trees, so I am hoping maybe it will hang around.  It also said 'birds, and particularly young of the year, often wander in autumn and winter, turning up in some unlikely places', but as it's now spring I am choosing to ignore that particular statement!

For details about red kites, see the RSPB details here

The Priests Way - Swanage

Friday 20th March 2015

This afternoon's walk was a circular walk of 3.5 miles from Swanage along part of the Priests Way and back along the coast.  

Shortly after starting out, looking back over Swanage with Ballard Down in the distance.

Within quarter of a mile of my mother in laws house we saw.........

happy lambs, 

(I asked the farmer that was spraying and feeding them what breed of sheep these are, apparently a mixture of various breeds, including suffolk, dorset and charollais)

cows, I've no idea if they were happy or not, but they had certainly been up to their knees in mud at some stage recently, so maybe not!

deer, who had a face off with us and then went pronking across the field,

and badger sett evidence.

This bunch of daffodils was on the side of the footpath on a bank, just these cheery few.

Further on, at this lime kiln we successfully found a geocache.

The other side of the lime kiln.

Looking along the coast towards St Aldhelms Head.

Spring wouldn't be spring without lambs and....

woolly faced sheep and.....

more lambs!!!!

and banks of primroses.......

and more lambs! (twins this time)   I have to say this has to be my favourite photo of the day, unfortunately I didn't take this one!  (my husband did)

Kimmeridge Bay

Thursday 19th March 2015

I haven't visited Kimmeridge Bay (5 miles west of Swanage) for many years so a return visit was long overdue. With a few hours to spare this afternoon we went for a look round and to do a bit of fossil spotting.  This beach is amazing, there are fossils everywhere in the rock and as it was low tide when we first arrived we were able to see some enormous specimens on The Flats, some as big as 50cm across.  For more information on Kimmeridge Bay see here

The view across the beach from the car park,

and in the other direction looking towards Clavell Tower.

You can easily spend a few hours exploring and mooching around on this beach.

Fascinating cliffs and rock strata.

Beautiful fossils.

Later in the afternoon it clouded over and the beach took on a more moody and grey look.  I can thoroughly recommend a visit to Kimmeridge, it's a fascinating place.

Canadian War Memorial Near Bolderwood

Sunday 1st March 2015

We left our walk on Sunday until fairly late in the afternoon, hoping to avoid other walkers, as we wanted to find a newly placed geocache.  We parked at the Canadian War Memorial and walked from there.  It was dark and threatening rain as we left the car but it didn't rain properly until we were nearly back, by then we got absolutely soaking wet.

The Canadian War Memorial.

The footpath under water!

We've walked in this area many times but have never been along this path before, I'm glad we did though because we found this lovely pond amongst the trees.

Close to the cache it started to spit with rain.

Time for another quick photo though, another pond that we haven't come across before.

There always seems to be some plant or other invading.

One geocache successfully found.

View from the cache, dark and threatening, then the rain came, so we....

took shelter under a large yew tree for a short while before deciding the rain had set in, time to just go for it!

Looking in the other direction I spotted this tree, we don't need to think too hard about which way the wind blows normally!

A brief stop on the way back.

Maybe we should have gone out earlier in the afternoon after all!