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We had considered staying at South Lytchett for another night, mainly because of the fantastic shower block, but there wasn’t really much to do nearby, and we didn’t fancy going back into Poole, so we decided take the shortish ride to Lulworth. I’d been there years ago, and remembered the impressive coastline and cliff walks around Lulworth Cove and Durdle Door. So after a breakfast of danish pastries and yoghurt, we had another wonderful shower and set off South West again. The trouble with touring West along the South Coast is that you’re likely to be riding into the wind more often than not. It had certainly been the case for us, and today was probably the best example.
We stopped at a ‘Welcome to Wareham’ sign for a photo and an old fellow walked up pushing his mountain bike and asked if we could pump his tyre up. Unfortunately I didn’t have a nozzle for his Schrader valve so we got him to take a picture of us by the sign instead. On through various pretty little hamlets and warning signs declaring the possibility of ’sudden gunfire’ and ‘tanks crossing’. Then down into East Lulworth. Had a quick look at the castle (pretty) before finding our way into the ‘Weld Arms’ for a very tasty ploughmans. Certainly it seems to us, the farther west we go, the better the ploughmans lunches become.
Before long we found ourselves in West Lulworth, near the cove, but our campsite was apparently right at the top of a tough looking hill in front of us. We considered the possibility that there may not be a shop on the site so grabbed a load of provisions from a village shop at the junction. An enormous loaf of bread, some tinned tomatoes, soup, onions and a big black pudding to make a nice hotpot. Eggs and bacon for breakfast and of course some beers. Two large blue plastic bags swung dangerously from my handlebars as I determinedly span up the hill in my lowest granny gear. Kez sensibly pushed her bike up, and met me at the top barely a minute after I’d got there.
As it turned out, ‘Durdle Door Caravan Park’ was a huge place, with a large restaraunt/bar and with the biggest site shop we’d seen yet, I could’ve saved myself the effort of lugging grocery bags up the hill and had more choice, but hey ho.
We got the tent set up and went for a walk on the cliffs over Durdle Door. Absolutely amazing views, made even more dramatic by the strong wind that was whipping all sorts of weather across us. One minute bright and sunny, but then you could see dark black banks of cloud coming in from the sea, and before you knew it you were being stung by vicious showers. It was warm enough though, and we had a great time leaning precariously over the long drops and spotting rainbows over the sun dappled hills behind.
The weather finally got a bit too much and we holed up in the ‘Man o’war’ bar for a while, until it cleared up again, allowing us to settle by the tent and get the hotpot going. Kez managed to spill a whole glass of red wine all over my sleeping mat in the tent, but it wiped off leaving no stain at all somehow. It was a good day, but Kez was still feeling a bit run down and tonight we would find out why.
Kez was really quite ill during the night. Off to the toilet every five minutes, didn’t get much sleep and at one point realised that her sleeping bag was going to have to go in the bin! It was actually a relief for her to realise she had caught some kind of bug, which was clearly the reason she’d been so weak the last couple of days, and not just general unfitness.
A good day, but the night was another matter.