The Vagabond Hiker

Hiking, trekking, and climbing the world

The Southwest Coast Path: Sandbanks to Lulworth Cove

The most recent section of the Southwest Coast Path (SWCP) I had completed, in September 2023, encompassed the western half of Dorset, from Lyme Regis to Lulworth Cove. At the time the Lulworth Ranges were closed, so my trekking ended there. Last month I returned, joining a friend from California, to complete the eastern Dorset section of the route in four days, traditionally the end of this 1014 km* long distance path. A couple of train changes got me in less than 5 hours from Hastings to Poole, where the afternoon before I met Allison, who had just arrived from California.

* – alert readers may have noted that in the last post I used strictly metric distances. I will continue to employ the system that 90% of the world uses for good reason. One kilometer is roughly 0.62 mile and one meter about 3.3 feet.

In point of fact, the SWCP actually begins/ends at Shell Bay, at the terminus of a short ferry from Sandbanks in Poole. We were doing this section “in reverse” of the usual direction.

Allison on the Sandbanks ferry, all of a five minute trip.

Day 1: Shell Bay to Swanage

13 km, 220 m elevation gain

With Allison at the start/end of the SWCP
Shell Bay, a sandy slog to start!
Old Harry Rocks. Can you spot the natural window?
Tiny Persian Speedwell (Veronica persica)
View towards Swanage, where our first night’s accommodation lay.
Wall Bellflower in Swanage
Purbeck House Hotel balcony view, Swanage

Day 2: Swanage to Kingston

20 km, 760 m elevation gain

Roman columns at the Swanage amphitheater, an outdoor music and theater venue
Durlston Castle, Durlston Country Park. A lovely section of wooded paths began near this interesting Victorian-era building.
Allison and Anvil Point Lighthouse
Chalk Milk-wort
An Early Spider Orchid. We might have missed these little fellas if some avid botanizers had not pointed them out to us.
A field of rape (rapeseed oil is called canola oil in the Americas).
The Vagabond Hiker
Coastal vista, emphasizing some steep climbs
Admiring the view. . . and resting my knees!
Hill Bottom Plantation. We turned inland at Chapman’s Pool towards our accommodation in Kingston.

Day 3: Kingston circular via SWCP and Hardy Way

18 km, 600 m elevation gain

Limited lodging gave us an opportunity to stay two nights in Kingston and also do some inland walking.

Twins. It was lambing season and most of the Ewes seemed to have two lambs.
Chapman’s Pool, where we had left off the SWCP the day prior
Houns-Tout Cliff view. I have to love some of the place names!
Clavell Tower, a 19th century folly
Kimmeridge Bay, seen from the Hardy Way. The next morning we (read: Allison) arranged a taxi down to where we left the SWCP.
View from Swyre Head. Perhaps this flat block was used as a triangulation point. Any other ideas?

Day 4: Kimmeridge Bay to Lulworth Cove

13 km, 635 m elevation gain

Broad Bench, Lulworth Ranges. We would be walking most of the day through the ranges, run by the MoD and closed much of the time. They were open for more than two weeks at Easter, however.
Wild cabbage and Tyneham Cap
Worbarrow Tout & Gad Cliff (background). Despite all the clouds, the rain for the most part left us alone.
Allison climbing up Rings Hill
View towards Bindon Hill. We would remain in the Lulworth Ranges until Lulworth Cove.
View looking back along the coast, with Bindon Hill the obvious high point. We did three steep climbs this day, which proved the hardest for me despite the shorter distance. Allison’s in the middle ground near some signage.
Mupe Bay with its eponymous cliffs looming in the near ground
Looking back at Mupe Bay Beach Cliffs with some prolific gorse
Lulworth Cove pano. It was still a walk around to the cove village and then inland for 2 km to our West Lulworth hotel. I just got tired of taking photos!

The weather was great and the days’ walks were amazing. Hiking with a friend who has a similar pace and who I had not seen in more than a year was a huge bonus. Just to be clear, while I walked for 4 days and then returned to Hastings, for Allison this was the beginning of a 66 day trek to complete the entirety of the Southwest Coast Path in one go. I, in contrast, will soon be on the 8th year of what be will be at least a 10 year plan, beginning in Westward Ho! Devon in late May 2018. Stay tuned for my future (shortish) endeavors to complete this project.

I am currently in Hastings, supposedly training for a two-week trek in Peru later this month. I have some walks from a last minute surprise trip to share with you before that expedition. Until then,

Get your daily dose of nature wherever you may be!

The Vagabond Hiker

The Southwest Coast Path: Lyme Regis to Lulworth Cove, Dorset

Having a few spare days in the UK at the end of September, I took the train and bus down to Lyme Regis to pick up where I left off 15 months ago walking the Southwest Coast Path in South Devon. This latest installment covered about 50 miles over four days, walking generally west to east along what’s known as the Jurassic Coast. In 2001 the Jurassic Coast was designated a Natural World Heritage Site by UNESCO and it remains England’s only Natural World Heritage Site. According to UNESCO, “The cliff exposures along the Dorset and East Devon coast provide an almost continuous sequence of rock formations spanning the Mesozoic Era, or some 185 million years of the earth’s history. The area’s important fossil sites and classic coastal geomorphologic features have contributed to the study of earth sciences for over 300 years.”

Without more ado, here are some of the photo highlights from my four days’ walking.

The sea wall leaving Lyme Regis. The weather was to prove somewhat problematic
Cyclamen (Cyclamen hederifolium). I’ve shown these before, but in late September there weren’t many flowers blooming.
The archeologist statue. Note the rock hammer.
An artistic gate, seemingly celebrating the Vikings
Looking back on Charmouth, with Lyme in the far distance
View east towards Golden Cap, the highest point on the South Coast of England — though only 191m above sea level.
View west from Golden Cap. Brambles, along with bracken and gorse, were my frequent companions.
Wind-sculpted hawthorns on the way to West Bay, towards the end of day 1
A typical dry stone wall, seen shortly after leaving West Bay on day 2
Hive Beach. The weather was rapidly deteriorating. . .
A wind vane along Cogden Beach. Winds were from the SSW, gusting to 45 kts.
A beach poppy (Glaucium flavum). My last photo on day 2 as I placed my camera in a dry sack for the duration of my rain-soaked walk to Abbotsbury.
A wooded inland path on leaving Abbotsbury. With dry clothes and a mild, (mostly) sunny day, my spirits had markedly improved.
Fishing boats on the Fleet, en route to Weymouth. “An extensive oasis of relative calm compared with the open sea across Chesil Beach, the Fleet Lagoon is a vital shelter and feeding area for wildlife.”
A picturesque farm
A Painted Lady
Sandsfoot Castle, Weymouth. Along with Portland Castle, this artillery fort was built during the 16th Century to provide defense for the Portland Roads and harbor.
Castle Cove, Weymouth. I deviated a bit from the SWCP to walk along this beach.
The colorful Weymouth harbor
Weymouth beach, early morning on day 4
Smuggler’s Inn. Built in the 13th century, the Smugglers Inn was a major landing place for smuggled goods in the 17th century. I was too early for lunch, but enjoyed a soda water and lime along with some breakfast fruit, provided gratis by the accommodating waiter.
Coastguard cottages at White Nothe. Amazingly remote (for England) and completely off grid, from a distance I thought it was an old manor house. One of the cottages was for sale the prior month at £225,000. I enjoyed a pack lunch at the WW2 pillbox on the right.
An atmospheric view east. The rains this day were thankfully brief.
Coast view towards the Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove
The Durdle Door, a popular tourist attraction
Lulworth Cove, where my 4 day walk ended and I caught the Jurassic Coaster bus to the Wool train station and the return to Englefield Green

Back at my desert home in St. George, Utah, I am enjoying the warm (and dry!) days hiking and swimming. My next overseas adventure will be during the holidays. Christmas morning will be spent exploring Petra, Jordan with Maggie and other clients on a guided KE Adventures trip. So, until the New Year, a hiatus from blogging. But not, of course, from the outdoors!

The Vagabond Hiker

The Southwest Coast Path: South Devon

Back in Devon after four years! The last (and only) time I was in Devon I completed 9 days of hiking along the Southwest Coastal Path (SWCP) from Westward Ho! in Devon to Padstow in Cornwall (see my 2018 blog post). In contrast to those 2+ days in Devon, this time I am spenting 4 weeks, with a two-fold hiking focus: completing some of the southern portion of the SWCP and exploring inland Devon, principally the two moors: Dartmoor and Exmoor. To keep the length of the posts reasonable, I have divided the hikes into two posts. The five days of coastal hiking inn-to-inn is the focus of this post; the inland walks will be the focus of the next one, hopefully published in a few days.

From my AirBnb the South Devon coast was easily accessed by train from the lovely city of Exeter. In about an hour I reached the touristy town of Paignton where I started my generally West-to-East walking adventure. That was Jubilee Sunday and my post begins there. . .

Redcliffe Hotel on the east end of Paignton, Day 1. Paignton was certainly a convenient start point, but is best forgotten.
Corbyn’s Head. I’ve always wondered where that was . . .
Thatcher Rock. The antithesis of Corbyn’s Head. The misty rain lasted much of the first day until. . .
Early evening view from my Babbacombe Hotel terrace
Day 2 started out with much better weather. Here is a view of Oddicombe Beach, a steep descent from the cliff-top town of Babbacombe.
View back towards Torquay (hidden), the main conurbation along this portion of the coast, that I had traversed (in rain) on Day 1 without taking a photo. Though it has its own odd charm, like Paignton I felt that it is best forgotten.
View towards Teignmouth, the destination of the first of two short ferries I took that day
View of colorful Dawlish with the railway going along the coast here.
On the Starcross to Exmouth ferry, the 2nd and longer (at about 20 minutes) of the two ferries that day
The Imperial Hotel, Exmouth, my home for the 2nd night. Though imposing, it is indeed every bit as tired as it looks. Note the giant beach chair. My hotel room did have a small balcony looking out towards the beach.
An Exmouth beach sculpture I saw at the start of Day 3. Unfortunately I was out of coins or I would have contributed to the artist’s fund. The town does have a large sandy beach, unusual for the south coast. It is popular with kite boarders and surfers as well as swimmers (and of course, dog walkers).
The Geoneedle at Orcombe Point. This marks the start of the Jurassic Coast. Note the different rocks comprising one side of the obelisk. They represent the almost continuous sequence of rocks exposed from the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous Periods as one heads West to East along the coast. Truly time travel on a geologic scale!
Dew on common flax (Linum usitatissimum)
Purple Heather (Erica cinerea). As with much of southern England, gorse is out-competing heather.
Otter River estuary, a great birding area. I did not have my binoculars and the rain forced me to shelter in a bird hide for a while as I made my way on an unavoidable inland detour around the mouth of the river.
Sidmouth with mist descending. My home for the 3rd night!
A view from Connaught Gardens on the Western end of Sidmouth. The gardens are absolutely gorgeous, but after a long day my appreciation for their beauty was limited.
The Grade II listed Beacon House with a traditional thatched roof, Sidmouth
Looking back on Sidmouth and High Peak (R) at the start of Day 4. It is a lovely town although the beach is only shingle.
Cliffs near Salcombe as the sun emerges after several hours of mist and rain. This is England, after all.
I ended up herding a flock of sheep near Branscombe
Looking back on the gorgeous coastal views near Branscombe
A good view of the Hooken Cliffs (r) and limestone pinnacles (l), highlighting a giant landslip from 1790. This area is part of the 100 sq. mi. East Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. This short ramble through the Hooken Undercliff was a preview for much of the following day’s walking.
The Beer Beach on the morning of Day 5. I stayed in a small B&B in Beer, a beautiful historic village. Somewhat lacking in dining options, I had pre-booked a dinner reservation at The Smugglers Kitchen, an absolutely first rate establishment.
The SWCP heading up the cliffs leaving the village of Beer
Axmouth Harbor and Haven Cliffs
Pyramidal orchid (Anacamptis pyramidalis). I should have gotten a better photo, but didn’t realize at the time I was looking at an orchid! Though this species is relatively common, I didn’t see any more.
The SWCP heading through the Axmouth to Lyme Regis Undercliffs National Nature Reserve, one of the great “wilderness” areas in southern England. With rain threatening all morning, it was nice to be walking through a woodland.
A rare coastal view en-route to Lyme Regis in the Undercliffs Nature Reserve
Red Campion (Silene dioica). I saw many of these pretty wildflowers during my five days of coastal walking.

Lyme Regis is purportedly lovely, but when I hiked through at the conclusion of my fifth day walking, I was in a hurry to catch my bus, the weather was questionable, and the tourists profuse. Perhaps for these reasons I have no photos of the town. I did manage to catch the hourly bus from there to Axminster station where I was able to connect with a train back to Exeter where my car waited for me. Stats were 56 miles and 9600 ft elevation gain over the five days. Certainly not as strenuous as some of the North Coast of Devon and Cornwall where I averaged about 3000 ft of ascent each day, but an amazingly varied geography with wonderful towns and villages conveniently located along the way. I am more than ever resolved to continue to “fill in” the sections of the SWCP that I have not yet walked.

The Vagabond Hiker

P.S. A note on the photos. I recently purchased a new mobile phone, a Samsung Galaxy A52, which I used for all these photographs. My travels make it more than ever necessary to have dual SIM capability which this international version possesses. I am still learning about the camera, though. . .

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