Childhood Memories

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I had fond memories as a child of coming on holiday with my parents with the caravan to Durdle Door,Lulworth Cove and Swanage. The memories are vivid as I would only have been about six or so but the happy feelings are still there, I felt it was time to relive the favourite childhood holiday spot and revisit both areas. Today we planned to visit Corfe Castle then make our way down to Swanage visiting Harry's rocks and Swanage town, before spending a couple of nights in Durdle Door.

Corfe Castle is both a village and a ruined castle and has been the site of a castle since the 10th century. The castle is where the young King Edward was murdered by his stepmother so her own son Ethelred could become King. The later part of the 11th century the castle was rebuilt in stone by William the Conqueror and for the next 600 years it was used by various monarchs of England until the civil war destroyed it. Today only the ruins remain and is looked after by English Heritage which means free entry for us. The village itself is very pretty with its narrow streets and stone houses and one very attractive church, the castle was on a hill overlooking the village. We spent some time first wondering around the village before exploring the castle. Once again the sun god was smiling down on us and we had another glorious day of sunshine.

We had lunch in the van before moving south to Studland village just east of Swanage. Harry's Rocks is an area of outstanding natural beauty and part of the South West Coast path with stunning white cliffs and pinnacles that resembled something similar to the 12 apostles in Victoria. A 6 kilometer loop walk started and finished in Studland and the village pub was the reward at the end of it! I wasn't sure if I could do the entire walk as my calf muscle was still quite sore from whatever damage I had done to it while going for a run but I did finish it. The walk was lovely with beautiful views over the sea and across to Poole Harbour, the cliffs themselves and the little hidden coves. The walk up the hill gave you excellent views over the whole area and Swanage, the last part of the walk was a steep downhill back through the village and this was perhaps the part that took a toll on my leg. We stopped for a drink in the village pub before heading into Swanage. I had no real memories of the town but I expected it to have a sandy beach and not a pebbly one that I saw. The town itself is like any other seaside town with a active foreshore that had a fair ground, penny arcades, ice cream stalls and a pleasant sea wall. We walked along the sea front and out to the end of the jetty, I took the opportunity to stick my feet in the sea to find it absolutely freezing but surprisingly crystal clear. It was a warm day so a few people were on the beach and even swimming. We stopped for an ice cream, I had to have a 99 cone, one of my favourites as a kid, we walked around the town and took the opportunity to visit the supermarket. Overall it is a real pleasant seaside town a much nicer town than my other childhood holiday destination of Great Yarmouth which failed to impress me.

Much of the coast between Swanage and Durdle Door is hilly downs so we had to drive back up to Corfe to take the road down to our destination. We had paid for a couple of nights in Durdle Door holiday park as there wasn't much else around the area. It was quite expensive for what we got, the view over the sea was magnificent but the slope we had to park on was far from it and we didn't have any large chocks to level us. We had to make do with what we had plus the bricks laying around, it didn't provide much lift we still felt we were walking downhill in our own van! The toilets and showers were a bit of a walk and the grey water drainage was in a stupid spot, Vaughan was not impressed. For £32 a night we thought it was quite a rip off but we were here now and the location couldn't be better as we could walk to both Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove but that was tomorrow's activity, today we were going to sit and enjoy the views.

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