England - Charmouth (Jurassic Coast)

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For our last sidetrip, we met our cousin, who lives in Dartmouth, at a halfway point. We originally planned to meet in Lyme Regis, but as Friday was a day off from school and the weekend was a bank holiday weekend, we thought it would be too busy. So we decided on Charmouth, just a little northeast of Lyme Regis, but still a fossil hunting spot along the Jurassic Coast. We figured it would be a peaceful place to hangout and catch up, and that the boys and her two kids would like it. As a geologist, I was super excited myself and my dad was too (he majored in geology himself).

I don't know a geology student who has not heard of the Jurassic Coast, an area that exposes rock formations from the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods (or, Mesozoic Era). The cliffs along the southern coast of England in this area expose these various rock formations. The rock is pretty weak and with wave impact to the base of the cliffs, coastal erosion takes place until the upper portions collapse, exposing yet more of the rock and, thereby, fossils. As there were many different environments in this area over 185 millions years, there exists the possibility of finding all kinds of fossils. Indeed, Mary Anning found the first complete Ichthyosaur skeleton in this area. In Charmouth, the coast mainly consisted of clay and shales, not ideal material for fossil hunting.

First we had lunch at one of the few open restaurants, Charmouth Fish Bar, and it was yummy. The beer we had, Golden Cap, was actually the best we had all trip and I had some shrimp and chips. I also got pretty baked in the sun! We went to a nearby store where we got some hats and some more Rountrees fruit gums. Then we made our way back to the mini-museum, the Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre, at the beach which was well done.

Then we headed over the River Char and east along the coast, heads down, looking for fossils. It was another lovely day, though it did get noticeably cooler from what we had experienced at the restaurant just a few hundred meters inland. The kids were mostly excited about finding fossils and they found quite a few small ones, mostly embedded on large rocks. We came a couple of hours after high tide. The woman at the heritage center said the best time is to actually come immediately after high tide as people will quickly strip down the obvious ones right away. So, we had to look a little harder than we had planned. I'm not sure if Lyme Regis is better odds, but Charmouth is not nearly so crowded. Olivier was not worried about fossils and enjoyed playing in the water, to the point we had to remove his trousers because they were soaked through. After a couple of hours we headed back and got some ice cream.

Then we said our goodbyes, in hopes to see each other again. Cousin Sarah had visited us in New York and Canada when we were kids and she and I continued to be penpals for years, so it was very fun to see each other years later. Some things have changed, but most seem the same. It's amazing.

After we got back to the cottage, Mom, Dad and I went to the Semley pub, which the waitress had told them the day before was hopping on Friday nights. She was not kidding. When we arrived, there was barely anywhere to park and the bar area was packed. We found a good table in the lounge and ordered food (I got broccoli and cheese soup). I also split sticky toffee pudding with mom for dessert; I'm not normally a sweets person, but I had to have it at least once before I left! I loved that it was dog friendly - there were two gorgeous black dogs in the lounge with us and one kept lying under the bench at my feet. It was very busy but intimate, where everyone seemed to know each other. We then made our way back to the cottage one last time to pack.

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Photos

Jurassic Coast
E finding fossils

Jurassic Coast
The two E's got along great

Sticky Toffee pudding
Have to have at least once

Jurassic Coast
Lyme Regis in the background

Comments

[silvernomads]

Oh Charmouth - My favourite Beach
Spent all my happy school holidays on that beach with my mum, dad, brother and two sisters - we camped in a field near the beach and were often on our own in our little tent - now that field is a huge caravan park, how times have changed ... ... We found so many fossils on Charmouth Beach as well as fool's gold and thought we were millionaires! keep enjoying x