Travelling with public transport in United Kingdom is hard work. Indeed, I had explored trains, buses, hired cars and tour operators to visit Durdle Door (The only natural heritage of England) from Hayes Town but all were hopelessly costly, time consuming and not worth the penny.Hence, when a hiker at Little Britain Lake, Iver said she was planning to travel to Durdle Door, I accepted the offer to jump in and split the costs.
the 8 miles (return walk) and rushed to ASDA to get some sandwich fillings and prepared a picnic for the lack of refreshments at Durdle Door. It was a restless night, waking up on top of every hour since 4am despite alarm clock. We started at 7:30 am from Stockley Park ( Hayes and Harlington), filled full tank petrol (43 litres for 56 GBP) and hit the highway for the next 2.30 hours. We discussed a 4 hour parking fee for 5 GBP or full day till 9pm for 10 GBP and reminded ourselves we were on holiday.
The whites of the horizon faded into the blues of the English channel as we absorbed the scenic beauty from the car park overlooking the coast line.
We ate a sumptuous breakfast of all the lovely stuff - sandwiches, pies, crisps, home made carrot cake, cut fresh fruits and
fresh cut baby cucumber/carrots/ celery. Then we changed to bathing suits and ventured to descend from Lulworth Cove Car Parking to the Durdle Door beach. On the way, we observed an elderly man, sitting by the rough unkempt, dry, stones strewn slippery path to catch his breath.
We choose the side which had the geological limestone eroded rock feature like a big arched door, affectionately called the Durdle Door, jutting into the English channel. It was a pebble beach and it hurt when you walked bare feet especially when you came off the water.
We observed the grave faces of a few men and a couple of children who were playing in the water. Being braver of the two, my friend ventured into the cold water first. I followed and swam to the the Durdle Door itself to find brown kelps stroking my legs and my imagination ran wild. It was possible to stand on the rocks just below the arch. I returned and idled on the beach. My friend swam around the arch in a big circle and said on the last round, the current was strong. There was no first aid or life guard.
A few people were jumping from the little perch of the arch. People had floating boats or canoed about saving themselves from the dreadful waters. A Titanic was at the far end and changed positions all throughout the day without making any headway whatsoever.
The party atmosphere was created when three men put two chairs, opened their little fridge bag (Ubereats?) to take chilled drinks and put trendy, party music on.
kept asking Can you dance to my beat?. Sure but I had just nibbled a nut rich, home made sandwiches with cheese after a swim and was hoping to catch a nap? Some marijuana floated in the air but they were in their own little world and having the time of their lives just as we were.
I did a planned mentoring session over phone and slept with the rhythmic music. Around 3.30pm, the sun started to beat us down and the wind direction changed from land to sea carrying the heat and dust. We did wind up and climbed the mini Kilimanjaro back to the car park. From the top, the natural feature actually looked like a dragon which had dipped its head for a drink with its long winding tail. We did see a tiny Durdle door developing on the far end. Should be ready for our children!
Lessons learnt from Bournemouth, I had applied sunscreen and protected my exposed areas with gamcha and my face with tilted blue Indian cricket team supporting cap. Most assuredly, my selfies later in the evening were more true to me than a monkey though perhaps the latter would
We discovered a red public phone booth converted to a library with a little folding stool too. Charming!
We drove to Lulworth castle but it was closed. Therefore, we parked at the exit gate and walked right through for a selfie.
