29th May, 2022 - West Bay, Bridport

 As part of a little roadtrip we had arranged 2 years ago to see The Killers in Southampton, we had booked a couple of nights in Dorset, staying at Little India, an air B and B run by a lovely lady. We haven't explored Dorset except for Weymouth in search of family trees, so decided we could add a walk to our target mileage too! And what a lovely walk it was. From the b and b, it was a walk through ancient woods, once containing lime kilns and a quarry which had actually closed in the 1920's and then reopened briefly in the '50's I think, but is now a nature reserve. 

We continued the walk through some residential roads and approached the sea via an old railtrack, now a path but once at the coast, the rail is there complete with a train coach cafe!

The beach is the westernmost end of Chesil beach and the view of the bay from there was beautiful! A jetty, originally the big harbour for Bridport, at one end and the Jurassic coast beyond....  

We could easily see as far as the Golden Cap though it's hard to pick up on a small photo, the highest point along the Jurassic coast.

...... And the huge cliff of West Bay in the easterly direction, with the Isle of Portland on the horizon at the other end of 18 mile long Chesil Beach, where my grandparents were married and lived. 

It's impossible really to get an impression of the size of the cliffs from a photo really. The height is just staggering and the cliffs are quite scary as the rock is so obviously soft and they have caused deaths in the past with unexpected falls. They are though full of fossils!!

And this is where the detective TV series, Broadchurch was filmed a few years ago. It really is a spectacular sight!!

Even with myself displayed on the beach in front of the cliffs - at a safe distance! - it's still not clear just how impressive the height is. There were a number of people on the coast path on top of the cliff but today we preferred beach walking.

The seagulls were wheeling around, the young ones learning how to land in the sea!

Maybe here you can see the tiny people at the foot of the cliff.

We got as far as the beach and holiday village at Burton Freshwater where the river Bride flows into the sea and thereby forms quite a large "delta" so we decided to turn back and retrace our steps. Now the Isle of Portland was clear to see....

Return route was just as breathtaking alongside those cliffs, we even found a fossil! Saved it for our palaeontologist Granddaughter!

And the sea was twinkling beatifully!

The paddleboarding looked fun, if a bit choppy on the breaking water.....maybe another day!

We sat on the harbour for a little while enjoying the views before having a bite to eat in a local hostelry when the clouds rolled in briefly in a little while with a quick shower or two, before we wended our way back to our lodging for the night. A lovely day!

 That was another 6 and a half miles in a completely new place so I hope you've enjoyed reading!