Sunday: 4th June: Weather: 9°C to 21°C: Cool Morning, a bit hazy, warm afternoon, no rain
Lulworth Cove to Kingston: 21.0k walk: 8hrs: 8.45am to 4.45pm: 2 x 30m stops, 1 x 1hr fluffing: Ascent: 780 m
Accommodation: The Scott Arms Hotel, Kingston
ELooking back over West Lulworth
High up on Bindon Hill
Views from Bindon Hill
Views to downs from Bindon Hill
Ukrainian Soldiers baracks Lulworth
Steep hills on Lulworth Ranges
Views from Lulworth Ranges
Steep climb from Worbarrow Beach
Coffee at Worbarrow Beach
Stunning coast line to the east
Lulworth Ranges and military
Kimmeridge Beach for lunch
Hardy’s Way Ridge walk Kimmeridge
Afternoon tea at Swyre Head
Views from Swyre Head
Highlights of day 22. Well where do I start. Just a stunning day of walking the coastal path over Bindon Hill through the Lulworth Ranges, the military training grounds for Ukranian soldiers, but open to the public on weekends. Lucky us to be there on a Sunday! Then a magnificent 200 m high ridge walk from Kimmeridge to Kingston via Hardy’s Way and Swyre Head to the Scott Arms Hotel with a magnificent beer garden overlooking Corfe Castle.
We’re awake at 5.30am and use the jetboil in the garden outside to make a cup of tea. There’s no jug in the room but that’s no problem for us. In Oz time, it’s Sunday afternoon and time to chat to the kids and grandkids. Then a shower and we’re packed and about to go to breakfast when Hester knocks on the door with her grab n go breakfast bag - yoghurt, hot croissants and jam, an apple, fruit juice plus a cup of tea in a mug. The Air BnB room is only let on a Friday and Saturday night, and check in isn’t til 5pm so the quickie breakfast tells us she likes her privacy as she’s a teacher, and we respect that.
We leave at 8.45am and turn left at the end of Bindon Road to immediately start walking up Bindon Hill, which is home to the Lulworth Military, and has been for hundreds of years. Most walkers don’t get to see this unspolt landscape but we are lucky enough to be there on a Sunday, along with hundreds of other day walkers taking advantage of the open Lulworth Ranges walks. It was one of these walkers who alerted us to the use of the Lulworth Military barracks to train the Ukrainians. In February this year, the Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky made a surprise visit to Dorset when he met with Ukrainian troops being trained at Lulworth. The British Prime Minster Rishi Sunak accompanied him when they checked how British soldiers were assisting Ukrainian troops.
For about six kilometres, we enjoy the high views from this military area, with signs at every turn not to stray from the designated track marked with yellow posts. After walking up and down steep hills for two and a half hours, we stop at 11.15am for coffee at Worbarrow beach, a beautiful little cove surrounded by high white cliffs. Then up and down another steep hill called Gad Cliff and a gentle descent to Kimmeridge Beach, which is not a beach but a rocky platform. There’s road access, so there’s many cars parked on the waterfront and a busy Visitor’s centre. Yesterday, the place was crawling with a film crew from Jason Stratham’s latest movie being filmed there.
We’ve had such a fantastic morning through the Lulworth Ranges, and we hoped it would continue once we passed out through the gates. We follow the Coastal Path sign to Chapman’s Pool, 4 miles further on, where we need to turn off to go to Kingston. But the path is narrow, very overgrown, and there’s signs everywhere to stay away from the crumbling cliff edges. Well that would be good advice if we could see the cliff edges, which we can’t for the thick bushy undergrowth. After hacking our way for a few hundred metres, we turn back, and ask for advice at the Marine Visitors centre, and we’re told it’s mostly the rape seed plant grown on the farms that has spread and gone wild in some areas of the path which hasn’t been cleared yet. She suggested Hardy’s Way along the ridge. Go up to the village of Kimmeridge, follow the path behind the church, turn right on to the bridle track known as Hardy’s Way, go to Swyre’s Head, then take the track down to Kingston. So we did. But we’d already fluffed around for an hour at Kimmeridge Beach, so for a quickie lunch, we each had a quick orange juice and half a croissant rescued from breakfast, before heading off to the pretty Kimmeridge village one mile inland.
Hardy’s Way was amazing, and even better than the coastal path that we had intended to walk. It is a 220 mile long distance walking route starting in Dorchester, near the writer Thomas Hardy’s birth place. We were much higher than the coastal path and had 360° views all the way to Bournemouth where we’ll be finishing in two days time. There’s a group of school kids carrying back packs and camping gear - about 20 of them - probably doing a Duke of Edinburgh course we decided. It was certainly a popular path, probably because it was such a beautiful Sunday afternoon.
At Swyre’s head, we sit down at 3.30pm for a cup of tea. There’s still three kilometres to go to Kingston. We meet two men, an elderley man and his son, and start chatting to them. The father was a doctor who was struck off the Medical Register during Margaret Thatcher’s clampdown on doctors who treated drug addicts, proclaiming they were assisting criminals. He was very bitter about that.
The final stroll down to Kingston is through a wooded area, and soon we’re at the Scott Arms, the only hotel in the very small village of Kingston. We’re taken up to our room, the biggest and best we’re told and it certainly is, with a separate lounge and dining room. The only problem is we haven’t see an shop all day, and there’s no village shop in Kingston.
We do some washing, shower in cold water as they seem to have run out of hot water, then down to the amazing beer garden with views across to the 1,000 year old Corfe Castle, now in ruins. I have a half pint of Guinness and Ian a pint of Red Stripe, and it just happens that tonight is Bar BQ Jerk night - Pork, chicken, mutton, any dish you like done on the BarBQ in a spicy sauce. Ian chooses the Jerk Chicken, and I have a bowl of chips, deciding I’d sample his chicken, as I’m not a fan of hot spicy food. When the food arrives, there’s more than enough for the two of us. Another beer each goes down well. Back to our room and bed at 10pm after a wonderful day’s hiking.
Corfe Castle from Scott Arms Hotel