This is the view from the car park at Lulworth Cove. We would be climbing this hill and taking a walk along the coast. The hill does not look very big from here. However, we had made the mistake of eating a warming lunch of sausages and mash (mashed potato) in a local pub before we attempted this walk. Big mistake!

By the time we reached this point I was already beginning to regret eating a large lunch. Even now when I look at these photos I can remember how I felt! 

This is the view down the hill towards the village of Lulworth. The cove is a perfect oval and a welcome shelter for ships when the seas become rough. 

This path here is a section of the South West Coast path. This path covers 630 miles in total from Poole in Dorset right around the coast of the West Country (Dorset, Devon, Cornwall and Somerset)  finishing in Minehead in Somerset. Many people walk sections of this walk, or even the whole path over a period of time.

The following website has details of the path-

http://www.southwestcoastpath.com 

Many of the old paths that have now been joined together to form this coastal walk were originally created by Customs officers in past centuries walking these cliffs (often at night) whilst trying to catch smugglers bringing in goods from France and further a field. There are many tales of smuggling along this coast and all sorts of goods were secretly landed ashore to avoid Customs Duty.

This website has some interesting information about smuggling along this coast. 

http://www.smuggling.co.uk/gazetteer_s_14.html

This is the famous Durdle Door. The hole in the centre of the arch has been worn away by the action of the sea. Eventually the top of the arch will collapse and a stack will be formed. There is another arch nearby (called Stair Hole) which is  just starting to form an arch like this. 

Further along the coast there is an example of the sort of stack that is gradually being eroded and will eventually fall into the sea and disappear completely.

This rock formation is known as Old Harry Rocks. The larger stack is known as Old Harry and the smaller one is Old Harry's wife!

After walking back to the car park in Lulworth we continued our tour by paying a visit to the deserted village of Tyneham. Photos of Tyneham can be found in the next article in this series.