Travelled : 141 Kilometres from Lymington to Portland, Dorset.
Visited : Wareham Village, Corfe Castle (£19.80 entry + £2 parking) and Village, Lulworth Cove (£4 parking) and the Jurassic Coast
Stayed : Portland Harbour, £5.50 overnight, no services. N50.581361, W02.469465
Very windy overnight again, the Hymer gentle rocked away but we enjoyed a good nights sleep anyway. We overnighted in Sconce Point carpark a short distance from the Yarmouth Ferry Terminal with a couple of other motorhomes. It was a great spot, very quiet apart from a bell on a buoy about 200 metres off shore which rang from time to time and a nice clean set of to toilets nearby were very convenient.
We are booked on the ferry at 7.50 am, it leaves promptly and has free wifi. We say our farewell to the IOW, 25 minutes later we drive off into Lymington. Our next challenge is negotiating Bournemouth and Poole as we head west into Dorset. Roundabouts and bypasses take up much of the next hour, the traffics moving well enough and we are not in a hurry. We stop off at the village of Wareham. Most people visit this ancient Saxon village to walk the earthen walls built to protect it, but we stopped off for a loaf of bread. The lady at the bread shop told us about the walls and we went off to explore.
From Wareham we turn south into an area known as the Ilse of Purbeck. Another 30 minutes later we can see the ruins of Corfe Castle, already on a substantial hill it dominates the skyline. We luckily find a spot in the carpark and get stung with another parking fee. Cannot get over how many cars are parked here.
The weather is changing every 15 minutes today, when the sun brakes through it gets warm very quickly. Then just as quickly it clouds over and the wind chills very quickly.
We backtrack north-west before again turning south across the Purbeck Hills towards the coast. This area is apparently an artillery and tank training ground, coincidentally we hear some very loud explosions at odd intervals. We arrive at Lulworth Cove to be greeted by another even bigger carpark, yes ‘park and pay’ again. This area is known as Dorset’s Jurassic Coast.
It’s getting late and we cannot stay here. So we turn the Hymer west. There are some wild camping spots around Portland Harbour south of Weymouth. It takes about an hour but that’s another story for another day. Safely parked up on the harbour front with a few other motorhomes its Rose and Heineken watching the kite surfers race across the water.
Michael and Pam
