Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove

We set out for Durdle Door and it was my turn to take a stab at driving. Miraculously, we managed to make it unscathed with no accidents, scratches or dings. I thought the hardest part was remembering to look right when entering the many roundabouts. I still need to figure out what to do to effectively look behind the car when backing up (I usually twist the top half of my body around and rest my right arm behind the passenger headrest but it just isn't natural to do the opposite when seated on the other side.) Chris said he thought I was awfully close on the left side so I may need to hug the dotted line more. These roads are so dang narrow in some of these small towns, I just cringe as cars pass by on the other side. :)

After venturing to get change for the car park there, we hiked on this little trail down to Durdle Door--this naturally formed eroded archway in the rocks.  Durdle Door is also part of the Jurassic Coast (England's first World Heritage Site). Starting in Exmouth in East Devon and ending in Swanage in Dorset, it encompasses 185 million years of geological history in 95 miles. There is a trail that goes the whole way if you wish to hike/camp it. Rocks differ in color according to the time periods represented and you can dig for fossils! The beach is made up of little reddish brown polished pebbles and then slightly larger gray rocks closer to the water. It's beautiful! Hailey insisted on walking up the steps by herself.

Everyone ganged up on me and piled rocks on me (the photo below was just the beginning). Ethan found a lot of "favorite rocks" that he loaded into the milk tote and made it weigh a ton (we'll have to cull them later and lower it to a few favorites). 

We met this nice Canadian guy (that has been living with his German wife and kids in Poole for 10yrs.) that took our family pic at the arch. He was telling us how amazing Studland Beach is (a guy at the Corfe Castle Visitors Center was telling me about it the other day as well). Anyways, he was saying that you can take a ferry from the Poole Quay AND you can take a ferry to France from the Poole Quay as well. Nice!

Next we drove to nearby Lulworth Cove. To get there you walk to the cute little town of Lulworth with thatched roofs etc.:

Such a gorgeous sunny day today. We had stripped off our coats and hats by now. Then got seated outside at a cafe. I got the Sunday pork roast (I knew that it was tradition to have a big roast dinner but I thought it was just beef- I was excited to see the pork version on offer as well.) Aside from the meat being on the dry side (like everywhere here), it was good-lots of great vegetables and sides. Loved the bread thing with gravy on it on the top.

Hailey, the green machine, downed all of Chris' peas and all of my broccoli. Well ok, if you must. Chris got Fish and Chips and some British soup that had broccoli in it. Then we headed home and tried to keep Hailey from falling asleep in the car (she came close but we made it).