Dorset coast path to Durdel Door and beyond | - Click on the image above to view gallery
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 Swyre Head
The steep but very wide path out of Lulworth Cove is an indication of just how popular this place is at any time of the year and as soon as you gain some height the views open up and you want to keep going to see what else you will see. Our first view along the cliff path we would follow during the day was just breathtaking, but first we had the delights of Man of War Bay and Durdle Door to enjoy and we went down the steep steps onto both beaches. While on the beach at Man of War Bay looking at the rocks in the foreground I decided this was the place I wanted to try to get to at sunrise as long as I could get myself up the following morning. It seemed a perfect location even though I wasn’t quite sure where the sun actually rose.
Having spent some time looking at the arch of Portland Stone that makes Durdle Door what it is and wondering just how long it would be before erosion turns the arch into a stack we decided that we’d walk along the beach too. It’s a pebbly beach but one that wasn’t hard to walk along at all. We walked along to get a closer look at a stack rising out of the sea, which on a stunning blue-sky day was the most gorgeous turquoise colour. There was a fairly cool breeze coming off the sea but the sun was warm and the weather had certainly brought plenty of other people out to enjoy the day to
 Chalk boulders on the beach  Chalk stack
Before we carried on along the cliff top path we noticed an Adder sunning itself. Because I had on my polarising filter my shutter speed wasn’t fast enough to get a very sharp picture of him as he quickly slithered away to hide in the long grass with the arch of Durdle Door directly behind him. I doubt I’ll ever see an Adder in such a spectacular place again. After that bit of excitement we had the prospect of climbing up the steepest section of the coast path to the top of Swyre Head. There were plenty of reasons to keep stopping and taking in the view, however, and just as we expected the further you got from the car parks the fewer people we saw.
We carried on walking a series of ups and downs enjoying the different views along the coastline as far as a beacon on the cliff top we had seen for a lot of the walk. We could find no reason for it as there wasn’t anything on it to tell us what it was for but it seemed as good a place as any to stop for lunch and have a rest lying in the long grass enjoying the beautiful sunshine. We then decided that we would return towards the village of West Lulworth using the inland path thus avoiding not all but some of the steep ups and downs. I did however want to take a look at Durdle Door once more with the sun a in a different position to see what it looked like, so to do this we walked down the delightful valley of Scratchy Bottom to get back to the coast.
 West Lulworth  Lulworth Cove Just as expected it was incredibly busy and hordes of people had been tempted out by the beautiful day and who could blame them. By walking into the village though we saw very few people and enjoyed looking at the delightful thatched cottages. We then went back to our hotel which was just a short walk from the beach at Lulworth Cove. I have to say that I was a bit disappointed by the actual beach at the cove and I tried to work out why. I think in the end I decided it was because you see so many stunning aerial pictures of it that when you actually get to the beach itself it doesn’t look anything like so impressive.
 Stair Hole
I had a play with all kinds of camera settings and some of the pictures I was really pleased with, but others were disappointing as I just couldn’t seem to get the exposure right (not helped by the fact that the sun was fast disappearing). So when I was processing some of my pictures I thought it might be fun to have a go at using a program that combines several images taken at different exposure settings called Photomatix. I’ve seen some really stunning examples of these High Dynamic Range (HDR) images but also many that are far too over processed which never appeals to me. As this was my first go at using the Photomatix programme however I feel quite pleased with my efforts and will certainly be trying it again.  Before HDR processing  After HDR processing It really had been a stunning day, and in the end we walked almost 10 miles with every step a delight in an area all new to us. I went to bed hoping I’d hear the alarm and feel like getting up for some sunrise pictures
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