Weymouth to Lulworth Cove

Weymouth to Lulworth Cove - Sunday 23rd August 2015

Path Facts - Length: 11 miles, ascent 2513 ft

8am breakfast. Away by 8.50am into the drizzle. Today was forecast as rain. When we got to the sea front there was a large group of walkers/runners which, on enquiry, turned out to be the start of the Dorset Doddle, a 32 mile jaunt to Swanage from Weymouth with a cut off time of 12 hours.

Challenging! We discovered later that one of the UK's best fell runners was attempting to beat his
record of about 4hrs 45mins. He didn't. He finished in about 5 hours. Lightweight. I expect because the paths were so wet & muddy. Traction was difficult enough in places just walking.

There was also what looked like the latter stages of a triathlon running this morning. They must have started early as the running stage was completing as we got to Bowleaze. So, despite the crap weather there was a hive of activity going on on the route out of Weymouth.

One runner who sounded Dutch or German came past us just before Osmington Mills. She was sliding all over the place in road shoes on what was basically a mud slide.

Stopped at Osmington Mills for tea about 11am. Had a quick chat to one of the marshalls for the Dorset Doddle. There were a few people in the event behind us or about level with us who were already going to struggle to meet the cut off. Relatively unconcerned with times, we had a reasonably priced tea and biscuits today at £4 for two! Also a semi dry off.

A view of Portland in the rain.

There's only about another mile after Osmington Mills to Ringstead where there's the last obvious food stop before Lulworth Cove. So we stopped about 11.45am at the hut and had a rather early
veggie burger and chips. Not bad. We could even sit outside for a bit in a brief respite from the drizzle. Then there is also an undercover seating area which we used when the drizzle returned. We shared this with a few other holiday makers and a house martin who was nesting in the roof and shooting out for a quick fly about in the rain occasionally.

When we started up again about 12.15 the rain came down hard and we tried sheltering under various inadequate trees before using a rubbish bin store on the edge of a camp site. Not the most high class shelter but dry and better than the alternatives. I was seriously cooling off at this point. Felt like October, not August. Put some more layers on to feel just about ok.

The worst of the rain stopped so we set off again. By 1pm on the route up to White Nothe the rain stopped and sun came out for a glorious afternoon.

The views around Swyre Head and Durdle Door were great. Really clear now back to Portland and the onward path Eastwards.

Got to Lulworth Cove about 3pm. Very busy here and at Durdle Door. We thought the tourists would have been rained away but they must have all leapt in cars as soon as the weather changed.

A view of the coast path into Lulworth Cove that we just walked.

A bit of a chill down by the cove followed by and ice cream then awaited the X43 bus at 4.05pm. £5 each one way to Weymouth. These buses are not that frequent but worked out pretty well with our itinerary. They do run on Sundays which wasn't that clear from the info on the web. Thanks to Dorchester Tourist Info for the local knowledge. Back at Weymouth 4.40pm.


Info

Accommodation - Greenwood Guest House

Location ***

Room ***

Facilities ***

Noise ** the nearby road was busier than expected and with warm nights the windows needed to be open.

Food ****

Ambience ***

Price **** £66 for the room