Mrs M. has previously visited Swanage and fancied a return; unfortunately her preferred hotel, The Pines, is extremely expensive on these dates so we book a couple of nights at the highly rated Castleton Hotel instead.
Day1, 22nd September.
We leave at 7am in Ziggy the Z4 in an attempt to avoid the queues leaving the M40 to join the A34; we are reasonably successful and stop for a McBreakfast at Sutton Scotney before driving on to our first planned stop, Durdle Door. The weather is amazing and so are the car park charges, the board says £15 for up to 6 hours although when we leave a couple of hours later we are (only) charged £7. We take quite a few images of Durdle Door and Man ‘O War Bay (the header image), the glorious sunshine enhances the images and reminds me of my folly in not packing shorts, fortunately for Mrs. M she has zip-off leg walking trousers, I have to make do with rolling my trousers up (this is ok when you’re an old feck). We debate walking down to the beach with a fellow photographer who mentions that there’s no chance of getting the “classic” view of the sun rising through the door at this time of day; he is slightly shocked when I show him that exact image taken by me a mere 19 years earlier! Discretion is the better part of valour and we give the beach a miss, it’s enough of a slog just getting back to the car.
We move on to Swanage and park outside the hotel in one of the three on-site parking slots. Although it’s only lunchtime mine host Kate is happy to book us in so we complete the formalities and walk along the promenade into the town centre which is about 15 minutes away. We frequent a couple of hostelries and then walk onto the pier, entry is £2.30 each. The weather is glorious and the sea is crystal clear. I take some images of the pier and the remains of the original pier before we take refreshment in the 1859 cafe (named, I believe, after the date of construction of the original pier). We return to The Ship Inn for dinner before getting some essential suppliers and retuning to the hotel to pre-order our breakfast and turn in for the night.
Day 2, 23rd September.
An excellent breakfast in a quiet restaurant, only 3 rooms are occupied. Unusually we have a plan; we’re catching steam train to Corfe Castle. We arrive in good time for the 10:20 train but it left at 10:00, I’ve consulted the wrong timetable! We get our tickets and walk into town to kill time before the next train; tickets are not cheap, £60 for the two of us and no cash back on the Chase Card! We alight at Corfe and walk up to the castle, I’d planned ahead and brought our National Trust membership cards. Returning from the castle we have a quick one in The Greyhound, the self-proclaimed “most photographed pub in England” on account of Corfe Castle being directly behind it. Before catching the train back to Swanage I took some images from the pedestrian bridge of the train arriving at Corfe, not ideal as it effectively reverses into the station. Arriving at Swanage we visit the pier again, the weather is not as brilliant as the previous day and the sea is nothing like as calm. Mrs. M decides to return to The Ship for dinner although we have to wait for 40 minutes before food service begins. A reasonable dinner and we return to the hotel. I venture out at about 7:30 to see if there is a sunset, there probably is but it can’t be seen from where I am but I do get an image of a lone rod fisherman on the beach.
Day 3, 24th September.
Another excellent breakfast, much busier today. We check out and drive into town, park up and walk to the fishmonger where Mrs. M had previously established that fresh scallops would be on sale; £11 for 6. I’ve packed the electric cool bag so they’ll be fresh when they get back to Cropredy. The weather is still good and the top is down whenever the volume of traffic permits. An excellent couple of days benefitting hugely from an “Indian Summer” and an excellent hotel. There are some images in The Dorset Gallery.



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