My business trip to the UK started with a resolution that I would plan a leisure trip every alternate weekend. So this weekend was up for a trip. Since the weather on saturday wasn't good, I was only left with a day trip for sunday. We planned to go to Durdle Door and Bournemouth in the Southern part of England, with Angel Tours. Angel tours organised trip all over the UK for groups.
The day started early, i.e 6:45 AM when we were picked up from the East Ham station on a coach which was headed to Wembley, where we had to change the coach and board the one for for our destination.
We started our journey from Wembley towards the Durdle Door, which was a 200 KM drive that would have taken us 2:30 hours. We started around 7:30 from Wembley. The coach was a comfortable one, which did not let us feel the time and spent most of it sleeping. We though stopped at services for breakfast near Fleet.
We managed to reach Durdle Door around 11:45. The place was very windy and involved a lot of walking. The first walk was the Woodland walk. It was a small walk from the coach drop off point to the car park, which was also the main entrance of Durdle Door. This was through the dense trees and a narrow path. The greenery developed on the tree bark gave a beautiful texture and beauty. Soon after crossing through the woodland walk we came to a wide open field . On one side of the field was the car park and on the other, were the caravan style hard tent rooms of the resort.
Once we crossed this car park, there were two paths, one went to the Lulworth Cove, which was at a walk of almost 1.5 miles towards the left (which was another beautiful place, but since we were lacking time, we could not go there). We headed towards the Durdle door. The path to the door was a pebbly and slippery path, with very steep descend and included stairs to reach the beach.
Once on the beach, it was a pebble beach that faced the Durdle Door on one side and Bat's head on the other. The wind, the water gushing towards the shore, produces a beautiful scenery. The sound was too mesmerizing. I did go into the water for a little time. The water was chilled but the waves passing through your feet gave the much needed relaxation.
We spent almost more than an hour on the beach, enjoying in a picnic style where each one of us brought their own cooked food. This was a nice time spent.
Around 14:00, we started back towards the coach point so we could be back in the coach by 14:30. The descend was not a problem but the ascend, first on the stairs and then on the path was quite tough. The beach adjoining the Durdle door beach was the Man o' war which was another one to relax. But because we were running short of time, we could only go to one beach.
Because of the wind, I started to feel a headache while walking up the hill. Almost by 14:40, we reached at the coach pickup point, just on time. Around 14:45 the coach headed towards its next place which was the Bournemouth beach. Unlike the Durdle door beach, the Bournemouth beach was s sandy beach and since it was near the city center, we could feel the rush of tourists there.
It took us almost an hour to reach Bournemouth beach from the Durdle door.
As we entered the beach at the Bournemouth, we could easily realize the difference. People everywhere on the beach, at the cafes around the side etc. We even saw a big South Indian group actually cooking and enjoying the food at one side. As we entered, we saw a truck of Royal Air Force, with a simulator on board. They were charging 5£ per head and giving you a ride in the simulator which was simulating a ride in the RAF jets. We chose to go for that. Though it was a 5 min ride, it was well worth the 5£. The simulation was on the acrobat RAF jets taking multiple leaps, turns, jets turning 180° degrees etc, it was real fun inside the simulator. Post this, we headed towards the Pier on the beach.
This was probably the first pier I visited where the entry was paid i.e. 1.30 £ per head and only in cash. Luckily one of us had some cash, because of which we managed to go ahead on the pier. The pier was all about adventure sports. We could see one zip liner at the extreme end of the pier that was connected to one side of the beach. The rest of the activities were kinda indoor and since we were not much interested, we did not go inside. We spent around half an hour on the pier enjoying the breeze, post which we headed towards the beach side where we found a KFC for some evening snacks.
Post this around 18:00 the coach started the journey back to London. Almost after 4 hours, around 22:00 we reached Ilford where the bus dropped us. And this was without any halts and crossing the traffic in London.
Once we were dropped in Ilford, this meant an end of our fun filled day. We reached our home had some tea, which helped us relax and were straight off towards the bed.
Note: The learning from this journey was to not combine Durdle door with Bournemouth and to keep them separate. A day trip for Durdle door and Lulworth cove should be planned giving ample time to each enjoy each destination.