Cycling the Purbeck Isle

Cath and Tim had taken the day off to lead us on a ride around the Purbeck Isle, a peninsular in Dorset that is bounded by water on three sides.  We took the scenic route past the Chine of Poole, a word peculiar to Dorset and meaning ‘a deep, narrow ravine cut through soft rocks by a water course descending steeply to the sea’ to emerge at Sandbanks Beach.  We stopped to admire some of the giant whale tail sculptures newly installed as part of the Great Tail Trail. Each of the sculptures is sponsored by a local business and designed by local artists.  They will later for auctioned to raise funds for the Dorset children’s hospice charity, Julia’s house.

We were just in time to cycle straight onto the Sandbanks ferry which runs every 20 minutes to Studland on the Isle of Purbeck.  First stop was Salt Pig café which did a very nice coffee and free little pastries before 10am.  Tim convinced the server to include the pastries even we had missed the deadline.  We enjoyed the views in a sheltered spot out of the wind.  

The riding was easy along fairly smooth tracks to Old Harry’s Rocks, which consists of  three chalk formations at Handfast Point, with views to nearby sheer chalk cliffs. We followed the grassy trail up the steep hill for a welcome rest with views across to Swanage. After a little more hill climbing, we tackled a steep downhill past an obelisk to pick up a roller coaster road to Corfe Castle. 

We ate a lunch of potato and leek soup in a little café and took a quick look at the castle before making our way out past the stone cottages and followed more backroads and pathways with the castle visible across the gorse.  We reached a locked gate but Cath knew that the road could be accessed from the other side, so climbed the gate and found the sensor to open the gate and allow us to pass through. 

We passed the Wytch Farm oil field and processing facility located in a coniferous forest on Wytch Heath, which is the largest onshore field in Western Europe.  A few more trails and we were back on the main road.  

We stopped at the Shell Bay restaurant for a beer overlooking the harbour with views to Brownsea Island, home to the scout movement, as the first ever scout camp was held on the Island. We were quickly onto the ferry but had a long wait as a container ship made its way through the channel.

As we approached Rocksalt for dinner, we noticed a new tail had been installed.  Whilst I was taking a photo, a man came down and was very excited to tell me that the Tails had only just been installed and it was a great initiative to raise money for Julia’s House as a friend of his family worked there.  Dinner at Rocksalt was lovely, with its views over the beach.