Corfe Castle

Nostalgia in buckets loads! John and I first came to this area when we were in our twenties. We came here year after year, always to the same campsite in Langton Matravers, but it doesn’t take motorhomes. It was 10 years ago the last time we came to this part of the world. The issue with coming this time is it has reawakened my totally unrealistic dream of moving down here. A 1 bedroom house in Langton Matravers costs almost as much as the 4 bedroom house we currently live in.

It’s the area around Swanage I like. Swanage is a small town, it has nothing really, not a good place to buy your mops but somehow has a lot of charm. Studland must be the nicest beach in the UK, long golden sands, backed by sand dunes with the white cliffs of Old Harry in the distance. Cliff walks abound here, a stroll to the top of Old Harry is always pleasant, or you can take on the challenge of the coastal path, to St Aldhelms head, down to Chapmans pool and back up. This will challenge even the fittest of people and you can make it as long as short as you like. Take in Dancing Ledge, climb down to swim in the old school pool fed by sea water and watch the climbers while listening to the sea beat the rocks. The geology changes with each cove. It is hard to not be enthralled by the curved layers of rock folds at Stair Hole. But lets move from the sea, you can have sand marshes and watch the wading birds in Poole Harbour, you can walk the commons of grazed grass, or on the hills. You can brave the breezes on the downs for stunning views of harbour. In the woods behind the campsite I have seen more deer than ever before. If you’re not into nature then try history at Corfe Castle, or a ride on the steam train. If you like towns, take the link ferry to Poole or Bournemouth. It’s a holiday place so you can find tank museum, farms, zoo and old houses if those take your fancy. With the kids we used to love the summer fireworks, carnival and spiderman band (Bournemouth carnival band), but these have been cancelled this year. Due to Covid we have mainly stayed with walking and cycling but that suits me.

The campsite we stopped at was 20 mins walk from Corfe Castle, acceptable campsite apart from the price tag. This one did have it’s toilets open, but not it’s showers. We never went in the toilet block so I don’t know what they were like.