Luminous Objectives
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Not spring yet. The sunday walk was quite bare.

Some pretty chickens added colour, though:

South England Beach Reviews 7: Chapman's Pool - the wrong side

Studland Bay lends itself to an immensely civilised Sunday stroll, but the Isle of Purbeck (‘Purbeck’ being a handy saxon term for ‘beak-shaped ridge which is home to bittern or snipe’) has much, much more to offer. If you drive just a little further than Swanage Bay, you can have all sorts of adventures. Turning off the A351 just beyond Swanage, for example, you can follow signs to Worth Matravers and then make your way down to the famous Jurassic Coast. Worth Matravers has a well-advertised car park, but if you are short of time and want to get to the sea, you’d better drive straight on, even though your road is now advertised as a dead end. Passing a farm, you eventually get to a fork in the road where there is another farm to your right and signs to a car park on the left. That car park is where you want to go. Getting out here, you can either walk up on the cliffs to St Aldhelm’s Head , or you can descend to Chapman’s pool which is a little bay cut quite deeply into the Kimmeridge clay.
Chapman’s Pool is a bit like Lulworth Cove, only much less busy. The reason for that is perhaps, that getting there is not for the weak and feeble. You start walking across fields, climb over a stile and then, suddenly, the ground seems to drop right in front of you.

That makes for a spectacular view, and for a good workout.
The slope down to the beach IS steep.

Halfway down the hill you can choose between a convenient path which leads you to the southern end of the bay in broad serpentines, or several eroded sheep trails which take you straight down the steepest slope to the middle of the bay. As I was allowed to choose which path to take, we slithered down one of the sheep trails. We also heard much grumbling from the husband whilst doing so. The ground has a high proportion of clay, and I wouldn’t recommend taking the quick way after a good night’s rain. Or else you’re downhill far quicker than anticipated.

We arrived just where a small stream cuts the bay in two. Having come from Studland Bay, where each forgotten napkin gets cleaned up diligently by the good wardens of the National Trust, we were in for a nasty reality check. The pebbly beach of Chapman’s Pool was full of plastic rubbish.
It was also full of rotting algae.
And it was like a living museum.
Wherever we looked there were broken ammonites mixed in with the weed and the plastic. At first we picked up whatever fossil we saw, but the ammonites and rocks were so fragile that they just crumbled away under our hands. We started heading northwards to the end of the bay, hoping to find slightly more stable fossils elsewhere, but the hydrogen sulphide stench emanating from the stranded seaweed forced us soon to retreat. I hadn’t realised that the UK side of the channel has a seaweed problem, too. We decided to try the southern end where we could see some brave souls bathing. The air was better here.

Chapman’s Pool is not a beach-life beach - no surfing nor water sports, nor did we see any fishing. Just two swimmers. When the tide is high, the water comes close to the cliff, leaving little beach.

We carried on walking south-east past some romantic-looking boathouses and on over big pebbles towards St Aldhelm’s Head.
I don’t know if the place has been conceived for giants, but the further we walked the bigger the pebbles got, and in the end we were hopping over deep gaps from one stone to the next. The beach and high cliffs seemed to go on for miles like this without any redeeming feature in sight - and the ammonites had long disappeared - and so we decided that we had seen enough, that our mode of transport was cumbersome and that it was altogether time to head to Swanage for some fish and chips. It took a while to hop back. At the boathouses we therefore took the easy serpentines up the hill and then ascended via some steep steps back to the top of the cliff. Here we stood for a short while to catch our breath and gawp at the romantic sight of some small fishing boats arriving in the bay. The sunset was stunning.

We thought that maybe Chapman’s Pool was nicer from uphill. The future should prove us wrong…but we didn’t know that yet.
In Swanage, we parked on the A351 (Victoria Avenue) as close to the beach as we dared. We walked down Shore Road towards the centre of town until we found a Fish and Chips Place (a full 200 yards). The place had a busy restaurant attached to it, and plenty of customers, so we decided to try it.

Sadly, the fish (whilst fresh) was a trifle bland and the oil just on the brink of being too old. Had the fish been left to drip off for a minute or more all might have been fine - but as it was, it was just too oily. The scenery, however, was perfect. The stone wall separating the sandy town beach from the road is great to sit on. It was a balmy evening, the sea was gently lapping onto the shore and the city lights of Swanage were very prettily reflected in the still water. People were ambling past on their evening walk and more than one doggy friend stopped by to see if they could get a share of our dinner. The atmosphere was friendly and peaceful, and I think I would come again on a warm night just out of season, old oil or not.

Facilities: The car park in Worth Matravers has public toilets, which I tried to use on the way back. When I touched the door handle of the womens toilet somebody suddenly seemed to hold on to it from the other side, all very quietly. The cubicle was dark - and it was dark outside - and so I felt creeped out and decided that, really, I didn’t need to pee.

Parking: The car park in the village costs a trifle, the car park closer to Chapman’s Pool is free. There are no toilets there, though. Parking in Swanage on an evening out of season is ample and free. Between April and September you have to pay and display.

South England beach reviews 6 - Knoll Beach to South Beach

Having stopped at Studland Bay for just an incidental stroll whilst on the way to elsewhere, we decided to return to the bay some weekends later to explore it’s second half. Before going back to the beach, we wanted to walk to Little Sea, a freshwater lake that got cut off from the sea when the current dune system developed. You can get there over the dunes from Knoll beach, or you can park halfway up Ferry Rd and walk over the beautiful heathland. The heath is a site of special scientific interest, and is not only populated by dragon flies, but also by all six native reptile species - including the three native snakes. Yes, three…and I’m not counting slow worms. If you, like me, have only heard of adders and grass snakes: apparently there are also ‘smooth snakes’ in the uk.
Little Sea is amazingly deserted and peaceful, at least on an autumn day. It is also dreamily beautiful. Standing at the shore we felt we had discovered an enchanted place. It’s not surprising that local lore tries to sell us Little Sea as the lake into which Sir Bedivere threw Excalibur. Geologists have revealed, though, that the Little Sea didn’t exist at Arthur’s time, so save your swimsuit for the beach. If you’re a birder, however, you might want to look at the great bird hide the National Trust has set up here just for you. We didn’t see anybody apart from some cootes.

Back at the sea, Knoll beach turns quietly into Middle beach. The only thing that changes apart from the name is the hinterland. The dunes disappear and are replaced by beach huts discreetly tucked away behind some birches.

Further south, a little reddish cliff rises and culminates in Redend Point, a tide cut off. The red and yellow sandstone that forms the base of the cliff is very pretty to look at, and the pipe clay formation above it holds plant fossils from the Eocene. The clay also makes the ground very slippery…
If the tide is low you can slip walk around Redend Point, and so get to the cosy and unpretentious world of South Beach. If that way is blocked, you have to follow the path leading up from Middle Beach Cafe.

South Beach - very different from the other beaches - is a small bay enclosed by low cliffs with trees. There is a barbecue area next to the red cliff, some more beach huts and most importantly Joe’s Cafe where you can not only get tea and biscuits but can also hire deck chairs and sand toys.
I immediately fell for South Beach’s peaceful hippie atmosphere. Here, you can easily spend a whole day dreaming away in your deck chair with a book, or building the most amazing sand castle ever with your borrowed equipment.
Or you can spend some time collecting cockles for dinner at the southern end of the bay.

Facilities: no shortage thereof. National Trust cafes and clean toilets can be found at the Knoll Beach car park and near Redend Point. The Knoll Beach cafe sells very nice Purbeck ice cream. There is also a visitor centre here where you can learn about wildlife and geology of Studland Bay.
The South Beach toilets are apparently situated on the path back to Studland village. I didn’t see them. Joe’s Cafe sells refreshments and hires out deckchairs and toys. If you like bringing your own sausages, you can use the barbecue area.

Parking: there are car parks at Knoll Beach (follow signs off Ferry Rd) and in Studland. We didn’t explore the Studland car parks, but the one at Knoll Beach is spacious and costs £3 out of season (2011) for the whole day.