Sweet Swanage, England

June 2017.

I didn't know what chocolate-boxy means before I went to Swanage. Literally.

Swanage is a cutesy coastal town in the south-east of Dorset, England.  It’s the town that always played the platform for Enid Blyton’s stories; the town of the Famous Fives; the town of my childhood imagination. The town and its surrounding places draw a picture-postcard with its beautiful rugged coastline, mysterious caves, little playful coves, lush green rolling hills, a charming 11^th century ruined castle, vintage steam engines, relaxed beach shacks and so much more.

This was my first proper camping holiday. Rolling eyes? Yeah I know! A late start but better late than never? And oh how I loved it! From solving the puzzle of which pole goes in which side, which groundsheet fits in which part of the tent to anchoring down a tent peg for the first time, from learning what a ‘guy rope’ (funny eh?!) is to zipping up the inner tent, it was all fun. We had a very cute blue double burner gas stove and a matching blue cylinder which we parked outside our tent and made coffee and pasta and egg scrambles. It was almost like playing house in a green field with miniature play-stuff. Most amazing learning point – Food remains as cool as you can imagine if you put them under a car even in a very hot sunny weather!

Call us lucky, the weather was just amazing. Clear blue sky, sun high on its shiny rays, and it was screaming green all around. We did get a bit scorched in the end but whatever! The walk from our campsite to the main town centre was a brisk 20 minutes through shady trees and open green fields and pretty lanes adorned with cute oldie cottages and fragrant flowers.

Soaring high on energy, we set off on our foot, walking to the Swanage bay, then along the sea side, up on green hilly mound where we dozed off in peace. After a refreshing nap in the sun, we continued walking down the rugged hilly coast to a lighthouse. After we pottered around aimlessly for a bit, the hunt for food started. Our grocery shop for the trip was a mini supermarket on the road back to the campsite. This is where we got our provisions for field-cooked pasta and coffee and eggs. All yummy.

The next day, we did a long walk, about 30KM from the Swanage bay to a place called the Dancing ledge, all along the coast. The walk is beautiful. It’s green, rocky, hilly and bushy with the blue sea by the side. We walked up to the light house where we saw an exhibition of moths. As we continued our walk, we came to the Tilly whim Caves. (All the Enid Blyton fans must be aware of this!) There was a nice fishing spot on the side of it and we rested a bit there. Arriving at ‘Dancing ledge’, we discovered a real steep climb. Dancing ledge is again like a little cove, people been swimming and snorkelling. Very refreshing in its own do-your-thing or don’t-do-anything way. Saw some rock climbers on the side of it, thinking of my own rock climbing session back in Burgess hill which I haven’t been to for a while now.

The long walk to Dancing Ledge and back was exhilarating but not yet exhaustive enough to     pull us down. After a little refresher back in the campsite, we drove off in search of Ammonites and Ancient rocks. Kimmeridge Bay presented itself with a rich collection of ammonite fossils  and shale rocks. It’s just amazing how soft those  shale rocks are and how beautiful the fossils look like. Apparently, you can extract oil from these shale rocks, though it’s banned now in that Bay. Our next stop was the Lulworth Cove and this is where I learnt the word ‘chocolate-boxy’, both in the literal and visual sense of it. Our final stop was Durdle door, the much heard about place in the recent days. Undoubtedly, it is amazing. The arch of ancient Portland rocks and formation of the cove is, no surprise, a geological wonder. Interesting but less known fact – There is an isolated rock on the side of the coast near Durdle door called the ‘butter rock’. Ah this one is for my love of butter! 

We ended our long exciting day with a mouthful of fish and chips at a cosy beach shack and headed back for some field-sleep.

As our final day arrived, we sniffed around the vintage history of Corfe castle, the steam railways and a short boat trip to the Old Harry’s rocks, watching migratory birds and listening to the old folk story of pirate Harry after whom the rock has been named.

This place is just perfect. Its’ lazy, laid back air has so much energy and charm in it. Nature is in its full bloom. Walk along the rugged coast, climb those low hanging rocky walls, swim in the cove, maybe a bit of wind surfing or go snorkeling by the sea mosses and fishes, go diving from the old wrecks (yes there were old ship wrecks you can visit), grab those crabs by the harbour (many kids busy with their crab nets), do a bit of kite flying (an old couple let me fly their kites) or just doze off in the sun (the best warm nap I got). This is a place where you can do everything and you can do nothing!

P.S: I noticed I have used the word ‘amazing’ a tad too many times. Huh Vocabulary alert! J

Shoreham-by-the-Sea, England

February 2018.

When you slowly open your eyes after a good night’s sleep on a lazy Sunday morning and the bright sun shines on you through your bay window after weeks of dull and grey winter weather, you feel upbeat instantly. It’s just amazing how a bright sunny day can lift up your spirit and make you feel blissfully happy for no particular reason.

Today was such a day. So, I jumped up from the bed deciding not to waste such a rare sunny day idling at home. Destination: Shoreham.

Shoreham is a mere 20minutes drive from my place in Burgess Hill, where I live at the moment. It is cradled between the South Downs on the north and the Shoreham Beach on the English channel to the south and the river Adur flows to the sea with the Adur valley on its both sides. It has a very fresh vibe about it and most importantly my all time favourite French Patisserie is right there on the beach.

A quick breakfast with an almond croissant and a coffee in the Patisserie with the warm sun bathing us through the café window fills us with the right energy to stroll along the beach.

The patisserie is on the corner of a cross road from where there is a glass bridge that crosses the river and takes you to the beach. The harbour generally sees a lot of ships and boats docked there. You may find few rowing boats cruising through the river with the tide flowing in and out to the sea. The other side of the beach is lined up with small shops and cafes and few residential flats. The fish and chips shop stands out in my mind for some reason; probably the idea of fish and chips on the beach with a gentle sea breeze in my curly hair appeals to me inside. You will find lots of cyclists and dog walkers along the road. It all looks very charming and quaint. When you cross the river and go to the other side to the beach, you will find number of house boats lined up along the river. These house boats are quite old, one particular boat dating from the World War II period, another one having a wind charm made of a piano top lying abruptly on the side of its boat-garden. Strangely people do live in these boats; I imagine the lifestyle would be quite different from usual inside these boats and also it would be quite cold, I think. 

Walking all along the beach to the west from this point, you head towards the Worthing pier. A narrow pedestrian/ cycle path leads you to the pier. Few swans and ducks and cormorants stroll around this bit along with the pesky seagulls.  Green fields and small naturally formed pools of water along the path to the right and the beach to the left make it a pleasant walk. You will also find a band stand like a memorial for the Wars, few cafes, a beach side gym and so on.

Walking towards the Worthing pier, if you take a turn inland along the river, you will get to a huge olde wooden bridge, and then continuing further along the riverside would take you up on the South Downs. This is one of my favourite walk – along the river Adur, getting up on the downs to the little pig farms and back on the beach. Green rolling hills, blue sea, flowing river, unnamed churches, lazy little pigs in the farm, bushy shady trees along the river – it’s a crowd of every pleasant thing in a single walkway. I remember doing this walk on one scorching hot summer day. Beautiful as it was, I had to stop beneath the wooden bridge panting from the heat and drinking lots of water. My brown skin got a very dark tan along the shape of my t-shirt and the tan stayed for months after that.

If you walk along the beach to the east from the Shoreham Harbour point, you will get to the Shoreham fort, known as the Shoreham Redoubt. There is some wall remnants at the moment but originally it was a 19^th century fort designed to defend against the sea invasions by Napoleon III. If you walk few yards more, you will get to a fishing harbour. Many fishermen stood along the span of this concrete pier with their fishing lines in the water and lots of freshly caught fish in their buckets. My fish eating Bong blood likes the smell of it. Continuing on this way, there comes another café called the Carats Café – my favourite breakfast place in England J It is a cosy café right by the beach with a open-ish front glass exterior that lets you sit there, have your English cooked breakfast and admire the sea. They also keep few chairs outside to sit giving it a nice summery feel. I remember sitting in the beach in front of this café with my friend and aiming a pebble to knock another pebble in the distance and failing every single time for hours. Just by the side of this café, two huge wind turbines keep rotating their blades in a lazy leisurely way of their life.

Speaking of windmills, a new windfarm has been made operational around the end of the last year (2017) off the coast of Shoreham. It would supposedly generate 400MW of power which is equivalent to the electricity to power up 290K homes. On a clear sunny day like today, the wind turbines across the sea are clearly visible against the blue sky.

My friend and I did quite a bit of walking and with the breakfast in tummy burning out now, we headed back. On one sunny day in 2017, we had cycled along the whole stretch from Worthing pier in the west, crossing the Shoreham along the beach passing by the green patches, the little parks, the surfing bay and the yummy cafes right down to the Saltdean in the east. Saltdean - Another nice coastal place to pen down soon; Till then, Sayonara from the Sun in the Shoreham-by-the-Sea.