Jurassic Coast Trip 23 - 27 July 2015 (photos video)

Thu 23 July

En-route to Dorset, we met by the Ship Inn by Langstone bridge, to paddle around Hayling Island.

It was a bright, sunny day with light winds, making for a very pleasant paddle. We encountered a large group of seals basking on the west shoreline of Thorney Island, with a few curious individuals in the water doing a spot of kayak watching.

Once back to the carpark, we continued on to the Redcliffe Farm campsite near Wareham, where we stayed for the long weekend.

Fri 24 July

The campsite has its own slipway into the River Frome, which leads into the top end of Poole Harbour. Unfortunately, the weather had changed overnight, and was wet and windy. The rain was light and patchy, and the wind sometimes helped, and sometimes hindered our circumnavigation of Brownsea Island.

One feature of the trip was the large number of big jellyfish washed up along the shoreline. They get sucked into Poole Harbour on the flood tides and then get stuck.

We stopped for coffee on Brownsea Island and were rewarded with close-up views of one of the resident Red Squirrels, who seemed unconcerned by the strangely dressed group on the beach.

Sat 25 July

The original plan had been to paddle from Studland to Swanage and back, via Old Harry rocks, but there was a stiff NW wind blowing, so we decided to start from Swanage in the shelter of the bay and paddle up towards Old Harry to see how bad conditions were round the corner.

As it happened, the wind eased sufficiently for us to make it all the way to Studland, and back, with time to play in the caves and tunnels in the cliffs.

In the evening, we stayed in Swanage which was celebrating its Carnival, for fish and chips, and were entertained by the Aerostars Acrobatic Air Display team and the Mosquitoes playing classic hits on the main music stage.

Sun 26 July

The plan had been to paddle from Kimmeridge to Lulworth Bay, but with winds forecast to gust over 30 knots we stayed within the shelter of Kimmeridge Bay, playing in the waves.

In the afternoon a trip round the ghost village of Tyneham, abandoned in 1943, provided a cultural diversion.

Mon 27 July

On the way home, we stopped in Chichester Harbour for a final paddle. It was again very windy, so the trip was adapted as a one way paddle from Bosham Quay to Dell Quay. The first 2km were into a stiff headwind, but once round the corner, the wind blew us most of the way to the end.