LonDon Diaries – DurdleDoor?!@£$ – Aathi kya Kandala

I had other plans for the Easter 2023 Long weekend, (Friday and Monday being a holiday) but was late to book my flights and had to figure out other lastminute options for a local travel. It was an interesting trip to DurdleDoor by a desi Travels at London. The departure was at 6:45 and I got ready very early to reach the venue by 6:15 itself. The weather quite chill, windy and got refugee in the nearby Ilford railway station for a while. Later, bought an Americano from Costa Coffee to manage the cold weather while later regretting to have chosen the Americano. The lady at the Coffee shop, warned me about the Americano, despite that I went ahead and regret that decision now. It was few minutes past 7 , there were no signs of the vehicle. Later managed to find the bus and started off the trip to DurdleDoor around 7:45 an reached the destination around 11:00 with a note for everyone to return around 12:45 PM

The tour operator showed directions to the DurdleDoor. A few of us were trying to search some images in Google. Google was showing some interesting rock formation and we asked the whereabouts of the location to the tour operator. Once we hiked up a bit, It was WYSIWYG but a different one . What You See (in Google) ISN’T What You Get (in front of our eyes). Tried my best to highlight the ISN’T above. When we enquired the tour operator, he gave a wonderful response that the rock formations have eroded due to climate & environmental changes.

There was another bunch of the intelligent group who enquired the locals, went on an opposite direction to the actual DurdleDoor, took pictures of it, returned at 1:45 PM and showed us the pictures to our envy, while they boarded back the bus.

So the place that we actually visited was LULWORTH COVE and not DurdleDoor which a few realized very late at the trip. Not sure if there were constraints to park a bus or the tour operator wasn’t aware of the route but we visited LULWORTH COVE not DURDLEDOOR

However, except for the tour operators creative juices, this place is a mile away from DurdleDoor and worth a visit. There were door like rock formations similar to the one that we saw in Google. It was pebble beach, there was a lot of activities around it like kayaks, paddle boards etc. which can be rented outside the beach. Kids playing in the beaches. Chill waters, etc. all were super good. A few restaurants and shops near by. I was quite hungry without a proper breakfast. Tried out an apple cake in one of the bakeries which was quite good and worth a try. I also came to know that there is a camping site between Lulworth Cove and DurdleDoor

Not many returned at 1. I was speaking to an African driver from Cameroon to kill time while waiting for others. He expressed his interest to visit India, wanted to buy some machines to Africa to start a business. He was also interested to start an organization to help African Americans across the world getting funds from all the African nations. He also shared some personal stories about his 3 wives and 9 children, how they are being brought up, etc. It was an interesting conversation to know about their day to day activities, food, thought process etc. I was very hungry by then and boarded the bus to Bournemouth at 2PM.

Except for the few glitches, the visit to Lulworth Cove was satisfactory and I would recommend people to spend a day there instead of just a site-seeing trip.

Thanks & Regards

Mukund

#londondiaries

Note:

Didn’t want to name the operator but given 1 or 2 clues for the known to cherish and giggle about the experience 🙂

Link to my bournemouth trip https://mukerv.wordpress.com/2023/04/24/long-weekend-bournemouth-destination-2/