Durdle Door

[puddleshark]

Durdle Door on a very blustery morning.

Well, the Met Office weren't lying. It is now hammering down with rain. But earlier, I headed down to the coast, armed with my little wet weather camera, & dodged the showers... It was extremely windy, and rather hard to take photos while simultaneously holding onto my hat as the wind tried to snatch it. But the sea was beautiful, the translucent blue-green-grey of a Dutch Old Master seascape.



I don't often visit Durdle Door. The rock arch and the bay and the headlands there are very beautiful, but also one of the major tourist attractions in Dorset, incredibly busy when the weather is fine. And, because I am always too lazy to walk to Durdle Door along the coast path (it is a particularly steep up-and-down section of the coast path), I must park in the most expensive car park in Dorset.

To be fair, some of your £12.40-for-two-hours car parking money goes to rebuilding the steps down to the beach every time there is a landslip.


Nice new steps!


The Weld Estate has also rebuilt the steps down to Man o' War Cove, which was closed due to landslips on my last visit.


In the bay, the line of rocks known as the Man o' War, which Wikipedia thinks might be a corruption of the Brythonic 'Men-an-Vawr' (The Great Rock).


The rock arch, Durdle Door, and, on the right, the headland known as Bat's Head.




The Isle of Portland on the horizon.








One day the sea will collapse the arch, and then what will the Weld Estate do for revenue...


Fortunately, there is already a tiny arch forming in the next headland, Bat's Head.








Waves crashing against the Bull, one of the rocks in the bay.




The rain arrived just as I was leaving, and I hastily stuffed the camera into a plastic bag. Luckily the wind was at my back on the way back, and the climb up to the car park was wind assisted. I still got rather wet.

Comments

[frith]

Great light and choice of monochrome in that first image! The whole set was great. Worth the £12.40 and soaking. 8^)

[puddleshark]

Thank you!

LOL. I did wince a bit at the £12.40, but yes, the light yesterday and the fabulous clouds made it worth every penny.

[benicek]

Atmospheric!

[puddleshark]

November squall clouds make for fabulous seascapes! Worth being chased back to the car park by the rain...

[kaishin108]

Beautiful, all of them. That rock arch just calls out to be snapped!

The first photo though, in B&W, so much atmosphere, wow.

[puddleshark]

Thank you!

It's a spectacular stretch of coast at any time, but with those squall clouds lining up over it, it was being particularly dramatic!

[changeling72]

Stunning pics, as ever. The price for the car park is simply ridiculous! It means a lot of time-watching on a visit. We noticed the new arch forming when we were there. I wonder how many decades/centuries it will take to reach Durdle Door proportions?

[puddleshark]

Last time I visited Durdle Door, the car parking was £4, and I thought that was expensive! Oh, well. It's not like I visit regularly. Not when I can park up on Whiteways and walk to Tyneham for free.

Yes, I was wondering how long these processes take. Probably quite swift in terms of geological time, if not human time...

[summersgate]

I always love your pictures of the sea. The black and ones this time are particularly great!

[puddleshark]

Thank you!

It was such a good day for landscape photography - beautiful light, and those fabulous squall clouds drifting over the sea.