Lulworth Cove and Durdle Door rock-hopping

On Wednesday, 18th August, I visited Lulworth Cove with a couple of kayak friends from London. The forecast was for a fresh F3 breeze in the morning, building to a full-on F5 in the afternoon. High tide was to be around noon. So we intended to get there early, of course, I was late as usual:

We were able to reverse the cars down to beside the slipway, and unload. Nobody was about! Car parking cost £5 for about 6 hours (coins only - D'OH!) We set off around 9AM, and were soon exploring Stair Hole:




We found a smaller second hole, which is linked to the pool behind the main hole:

Further on we found a small ridge of rocks, with a gap that looked just about deep enough to whizz through, with some care to wait between sets:



In the open sea, I drifted for a minute, and found we had about 1 knot of tide and wind against us. We were soon upon Durdle Door, and paddling through it:

We went further on, where there was a lot of spaghetti-like seaweed, and Bat's Hole, where we stopped for lunch. The swell was picking up, and from time to time there was a surfable wave breaking. I attempted a side-surf landing, however the towback kept pulling me back in. A comedy exit soon followed when attempting a "normal" landing!
The swell and wind were making conditions quite lively for returning. We donned helmets for going into Stair Hole (slightly nerve-wracking going into the small hole), and then came out to discover a pair of playboaters, one outside his boat. We performed a deepwater rescue, but he only stayed back in for another 30 seconds, so we helped out with towing the poor bloke back to the cove. We also encountered a number of people on sit-on-tops, being led by the local kayak tour company. Quite lively conditions for first-timers! There was some nice breaking waves at the cove's entrance, and the tourist rib threw up some good surf as well, which was nice! Must remember, next time I tow someone's boat, empty it out first!

GPS Log:
http://tinyurl.com/36g7uw8


We attempted to do some surfing, but didn't catch much. We were back ashore by about 3PM, with lots of people around. Most people looked at us as though we were from another planet! We were able to reverse the cars down to the slipway although this was distinctly frowned upon by a number of folk. So an Ortlieb dry bag with straps is now on the wishlist to facilitate long portages....

Images courtesy of Jason Paul Tolmie and Becky Clarke.