You guys!! Guess what?! It's already been a month + since I arrived in the UK & I've been on the go since first arriving the first week of June. I honestly cannot believe it's already been 4 weeks since I left Montreal and nearly 8 weeks since I left Vancouver. Never in my dreams did I imagine I would have fallen for England like I have..like I've made apparent in my previous posts since arriving. I've experienced places I never even knew existed and am loving showing off these off the beaten track places down in the South of England, especially where I spent last weekend ringing in my 1 month & Canada Day! West Bay; a harbour town in Dorset and home to the backdrop for one of my favourite shows, Broadchurch. Featuring David Tennant (aka Dr.Who) as Detective Alec Hardy in a small town (aka Broadchurch) investigating the death of a local. I won't get into details (I leave it for you to binge watch) but the first time I saw the show these golden chalk cliffs had me thinking it was a green screen or maybe CGI. Well I was pleasantly mistaken and when the time came to come to The UK I new it had to be a place I saw for myself. So when my friend Jo recommended we go for a weekend I jumped at it.
Taking the bus into Bristol Jo & her boyfriend picked me up and off to their hometown of Shepton Mallet we went to load up the car & hitch the caravan before making the 1 + hour drive out to West Bay. Leaving Somerset the colours were pretty heavy but the minute we got out of the valley it was blue skies & sunshine, perfect for camping. We hooked things up and got straight out to exploring the beach & the cliffs.
A few days before I set off on this adventure I saw a post on Facebook stating that part of the cliffs had fallen causing a huge rockfall. What I didn't know was how this would effect our weekend away. I'm happy to report that our weekend wasn't really affected by the fall and were able to witness just what kind of situation was going on. The cliffs stretch up 100+ feet and there was never a fence keeping anyone or anything back from going over the edge making it a use at your own risk path. Had the rock fall not occurred just before arriving I definitely would have gone up along the coastal path, however to keep myself safe & my mom from having an episode I stayed on the beach.
While the beach looks like it stretches on endlessly in less than 30 mins from Freshwater Bay (where we were camping) you'll find yourself right in the townsite of West Bay. With the sun high in the sky & a huge boat race happening it was hard for me to see the show in the town with so much going on (in the show it's kind of like a ghost town) but I definitely recognized a fair few spots from the show and was able to get an even better view from that side of the beach. All in all the weekend was a win, not only was I able to reunite with some great friends, I was able to tick something off my UK Bucket List! Even if you haven't seen the BBC crime drama I would absolutely recommend checking out West Bay & the surrounding camp sites! I know I will definitely be back to visit, and will absolutely be checking out more the Dorset & The Jurassic Coast.
