Holiday to Dorset – Fossil Hunting in Charmouth

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]uesday already and our first full day in Dorset. One of the main reasons for coming here was to go fossil hunting, so we wasted no time and planned a day at Charmouth today to find some fossils.

I started the day with an early morning run into Weymouth and back along some of the network of cycle paths that criss-cross the town. It was a lovely morning and perfect for a run.

We then had breakfast and headed off towards Charmouth.

Fossil Hunting in Charmouth

It didn’t take too long to get to Charmouth, although there was a bit of a hold up thanks to the fact that a local historic Inn had burnt down over the past few days and the road was close in one direction around it. We were still some of the first people in the Car Park though. We parked up, found a quick geocache, and then went for a wander along the beach looking for fossil. Despite the fact that Anna and I were once both geologists we had failed to come prepared and had no tools for fossil hunting with us, so we made do by bashing rocks together. We did manage to find some ammonites though and the odd belemnite and some shell fragments and Morgan seemed to enjoy himself anyway.

We did another Earth Cache on the beach as well and had a picnic lunch there too. We also wandered around the fossil shop and generally enjoyed ourselves in the sunshine.

Tout Quarry

After our day in Charmouth we headed back to the hotel to get my bike and then up onto Portland where we had a wander around Tout Quarry and admired the views out over Chesil Beach.

I then headed off to meet someone called Charlotte who had offered to ride around the triathlon bike course with me so I rode down the hill and met her at the osprey leisure Centre and then we rode around the course together. I was taking it nice an easy, but I think it made her work fairly hard but she was pleased with that as it meant she got loads of PB’s on Strava segments all around the course. It was nice to meet her and have a chat and to see the course too.

Meanwhile Anna and Morgan had another little explore in Tout Quarry, soaking up the sunshine and checking out the sculptures.

We then headed back to Weymouth, had dinner in the Sainsbury’s cafe and retired to our hotel room which was still very hot despite plenty of tinkering with the controls by the Premier Inn staff.

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Alan Cole

Alan is a Freelance Website Designer, Sports & Exercise Science Lab Technician and full time Dad & husband with far too many hobbies: Triathlete, Swimming, Cycling, Running, MTBing, Surfing, Windsurfing, SUPing, Gardening, Photography.... The list goes on.

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