Author: Catherine Douneen
Age: 11
Some beaches are not just buckets and spades; some, like Jurassic Coast, are the former homes of dinosaurs five times the size of you. Seems like a perfect place for a trip? It is.
Think, where you step, sixty five million years ago an ancient, monstrous being walked now reduced to a fossil. The sea is still full with crabs and fish but no dinosaurs. Fossils of fish found on the rocks by the domain of Poseidon lie waiting to be exposed. Dinosaurs are dead, extinct. No-one knows why, but finding one, even just a leg, is rare. Not on Jurassic Coast. If you look very carefully you may find a fossilised squid or ammonite. I found a fishtail , preserved and smoothed by Kronos, the mythological titan of time. These fossils are hidden gems on the Jurassic Coast.
You’ll need to spend all day there. I did, but it was not enough time to hunt for more remnants of ancient sea creatures. Time to rest? No, still time for PGL high adventure. Literally. I’m strapped on just by a harness to a giant swing. Dinosaur sized. Vertigo moment. Away we go, swing high, swing low and hope I don’t fall off. It’s finally stopped.
No, off we go again. Right up to the maximum and we swing vertically from forty metres high, not good for someone scared of heights but that trip was amazing, walking on dinosaurs. For another dose of history we trekked off to Corfe Castle that was blown up in the Civil War and taken by betrayal, constructed in the Norman times, favourite site for King John who locked up his niece in the dungeons. Henry the Eighth loved it but now it’s lopsided from being exploded. It is still an extraordinary castle; you can stand where archers fired at invaders or visit the royal loos, you can stand in the stocks and visit the places where nobility slept. Now it is over but I still found it exciting, scary and intense. Osmington Bay, the perfect place for a trip.