The #FriFotos* theme this week is coast, which suits me well, as I’ve been meaning to say a few words about the Jurassic coast anyway.

Do you have a kid completely enamoured with dinosaurs and fossils? I do… or at least, I did. On a road trip in Southern England a few years ago, the Jurassic Coast made an excellent, kid-friendly stop.

The Jurassic Coast covers a 150-kilometre-stretch along the English Channel in the counties of Dorset and Devon. Nearly 200 million years of history is documented through these rocks. 200 million years!

We more or less stumbled upon it one evening, when I was trying to find accommodations for the night. (I know, I know, I should probably improve my planning skills, but there it is. And by now the kids are used to my slightly frantic last-minute search for a place to sleep. All part of the hols.)

After driving through a few towns where every bed was filled up, we ended up in Sidmouth. Meant to be, it must have been. I loved the pretty Victorian promenade against the rough ancient hills.

A bit further along the coast, just over in Dorset, we stopped in Lyme Regis, another gateway town to this wonderful coastline, with a beach that will surely satisfy the most ardent rockhound.

Sadly we had a plane to catch, and not enough time for a full-on fossil hunt. Cat had to settle for the ones found in the shop of the Lyme Regis Museum, a sweet little fossil museum that kept her busy for ages.

Cat’s 12 now – and has shifted her allegiance, or at least her area of interest, from pre-historic creatures to very much alive ones. These days, it’s horses and nothing but horses. But her room still contains a small collection of lovely spiral-shaped ammonite and fossilised dino droppings (yes, you read that right; coprolite is the more formal name).

unesco logo

Dorset and East Devon Coast is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Here are more UNESCO World Heritage sites around the world.

 

* #FriFotos is a weekly Twitter chat where travellers share their favourite photos. Each week has a theme.