While we were staying at Bournemouth, V took us to see Hegistbury Head which is located at the Eastern end of an arc that spans a stretch of the Dorset coastline, with Bournemouth roughly in the midpoint and Sandbanks at the Western end. See our earlier post about Sandbanks.

On our way to Hegistbury Head, we stopped along Southbourne’s Overcliff Drive to see the (mostly empty) beaches below.

 

After passing rows of homes, we reached a parking lot with a cafe which marks the beginning of a nature reserve area.  From here, we took a little train to Hegistbury Head.

The train took us through a shrubby area and then across a marshland on a paved path, we could see a row of beach houses in a distance.

They are not houses but rather large, very colourful cabins – much bigger than those we saw at Swanage.

The cliffs at the tip of the Isle of Wight from the beach.

Out of the blue sky in a flash was a formation of Red Arrows jets.

The Red Arrows is the British Royal Air Force aerobatic team (like the Blue Angels of the US navy).

There must be an air show nearby in Christchurch. Lucky us to have seen this unexpected feat.

As soon as the smoke trails faded, the weather changed suddenly with dark clouds rolling in from the north east direction across Christchurch Harbour.

Very dramatic dark clouds.

The ferry was rushing back to Mudeford on the other side of the harbour.

On the Channel side, it was just as spectacular.

Luckily, we were not caught by the rain and managed to get back on the train to the parking lot. We even managed to see a rainbow!

This is a Google map overhead view of Hegistbury Head with the harbour on the left and the Channel on the right.