This is where the geology lesson becomes a spectacle: Lulworth Cove, an almost perfect circle bitten out of soft clays behind a narrow gap in the harder limestone, and Durdle Door just to the west, an arch of Portland stone standing in clear green water. The Lulworth Crumple, where the rock layers have been bent nearly vertical by the same forces that raised the Alps, is visible at Stair Hole.
A large chunk of this coast is an army firing range, and that accident of history has kept it wild. The villagers of Tyneham were moved out in 1943 so the land could be used for training, and they never came back; the village survives as a quiet ghost settlement with its church and school preserved, open when the ranges are. The range roads and walks open mostly at weekends and in holiday periods, and red flags mean what they say. Further east, Corfe Castle stands broken on its hill, slighted by Parliament after the Civil War.
Riding here means small roads with big views. The lanes from Wool and Wareham to Lulworth climb over open chalk downs, with the steep descent into West Lulworth and the range road over to Kimmeridge and Steeple giving long views down to the sea. Expect narrow sections, hedges hiding bends, horse riders, tractors and, on sunny summer weekends, serious congestion around Lulworth and Corfe. Spring and autumn midweek are the sweet spots, ideally early morning before the car parks fill.
Wareham, nine kilometres away, is the nearest proper town with fuel, a supermarket and riverside pubs; Wool has a little more than the basics. Lulworth has cafés and pubs by the cove, and Corfe has tearooms aplenty in the shadow of the ruin. If you swim at Durdle Door or in the cove, the water is clean and cold and the beaches are steep, and the long staircase back up to the car park is a good reminder that motorcycle boots are not hiking boots.