MY FAVOURITE VIEW

Chef Ed Baines loves to explore Nine Barrow Down

There’s nowhere better to be in the winter than up on Nine Barrow Down, an elongated hill just up from the Bay of Swanage in the Isle of Purbeck. From there you can see the valley dropping down in front of you and the stunning undulating hills opposite, with the beautiful white Old Harry Rocks sticking up out of the sea just around the corner. It’s one of the few bays along the South Coast that ironically faces east, so you get amazing sunrises directly through the valley and, on a clear day in winter when the sun’s low in the sky, there’s something very mystical and ancient about it.

The atmosphere changes throughout the seasons, but I love walking up there in winter most of all. It’s incredible when there’s a bit of a gale, an amazing storm at sea and the sea winds are blasting in, but at the same time you know that there’s a really good boozer just 20 minutes away. There aren’t any trees up there because the winds are so high, and all the shrubs look a bit like Dr Seuss trees where everything’s at a sort of 45° angle. When you’re up there marching in a storm, it feeds your soul. You feel the power of the ocean as its spray hits the rocks. That’s an experience you’ll only really have in the winter months.

Swanage was somewhere we went on family holidays, and I’ve never stopped going. I try to get down there at least once a month, often with my kids in tow.

Everyone loves the escape from the rat race of London. It’s only two hours down the road, but you’ll meet people there who say, ‘Oh, I went to London once…’ It’s just a bit different, really.

The coastal walks are obviously fantastic down there, but it’s also a lovely place to go fishing, too. There’s a little stone jetty in the bay where I used to catch what I called ‘ragglefish’ as a kid – a sort of little wrasse. The other thing I love to do around Nine Barrow Down, is to go foraging in the wonderful woodlands.

I think it’s important for our mental wellbeing to step out of the demanding, synthetic world occasionally and just dial back into Mother Nature. I love going camping, sleeping outside, foraging for some lovely mushrooms, cooking them over an open fire with some olive oil and garlic, and sticking them in a baguette with a bit of salt and pepper… There’s just something very natural and correct about it, like that’s what we’re really supposed to do as humans. And somehow, food always seems to taste better when you eat it outdoors. The countryside provides this amazing balance and sense of peace, because we are all part of Mother Nature and how everything works.