Whispering Rocks with Anjana Khatwa

Ramblings

BBC

Science, Nature, Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.6 • 732 Ratings

🗓️ 6 November 2025

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Clare joins Earth Scientist and author Anjana Khatwa for a cliffside walk in Dorset exploring the landscapes that shaped her life, and her book The Whispers of Rock – Stories from the Earth.

Starting at Spyway Barn near Langton Matravers, the route takes in clifftops, caves, and the fossil-rich coastline, revealing stories of geology and belonging. Anjana shares her journey from growing up in Slough in a traditional Indian family to becoming a leading voice in earth science.

From Spyway Barn, at the National Trust car park, they walked down to Dancing Ledge, along the coast path past Winspit Caves, and up to the village of Worth Matravers before heading back to the car park.

Grid Reference for Spyway Barn: SY 998 776 Map: OS Explorer 116 – Lyme Regis & Bridport

Presenter: Clare Balding Producer for BBC Studios: Karen Gregor

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts.
0:07.3	Hello, I'm Kimberly Wilson. I'm a psychologist, and in my new podcast, Complex, I'll be your guide
0:14.4	through all the information and misinformation that's out there about mental health.
0:19.0	I'm joined by expert guests covering topics from people pleasing to perfectionism,
0:24.2	burnout to empathy, to find tangible advice so we can understand ourselves a little better.
0:30.5	Complex with me, Kimberly Wilson.
0:33.0	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:36.9	In my hand, I'm holding a white rock.
0:39.8	It's a limestone.
0:41.3	And it dates back to about 150 million years old.
0:45.6	And what it's whispering to me is it's whispering tropical seas.
0:50.7	Seas where there are muds at the bottom that are alive with marine life
0:55.2	and when I hold rocks like this it just takes me back in time I'm a time traveller
1:00.6	and that's what's so magical about rocks is that they take you on these journeys that you don't expect
1:06.1	can I hold it can I touch us?
1:07.7	Yes of course here you go it's very light and it's a pale grey in colour and then it's shot through with spots of darker matter. So that is limestone from here where we are in Dorset. It is. It's a rock that's really representative of this part of the coast that we're going to walk over today and it's resistant. It feels tough doesn't it it feels hard but at one time this was you know soft mud at the bottom of the sea and it was just
1:33.9	alive with life angina catwa dr angina catwa has written this book called the whispers of rock
1:40.7	and we'll be talking about all kinds of rocks but we'll be talking about you as well and we're
1:44.4	starting um tell me exactly actually the route that we're going to take and where we're starting from
1:49.2	well we started at spyway barn which is just near the village of worth metravers on the perbec
1:55.0	coast we're going to be walking straight along the coastline we're going to come to quite a high ledge
2:00.8	and we're going to be looking down upon
	...

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