The traffic was horrendous on the road down to Wool. Long tailbacks, roadworks, narrow roads, but we eventually pulled into the campsite. Quickly setting up in the rule-heavy site, we walked across the railway bridge to meet up in the local pub with a dear friend, Stuart, who pitched up in his Jaguar posemobile to join us for a catch up and a pint or two. Stuart later took us down to the local branch of the Royal British Legion for a pint or two with the locals.
Tuesday was another bright, sunny day so we walked the mile or so to the Bovington Tank Museum, where we (well, I) really enjoyed a day wandering around the very impressive collection of armoured fighting vehicles. Later, Stuart took us for an evening drive down to Lulworth Cove and here we witnessed first hand the robbing barsteward who is fleecing everybody for his ridiculously overpriced car park.
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| Bovington Tank Museum |
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| Saladin - I used to fit into one of these |
On Wednesday Stuart, our wonderful local tour guide, spent a day taking us around the sights of Purbeck, including a trip on the Swanage Railway to Swanage where we had a nice cup of tea overlooking the bay. Later, we had an enjoyable pint in the Castle, and later a pint in the "Burr" (the Bear in Lancastrian) before pestering the locals in the RBL again. A great day.
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| Corfe Castle |
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| Swanage Railway |
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| Swanage |
The following day we reluctantly said goodbye to Wool and moved the short distance to a camping and caravanning club temporary holiday site just outside Weymouth. Parked up in no time, and sucking in solar power to recharge the batteries, we set out to walk into Weymouth (about 3.5 miles). It wasn't an inspiring walk and we wished we had taken the bikes as there was a good cycle path. However, we reached town, had a wander around and agreed that Weymouth is a pleasant enough town which they are doing their utmost to bring down. That said, it is certainly much nicer than Great Yarmouth or Scarborough! We ate some overpriced fish and chips (award winning, but again, not up to the standard of our local fish shop at home) before investing in a weekly bus pass to enable a thorough exploration of the area. Restocking our supplies in Morrisons, we returned to the van.
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| Impressive sand sculpture at Weymouth |
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| Durdle Door |
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| Stair Hole |
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| Lulworth Cove |
On Friday we thought we would take the bus to walk between Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove before the Bank Holiday crowds moved in. What a delightful day it was. The sun was shining, the sea was blue, the scenery stunning and the walk suitably tiring. What more could you want?
Returning to Weymouth, we had a walk around Nothe Fort and a refreshing cider by the harbour before meeting Stuart for a pint outside the pavilion.
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| Nothe Fort |
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| Dorchester |
From Dorchester it was a quick bus ride up to Portland to admire the views, look at the stone quarries and explore an interesting old gun battery by the fort.
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| Portland and Chesil Beach |
The following day was a bit murky and we really wanted to avoid the Bank Holiday crowds so we took the bus to Abbotsbury, a very pretty village close to Chesil Beach. There we had a wander around the village and enjoyed a lovely Sunday lunch (the horseradish sauce nearly blew my socks off!) before a vigorous walk up the hill to the chapel.
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| Abbotsbury |
On return to Weymouth we quickly wandered around the "fayre in the square", enjoying some pretty good music.
On Bank Holiday Monday we lazed around and enjoyed a visit from Stuart, who popped in for a cup of tea.
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| Excellent 30mm RARDEN case vase - thanks Stuart! |
On Tuesday we set off home, encountering very heavy traffic once again trying to clear Dorset. It took over an hour to go the first 25 miles!
In all it was a great trip, with good weather, beautiful scenery and meeting up with an old friend on his home turf. We think that we may have fallen in love with Dorset - if only they could sort the traffic out!
