West Country Adventure, 12 July

I am relieved to report that, although I do have a painful bruise at the top of my left arm, it is not in a place where I lie on it, so I was able to sleep well last night.

We had to get up early this morning and have breakfast quickly so, needless to say, it was the morning (there is usually one each holiday) when I spilt the coffee and the grounds went everywhere and on my t-shirt, necessitating much mopping up and, of course, I had to change. At least at the campsite there was plenty of hot water!

Once breakfast was over I washed up and finished mopping up coffee grounds while the Swan Whisperer emptied the loo and topped us up with fresh water. Unfortunately, we forgot to to up our drinking water which is running a little low. Still, we have enough for night and will be able to get some tomorrow.

We set off, slightly later than we intended, to Exeter, but made up time on the road and were punctual at our friend's. We were able to use the Cathedral car park, which leads into their back garden, such a lovely view of the Cathedral! 

After coffee, our friend, newly qualified as a licenced Cathedral guide, took us all over the Cathedral and pointed out all sorts of things we might have missed, like the minstrels gallery (used once a year at Christmas, apparently) 

and the astronomical clock 

  The choir is Gilbert Scott, which is lovely and the gates into it a more ornate version of the one he did for Clapham Church, and a different set of saints on the pulpit (couldn't photo that, too many people).

After that, time was getting on and she had other visitors coming, so we put said goodbye and drove down to the nearest Aldi, where we had lunch, and I found their famous gun and tonic ice lollies, which I didn't buy as we already had some ice cream and the icebox of our fridge is tiny (next time, perhaps).

Then we drive down to Dawlish and I fell asleep, and then to a pub near Newton Abbott where we are spending the night - the third Britstop of the holiday and the only one where we have another motor home. We decided to eat in the pub, but a slight failure as I ordered Hunters Chicken which was covered in barbecue sauce, which I don't like.

Pudding was nice though, and Amstel beer, which I like. 

West Country Adventure, 11 July

A lovely, lazy morning doing not very much except going for a walk, short in my case, longer in the Swan Whisperer's - and reading the new Jodi Taylor which came out overnight. We are on the East Fleet, behind the Chesil Ridge, and some lovely views. 

We decided to drive to Portland Bill after lunch, but just as we were setting off, disaster struck. A miscommunication between the Swan Whisperer and me meant that he moved the van off the levelling ramp just as I crouched down to close the hab door safety tab (which you have to do or it rattles!) with the result that I was thrown violently into the side of the wardrobe and hit my upper arm so hard that it was quite some time before we could determine that it was no worse than bruised. So I didn't enjoy the drive as much as I otherwise would have done, and painkillers and ice, although they have helped a bit, haven't quite done the trick.

But it is a very pretty area, with two lighthouses

and there was a helicopter. We think it was a SAR chopper practising. 

That was the best picture I could get of it. 

Once back at the site we had a cup of tea, and the SW web for a short walk, and now he has gone to get fish and chips for us both. 

West Country Adventure, 10 July

Today we went to Blandford Forum, which means I have been earwormed all day by Flanders and Swann's "The Slow Train"!

However, even if one can no longer go there by the Slow Train, it is still a lovely town. There was, apparently, a huge fire in 1731 that burnt down most of the town, and it was rebuilt by two brothers called Bastard, although they weren't, as far as I know.

We visited the Church, which seemed to call itself the Parish Church, although Wikipedia tells me it is dedicated to Ss Peter and Paul. Rather lovely, with doors on the pews. 

After that, we went back to the van and had lunch, and then drove to Lulworth Cove, so the Swan Whisperer could walk to Durdle Door. I had a nap, and then we both had a cup of tea and drove to our final destination of the day which is a large, but not unpleasant, campsite just by Chesil Beach. 

West Country Adventure, 9 July

I am getting even more confused than usual with what day of the week we are, etc, as we were at a Circuit event on Saturday, which meant I spent the whole of Sunday thinking it was Monday and so on. It is, I think, now Tuesday! Plus I am not used to being driven on this side of the road in the van, and keep thinking we need to be on the wing side - it's as well I'm not driving!

We were rather lazy this morning and didn't get up until after 8:00 am, but once we had cleared up breakfast we went for a walk and once we were in the car park at the top of the hill we had a signal, so caught up a bit. 

After our wall we wished our hosts farewell, and I did buy some artisan cheese, which was quite delicious!

We decided to go rather a long way out of our way to the chain ferry at Poole Harbour. But it was a lovely drive, even though I kept missing photo opportunities! Re parked up as soon as we were off the ferry and the SW eV for an explore and to watch how the chains worked while I caught up on this year's Tour de France so far.

We had to go back on ourselves, although not retracing our steps, to get to our next port of call, which was Wimborne Minster, enjoying the unusual place names en route. We found a car park and then spent a very happy hour wandering round the eponymous Minster,

and then had a cup of tea and an ice cream (me) or coffee and a slice of lemon tart (him), before heading on to our stop for the night which is a pub on the outskirts of Wimborne. Its USP was a 4 mile walk round local farmland, which the SW promptly went on, but he says it was nothing special. Then I made mushroom and butternut squash risotto and we are now in the pub, which has WiFi (no signal again here) and a lovely butterfly on the wall: 

 And I am drinking Glenfiddich and the SW is on the cider. 

West Country Adventure, 8 July

So here we are in the New Forest, with no signal on either of our phones. I'm writing this in a Word document and will upload it, with photos, when next I have a signal, which I hope will be sometime tomorrow. This doesn't seem to happen on the Continent, where there is almost always a signal of some kind.

So, anyway, we slept well in the motor home and in the morning showered, etc, and had breakfast at No 6, and then the Swan Whisperer went for a walk with the dog. I tidied the van and got things more or less ready to leave, and we were away by noon. Our first stop was a Lidl outside Chichester, where I got rolls for lunch and a couple of other things. We decided not to have lunch there, but parked up in the car park of Fishbourne Palace. 

We drove on - I went to sleep on the motorway - and arrived here in Burley in mid-afternoon. We are on a cider farm, and have bought some, and some apple juice. The field we are in was populated by geese and guinea-fowl,

but get have been shut up for the night. We had a cup of tea outside, and then the SW went for a walk again while I knitted. Supper was last night's trout with vegetables, cream and pasta. Yummy! 

West Country Adventure, 7 July

The saga of was I, wasn't I, preaching this Sunday is too long to relate here, but ultimately it turned out that I wasn't. So we were able to pack up the car and head off to Sussex to arrive about 2:30 pm.

First up, of course, was to load the van and fill it with water and so on. So we did that, and then, at about 5:30, we loaded my mother (with difficulty) and sister (rather more easily) into the motor home and set off to drive the ten miles or so to Duncton Viewpoint, a local landmark with a great view over the South Downs. 

Once there and parked up, we ate a delicious supper prepared by my mother of cold trout and various salads, followed by strawberries, raspberries and cream! 

Then the Swan Whisperer and I washed up and made coffee for those who wanted it, and meanwhile we watched a hot air balloon being inflated and setting off

After which we drive back to No 6 where we are parked up for the night prior to starting our West Country adventure proper tomorrow. 

Birthday Celebrations

Today, the Great Western Railway celebrated the 175th anniversary of the route between Didcot and Oxford.  And yesterday, it was my 66th birthday.  So I asked whether, for my birthday present, we could go to the celebrations.

We took advantage of the occasion to travel to Oxford from Marylebone, a route we had not done before.  It's cheaper than via Paddington, and the train was absolutely rammed!  We did manage to get seats, but many people were not so lucky.  We went on the Underground, changing at Oxford Circus, but the Bakerloo Line was crowded and there was no step-free access at Marylebone.  Still, it didn't really matter.

When we arrived at Oxford, we went out of the station to ask about buying tickets for the 175th anniversary, which the website said could be done at any GWR station.  However, the woman at the information desk had never heard of such a thing, and didn't know what we were talking about!  Fortunately, the staff at the ticket office were better informed and, armed with a ticket, we went out on the platform just in time to see the 175 Luncheon Circular Tour depart. 

Then there was a modern train heading to Paddington

and, a few minutes later, one of the regular shuttles to Didcot.  This stopped at Radley, where we tried in vain to see any trace of the branch line to Abingdon that had been such a feature of my childhood, and at Culham, from which my father had commuted to London every day over 62 years ago!  Then it arrived at Didcot, where we found the entrance to the railway centre was just a few steps from our platform.

Our tickets included entrance to the railway centre, which was good.  First port of call was the café, where we had rather dry coronation chicken sandwiches and incredibly weak coffee, and then I had a
Toblerone ice lolly and the Swan Whisperer had tiffin and his weak coffee.  Then we set out to explore.  There was lots to see, including a museum which also had a 1960s signal display being demonstatrated, locomotives in steam and hauling passengers from one end of the site to the other

to the skeletons of carriages awaiting restoration

(is that Alexei or Sergei in the first picture?).  There were replicas of the original engines and carriages that ran on the broad gauge

And so on.  After a while, we decided we had finished with the site, and caught the next train back to Oxford.  We could, perhaps, have visited a funfair in Appleford or an exhibition at the Old Ticket Office at Culham, or even a fair on the site of the original Oxford station, about a mile from the present one, but there are limits on my energy, so we caught a train back to Oxford, and had a cup of tea in the station buffet there before getting a train back to Marylebone and a no 2 bus home.

Well worth the entry fees!