Blogs from Swanage, Dorset, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 2

Old Harry Rocks is named after Privateer Harry Paye, plunderer of ships on Poole's Jurassic Coast during the 15th Century. 2 Pheasants, one brisket, one turkey, one lamb shoulder, one pork shoulder, 1 veggie pracel, one salmon and a load of lamb kebabs and some leftover soup, I'd definately indulged this Christmas. Today we hiked out to Old Harry Rocks in the Purbeck Hills, to walk off the Christmas load. Training for February's Arctic Challenge is interspersed with bouts of beer, wine and chocolate, then followed by 30 pressups. I'm feeling good, and the closeness of the challenge is starting to dawn on me. You can never feel ready for such an Adventure over a Christmas period. Today I found myself being able to identify the Burdock that I learnt about on my survival course only ... read more

After taking the lorry out early morning on Friday Wayne headed to work and I had a snooze. We drove down to Swanage on Friday afternoon, and for once had a good run. We met the gang in town for some dinner at the pub at 8ish and had a good chat. We woke early on Saturday for Breakfast at 7am before heading to the Pier. It was a bit of a rush kitting up as we were very close to the dive site. We all rolled off the boat to dive the Cantaran a broken up wreck, very pretty - we even saw a cuttlefish. We came back in to shore after the first dive, Wayne and I had a nap on a bench as were still a bit tired, and an ice cream woke ... read more

Glasgow to SwanageGeoff Burt It’s sometime since we’ve taken the opportunity to make blog entries so consequently this is on the first full morning in Swanage on the coast of Dorset in England. This is where John William Cole Burt and his wife and kids lived before emigrating to Australia about 150 years ago. Get your atlas out! JWCB was Geoff’s great great grandfather and was a stonemason and occasional farmer when he lived here. We’ve been here before but there is something about a place where you know many of your forebears lived and worked for so many years in the past. Hard to imagine exactly what the town looked like then but certainly unpaved roads were the norm. A relative (if not direct) George Burt played a very significant role in the development of ... read more