Dorset

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Dear Bo and Dud,
We’ve had a busy time since I last wrote to you. The Easter holidays were spent in Dorset; I can highly recommend this area - the traffic can be a bit of a nightmare but overall well worth a visit. We stayed just outside Weymouth at Chickerell. Weymouth is a lovely sea side town, it has a long promenade, harbour, and excellent beach and sea bathing. We have George III to thank for making this resort famous in the 17th & 18th century.

Having listened to the shipping forecast for years Portland Bill was high on the agenda for a visit and what a surprise it was. You know how you conjure up visions of what a place will look like? Well this was nothing like I imagined. It’s a thriving community with a prison and a youth custody centre and they are still quarrying the famous Portland stone. The most amazing thing we saw were the garden sheds on the headland, near to the lighthouse. These are used as a sort of holiday huts - the views out to sea are most spectacular but it’s an odd vision. Lyme Regis and Seaton are both worth a visit, as is Beer (just outside Seaton) there is a large car park on the cliff top and a comfortable walk along the coastal path to Branscombe.

The weather was incredible for the time of year, sunshine most of the time we were away. We made a couple of visits to National Trust properties, Thomas Hardy’s cottage was in my opinion not worth a visit and Clouds Hill, the cottage owned by T. E. Laurence (Laurence of Arabia) was as strange as the man himself. We also visited Stonehenge, and despite the number of visitors (by the bus and coach load) it was an enjoyable experience. In this area there are many pictures cut into the chalk face and we saw the Cerne Abbas Giant (you’ll have seen this one on TV, he has a rather large appendage!!), the White Horse (alleged to be George III) and a whole series of Regimental Badges. Visits to Bournemouth and Pool were interesting. These are very busy resorts so we did this away from the bank holiday weekend.

Durdle Door is attractive and if you’ve got the stamina for walking up an extremely steep hill well worth a visit. Lulworth Cove was disappointing - a very tiny fishing village from a bygone era spoilt by a huge car park, dozens of people and a very expensively small ice cream from a shop called the Dolls House - don’t go there.

Since getting back we’ve once again turned our attention to our preparations for our ‘gap’ year. We’ve signed up to rent out the house and Howard has negotiated a good deal for storage. All systems go then … I finish work on 18th July and we are going to move into the caravan on 26th July at a local CL. This will give us the opportunity to remember anything we’ve forgotten! We are going to travel to Kent on 29th and we’ve got a one way shuttle booked for 31st. The plan is that we head towards Saumur in the Loire. Here I intend to have a couple of weeks of sloth mode, (you know the one, you’ve seen it a couple of times) moving slowly, reading, eating and sampling one or two of the local wines (no change there then). Howard will probably be in ‘pottering’ mode and will polish the caravan within an inch of its paintwork.

More next month - love to you both,

Hilda & Howard

P.S. I am delighted that you have a new passion for Shaun the Sheep. Our Granddaughter will be delighted with the knitted soft toy. Does Shaun have 5 legs? I’ve not managed to see the programme myself.

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