Stonehenge to Home

It's been a beautiful day again, not a cloud in the sky and perfect for our first ever visit to Stonehenge. It hasn't been possible to walk among the stones for some time but the new visitor centre with all its facilities, exhibitions and cafe still makes for an interesting and enjoyable experience. There is a shuttle bus every few minutes from the centre to the viewing area over a mile away, or you can walk.

Then there is a walkway with explanatory stations all around the circle, which is both far enough away to get photos without people and in some places close enough to feel the size of the huge stones. There are lots of foreign tourists, over a million a year in fact, so it's a bucket list photo opportunity and Rosemary took some photos for Asian couples on their cameras. The large gift shop and cafe were doing good business.

The entrance fee is quite high too but we got in free with our NT membership and only spent £10 with a nice souvenir guide book and a sticker.
We set off for home at about 3 o'clock and stopped half way at a garden centre for coffee.

Burton Bradstock

The Hive beach cafe served good unpretentious seafood.

Charmouth to Salisbury

We called in to the Fossil museum to see the subject of David Attenborough's Seadragon  before moving down the coast to picturesque Burton Bradstock where the Hive Beach seafood cafe is located. 

After lunch we started to head home stopping off in Salisbury to visit the cathedral. By the time we had parked it was about 5 o'clock and we got into the Cathedral and Magna Carta exhibition for free. Rosemary took some nice photos on her phone.

We drove on towards a Britstop at Cholderton and found it was close to Stonehenge, so resolved to go back and have a proper visit tomorrow. The landlady is a Britstopper herself.

Charmouth

The day dawned sunny with a light wind, what a difference to yesterday. So we decided to just walk the mile down to Charmouth beach and find somewhere for Sunday lunch. It was lovely and clear on the front with views right along to West Bay and Chesil Beach to the east and Lyme Regis in the west. It is remarkably warm and sunny for early October.
Finding Sunday lunch was a bit of a disaster, the recommended cafe was fully booked and the Royal Oak, halfway up the hill, was not serving food due to a kitchen upgrade. There was no way we were going back down the hill, it's a 13% gradient for half a mile, so we continued back to the site and had a snack in the pool cafe.
At least there is time for cream tea on our pitch now!

Duvet Day

The promised heavy rain had arrived by 7:00am and stayed until late afternoon, leaving a strong gusty wind. So today was just a duvet day.
I invested in 24hr site WiFi to download Rosemary's Daily Mail for today and tomorrow while I uploaded and edited my Google photos.
Katie is in Penrith for the weekend enjoying some sunshine!

Lyme Regis

Today we are using our bus pass to go into Lyme Regis for the day. The bus stop is 2 mins away. A weekly pop up curry house is just setting up on the site for tonite.
So we went to Lyme again and walked along the front and to the end of the Cobb where the fishing boats come in. We have been here many times before and nothing changes very much except for the restaurants and coffee houses. We had a light lunch on the new terrace of The Pilot House. It has to be prawns and crab when in Lyme washed down with Chardonnay and Cider.
We caught the 3:30 bus back which was full of school children and pensioners.

The Wood Farm site has some very good facilities including a well stocked shop, pool, games room and fishing lake. The downside is that it is built on both sides of a deep valley. We are on the top level so even a short trip to do washing up or use the facilities is a good cardiovascular workout. We tried some curry from the pop-up which was very fresh and tasty. Tomorrow is going to be wet and windy so we are battened down in readiness.

Lyndhurst to Charmouth

We left the site mid morning in order to go to the coast. The day started damp and drizzly so we went to the New Forest centre and museum at Lyndhurst first. Then off to the corner of the forest where the deer are to be found. The car park is near a viewing platform where we saw a small group of Fallow deer. I walked a little way along one of trails and spotted some antlers in the bracken. Sure enough it was a stag lying on the ground looking around, ears twitching. After a few minutes it stood up and just walked off into the undergrowth.

Mission accomplished and caught on camera we headed to Charmouth stopping briefly in Ringwood for shopping and arrived at the Wood Farm site at 5 o'clock. It's just outside Charmouth and handily placed on the coastal bus route between Axminster and Weymouth.

New Forest

Walked in to Brockenhurst today over the heath, spotting Highland cows and Shetland ponies - wee must be in Scottish quarter. Livestock all over the roads every house has a cattle grid or a big gate.
It was an ideal day for a walk, warm, sunny and a gentle breeze. Passed numerous horses, ponies and donkeys before hitting the high street. Stopped for coffee, bought some lunch from the excellent bakery to have a picnic on the heath and some venison steak to grill tonight. Easily got our 14000 paces in and it's not even 4 o'clock.
Now sitting by the van with a clear blue sky topping up the tan. Well somebody's got to do it. The venison was really good.

Milford on Sea and Brockenhurst

We started the day by parking near the sea at nearby Milford for a bracing walk along the shingle front, it was a bit breezy and overcast. The Needles were just visible on the murk across the Solent.
By now it was after noon so we headed straight for a two day stop at the Black Knowl CMC site in the heart of the New Forest near Brockenhurst. A lazy afternoon is planned with just a short stroll to see the ponies when it brightens up.

Beaulieu and Lymington

Straight to the New Forest from our Britstop counting ponies, 20 already. Visit to Beaulieu for the house and motor museum. Its a lovely sunny day again visiting the estate.

We spent most of the day at Beaulieu looking round the purpose built National motor museum with its numerous exhibits from the very earliest days of motoring to the present day. The old cars were in immaculate  condition with gleaming  brass fittings and huge  headlights particularly striking. There were well known motors from TV and films, Chitty chitty bang bang to Dell boys yellow Reliant Robin. There was a separate show of the mad cars from Top Gear including the amphibious Triumph Herald with its Mirror dinghy sails and the old people's car.

Then we walked back to look at the remaining parts of the first Cistertian in England Abbey. It's mostly ruined but the old refectory is now the village parish church and the lay lodgings are the abbey museum. The gardens have a wonderful topiary scene of the mad hatter's tea party. The original girl who inspired Alice is believed to be from nearby Lymington.
We are staying one night in Lymington on the coast, on a cheap commercial site, before moving to Brockenhurst in the new forest tomorrow.

We took a ride on the vintage bus to view the palace which is no longer occupied by the Montagu family and actually had the first motor museum  in its front rooms.The present Lord now lives in a 12 bedroom lodge on the estate apparently.