We haven’t moved far from home, but the coast around here is stunning. For those who don’t know this area it is known as the Jurassic Coast. Lots of dinosaurs and ichthyosaurs, well actually ammonites and belemites all of them fossils. We did a bit of fossil hunting on the beach, but we only came back with 2 ammonites that someone gave us .
Shortly after our arrival in Charmouth we met up with Julia and Brian Severn at a local pub. They were both on good form and Brian was preparing for a visit to Poland with a group of friends, we hope he returned in one piece. On the Sunday we visited Sally and Pat Doherty, for lunch, in Ottery St. Mary. It was nice to catch up on all their news.
Below you can see Lyme Regis harbour. We travelled here on the bus, using our bus passes. It’s only 10 minutes from the campsite, but it beats trying to park in Lyme, which is very tight.
Lyme Regis harbour taken from the Cobb famous for French Lieutenant’s Woman.
The sandstone cliffs of West Bay. We had a pleasant visit here walking around the harbour and on the beach, which is not too easy to walk on because it is mainly stones rather than sand.
We were visiting a village close to Bridport and came upon this Real Tennis court so we decided to have a nose around. Fortunately it was open and so we were able to have a look at the court. The building behind Sue is the court, which is huge.
The court. There are 47 courts around the world, 29 are in the UK. The professional here had to make the special balls, it takes 35 minutes to make one and they are very hard. Grays is the only racket maker to make the specially shaped racket.
Weymouth Kite Festival – flying bears!
Very decorative kites – it was quite a windy day so just right for kite flying.
6 kites flying to music – there are six blokes further down the beach controlling these kites. The performance was very impressive.
Weymouth sand is known for its quality for sand sculpture. This photo is taken through some protective netting hence the lack of contrast.
Burton Bradstock – one of the prettiest villages in this area.
Burton Bradstock church.
Seaton Tramway operates narrow gauge trams between Seaton, Colyford and Colyton in East Devon's Axe Valley, travelling alongside the River Axe estuary through two nature reserves. Colyton is described as "Devon's Most Rebellious Town" for its part in the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685.
Many of these trams have been used in famous tourist resorts. They are a lot smaller than they look.
They are double ended so the tram doesn’t have to turn around at the end of the line.
The second weekend at the caravan site saw the Honda Goldwing meeting. Despite being warned that it would be a noisy weekend it was remarkably quiet. Many of the bikes arrived with their own trailers which held all their goodies for the weekend including tents.
One of the houses in Charmouth with a covering of wisteria.
Beach huts in Lyme Regis. All Sue’s favourite colours.
A novel way of having a coffee/tea. The local bakery invites you in where you help yourself to food and order drinks. On exit you say what you had and pay up.
I’m sitting here at home writing the blog and listening to Radio 4 about MP’s expenses. Here is a plug I bought in Charmouth, where do I send the bill?
