Our 3rd trip of the year and I couldn’t help feeling more excitement than usual as the weekend promises good weather and we were returning to a favourite spot on the South coast in Dorset. We constantly reminisce about when and how frequently we’ve been here and although the landscape and roads have been well travelled and look comfortingly familiar, I think we’ve only properly visited Bridport once before. Of course I can refer to my caravan blog and so can say with confidence that we first visited Bridport in April 2015 at Bingham Grange and although we’ve been in the area a couple of time (Charmouth and Lyme Regis, Sept 2013 and again in Sept 2015) we’ve not been back to Bridport itself. Our fondness for Bridport has probably given us a false air of familiarity with it. Whatever the basis of our links with the area, we are both pleased to choose it as a destination for the weekend of our 30th wedding anniversary!
Highland’s End is what I would call an independent site (not a Caravan Club or Caravan and Camping club site), and I must say I’m more drawn to venturing out of the comfort zone of these clubs. They are a great resource for novices when first setting out on the caravanning adventure and there is no doubt about their quality, but sometimes their locations are a bit limited and the corporate branding a bit restrictive. We’ve had some very pleasant experiences off piste (and some we’d rather not repeat!).
The journey was a bit longer than normal. We set off later than usual as we could not get on site before 3pm (why? – it’s not like they have to make the beds and change the towels), and the traffic was pretty heavy. Everyone probably had the same idea as us to get away for a sunny weekend? But we arrived in good time for a 3pm pitch up and got a lovely spot right in the corner with some welcome privacy and an unbroken view to the cliffs between West Bay and Eype. The sun was hot and we enjoyed a walk to the cliffs after setting up camp. Dinner was a BBQ and eaten sitting outside enjoying the waning of the day.
Saturday 14th May
Saturday dawned sunny if crisp and we were happy with the novelty of eating breakfast alfresco after our morning ablutions. The Man was a bit dubious about the showers as he could not adjust the water temperature, so had a brisk shower dodging the molten lava, but I had a 9/10 experience (see previous blog for rating scores). Points were lost on the showers for the ridiculous ‘percussion’ controls whereby the shower stops on a regular basis and you have to hit the shower button to prevent the sudden onslaught of the sudden unwelcome chill while you are in a helplesslessly soapy state. I don’t understand the rationale for this. Do they not trust us to turn off the shower when we are finished? Are we so hopelessly inept that we would carry out our post shower ablutions while the shower is still running? To be fair I should give extra points for the roominess of the Highland’s End Showers,and I can’t fault them on the number of hooks supplied. During today’s shower I counted seven, but on Sunday I was rewarded with an overwhelming eleven hooks! I actually didn’t have enough stuff to hang on them all but I was ridiculously pleased with them all the same!
Today’s plan was to visit Bridport again and then onto Eype to walk over the coast path. Our last visit to Bridport conjured up lovely memories and today was not too different, but it was heaving and we fell out early on with someone who stole our parking space which was a frustrating start to our day. The street market was fabulous and I picked up some odds and ends that I was inordinately pleased with and the brass band gave an air of jauntiness to the proceedings. We had our usual coffee stop and a visit and purchases in Mountain Warehouse, and The Dog was fairly well behaved, so altogether not a bad start to the day.
We were being lazy and parked up at Eype Mouth car park (you can see our caravan site from the car park!). But we made up for it by walking a good 5 miles up along the South West coast path to Thornecombe beacon and then inland around the woods to the café at Down House Farm and then back through upper Eype to the car park.
The views from the top of the cliff at the Beacon were stunning. It was glorious. Sun, beautiful views, birdsong, and fellow walkers with cheery greetings. All in all we did 13769 steps (8.5 km), the most I’ve done this month. My phone also tells me that we climbed 36 floors but I think that just reflects the height of the beacon!
We got a bit lost around the woods but it was worth it for the fabulous carpet of bluebells. Every so often there was a sign for the café which was much lauded, but the signs were tantalisingly few and we had to guess the directions most of the time. Luckily we eventually stumbled upon it and I believe it’s remoteness and difficult navigation is all designed to keep people away as it is a nugget of fabulousness.
Traditional teas and specials amid a country style patio setting with water bowls for dogs and antique stoneware and rambling climbers. We had a lovely Lyme Bay crab bap which set us up nicely for the last leg of the walk along deserted country lanes and through summery fields of wild flowers – it was quite delightful and heart-lifting.
Back at the site we sat in the club house garden and tested the beverages at the site bar and restaurant (not a common feature of CC or C&C sites!) which was a welcome reward for our walking efforts and made for a mellow evening back at base.
Sunday 15th May
The good weather persists which got The Man up and out of bed at an ungodly hour! Luckily I had slept well but it was still a rude awakening – if the Sunday service is still on Radio 4, its too early in my book!
Still, we managed another alfresco breakfast and then set off on foot over the cliffs to West Bay.
West Bay has been made famous by the popular TV show ‘Broadchurch’ and it’s cliffs never fail to inspire awe and a slight unease that they could crash to the beach below at any minute! We loved our last visit to West Bay, but today I felt a pang of disappointment as it seemed less congenial than I remembered. Albeit a bit later in the year and warmer meant the there were more crowds and there seemed to be a large flotilla of people who like to dress in leather and ride large very noisy motorbikes. Apart from a very quaint harbour in the centre, the rest of West Bay seems to have curiously missed a trick and the surrounding streets hold a hotch potch of unattractive coffee shops, high end apartments and unidentified buildings that give off a slightly desolate air. So after a coffee we decided to go back to base and take a drive to Sidmouth for the afternoon.
Sidmouth appeared in the Doomsday Book as Sedemuda. Like many such settlements, it was originally a fishing village. Although attempts have been made to construct a harbour, none has succeeded. A lack of shelter in the bay prevented growth as a port. The wide esplanade has been a prominent feature since Regency times. A series of southwesterly storms in the early 1990s washed away much of the shingle beach protecting the masonry. A series of artificial rock islands was constructed to protect the sea front, and tons of pebbles were trucked in to replace the beach. Sidmouth remained a village until the fashion for coastal resorts grew in the Georgian and Victorian periods of the 18th and 19th centuries. The numerous fine Georgian and Regency villas and mansions are now mostly hotels. In 1819, George III’s son Edward, Duke of Kent, his wife, and baby daughter (the future Queen Victoria) came to stay at Woolbrook Glen for a few weeks. In less than a month he had died from an illness. The house later became the Royal Glen Hotel; a plaque on an exterior wall records the visit (Wikipedia).
Sidmouth was a pleasant surprise and just what I expect from an English seaside resort. We parked conveniently on the seafront with the personal touch of a cheerful car park attendant. There was a very conveniently placed ice cream booth gaily decorated with brightly coloured buckets and spades, so we had a 99 flake and felt like we were really at the seaside! We walked along the front to an enticing outcrop of rock at the end of the road and walked round the headland onto Jacob’s Ladder beach.
Jacob’s Ladder is a series of wooden steps leading up to the top of the red cliffs from the beach. An alternative route up is a steep path and we decided to take this as the steps looked a bit daunting. At the top we came across the delightful Connaught Gardens – a hidden gem of flower beds, winding paths and conveniently placed benches for quiet contemplation. Connaught Gardens date from around 1820. They were named after The Duke of Connaught, the third son of Queen Victoria and he officially opened the gardens in 1934, aged 84.
From here we walked back along the seafront to the other end of town, and a delightful clutch of streets with neat shops and coffee bars buzzing with cheerful people out for a Sunday afternoon stroll. It was lovely and I was very pleased we’d decided to visit. My faith in the traditional British seaside town was suitably restored. It was a fairly long journey back to the Van, and we drove through another favourite town – Lyme Regis. The place was heaving and we got stuck in a bit of traffic going through town. As I was idly gazing out of the car window I witnessed two middle aged couples suitably alarmed at being liberally doused with a considerable amount of seagull faecal matter –another British seaside tradition!
The late afternoon/evening got a bit chilly so we took down the awning in readiness for home tomorrow, and cosied up in the Van for the evening. We ended the trip with another seaside tradition – take away fish and chips! It was a fabulous weekend and we’ll definitely come back to this site again.
Me, the man, our dog, and a van 