Tuesday 21 June 2011
Set off early today as we had an 11.15am crossing from Yarmouth to Islington on the ferry. We made good time and it was a pretty straight forward trip so we arrived at around 10am. We lined up and the ferry eventually arrived. They have a system here that if you arrive early and there is room for you they let you on. So it was that we made the 10.30am crossing! Rang Stu while we were waiting and it was nice to hear his voice. I expected the trip across to be quite quick as Yarmouth is closer to the mainland than Portsmouth but what I didn’t realise was that about ¼ of the trip is up the river to Islington and this is a very slow trip. It was interesting though and there were hundreds of small yachts lined up on either side of the river. The ferry system here is very efficient and we were no sooner docked than we were leaving and heading on our way. The plan today was to head for Salisbury and then on to Stonehenge before heading for Lyme Regis. Quite an ambitious itinerary as it turned out! We made it safely to Salisbury and found a car park building with not too much trouble. It was very busy and we made our way towards the old city wall and on to the Cathedral. Its quite an amazing place! The cathedral sores above you as you enter and the decorations, carvings, stained glass windows and other adornments make it a truly remarkable place! Unfortunately we had a fair way still to travel and we wanted to see Stonehenge so we had to make our tour quite quick and we couldn’t really take it all in. We hit the road again and headed for Stonehenge. The signposts gave no mention of the henge until we were very close-by and as we neared the turnoff there were roadworks and a huge sign saying STONEHENGE CLOSED. We could see it over to the right but the road was definitely closed and we were very disappointed that we couldn’t have a walk around – but hey its not the end of the world and we did see it even if it was from a distance!

Onward & upward, our next destination was Lyme Regis. To get there we kept to the A303 and headed for Exeter. We had to turn off at Ilminster and this was a bit fraught. Some of the turnoffs are a little hard to understand as they mention towns off to the side that are not on the main route and this can be confusing. It was to me anyway and I think I led us down the wrong road but ultimately we did manage to arrive at our destination albeit a little late in the day! However we found Hedgehog Corner and our room is once again lovely as are the people who run it. We quickly unpacked and headed down the road (3 miles) to a parking area near the township. The carpark was high above the beachfront and it was 89 steps down to the pathway to the beach. Lyme Regis is a typical South seaside village with quaint little buildings long the waterside and boats as far as the eye can see. As it was now 5.15pm we decided to have a meal before we left so we wouldn’t have to go out again after we got home. Good idea! By the time we had polished off a bottle of bubbly and had our Fish soup with tomatoe, Crabstack and Fish Pie we were ready to head for home.

Message for Ruby & Izzy – how are you guys? We miss you and we haven’t had a message from you for ages – have you forgotten who we are? GDad is behaving Ok but I have to keep him on the straight and narrow now and again. He is looking after me which is good as I tend to get lost very easily! Hope you are enjoying The Oval and looking after our place. Would love to hear from you some time. Love GD & GM XXX

Hey guys good to receive all your comments. Stu you must have been here in "summer" as no carnival at shanklyn. Did you ever work when you were here? Mike good you are keeping your young brother in check!

Nan great to hear from you. I have tried to ring a few times but no luck. You must be starting to get excited - I know Marie is.

Jane Kev said to tell you that BBC news said that the Orkneys were to have a high of 7 and that there is rain all over Scotland. Have to say its raining here today again though. Some English lady told us though "rain before 7 gone by 11" so thats encouraging. Just back in our room after a beautiful breakfast - we will need to do some walking today!

Hi Sheryl if you are reading this Kev says you might like to download some of the photos and put them on a memory stick for Mum if you are able to. He says you might have to number them going by what you have said about the blogs!

Kev would like say a bit about the driving. He says its the first time in his driving career that he
has driven on a major road that is only wide enough for a bus and a car and we now have grass stains on our passenger side. Janny sent us down this major road A358 and its the only time we have had to stops for traffic lights to pedestrians cross, stop behind parked cars to allow the oncoming traffic to pass. Parked cars were parked with one wheel on the pavement so there was no room for pedestrians anyone. If you get behind a bike you have to crawl along at their pace till there is a gap in the traffic so you can pass! All this is done on roads that have hedgerows higher than you can see over, no shoulders but in some places the roads are curbed and channeled for miles!

Today we are going to go to Axminster which is on the Axe River. This is where the guy from River Cottage lives so we thought we would visit him!