Waited at Bridport Bus Station for a bus to Axminster where we would catch a train. Rain seemed set in for the day, a first on our trip and a good reason to be in transit. Until recently I thought Axminster was a brand or style of carpet, but now I know it’s also a… Continue reading Bridport Bus Station
Category: Europe
Homeward Stretch
Turnaround point on our final cliff hike. Tomorrow we start our journey home with a hike into town, then a bus, then a train, then a bus to Heathrow where we’ll check into a hotel for the night before our flight home.
Day Tripper
Took a bus to Weymouth, resisting the typical seaside allure. Instead, I walked to Nothe Fort, a large 19th-century fortification built to protect against a French invasion. It served during both World Wars and the Cold War, even housing a nuclear bunker in the 1980s. Weymouth played a significant role 80 years ago on D-Day,… Continue reading Day Tripper
Clifftop Signal
Walked east along the coast, past this clifftop burning beacon. The beacon aligns with another we saw yesterday. These structures have been used since Roman times to signal danger, but nowadays, they’re lit to celebrate events like the new millennium or the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022.
Jurassic Coast Hike
We’re staying on the Jurassic Coast of Dorset, where the cliffs are constantly eroding, revealing formations and fossils from different geologic periods. Today, we hiked the cliffs west of where we’re staying. This turned out to be a good workout as we navigated the trail up and down. Another day, we’ll explore the eastern cliffs.
A Toast to Rope
On our walk into town, we admired a playground where all the equipment imaginatively incorporated rope. This area has a rich history of rope-making for shipping, executions, and more, dating back to the 13th century. Rope was sometimes produced exclusively here for the entire kingdom by royal decree. To commemorate this important industry we enjoyed… Continue reading A Toast to Rope
A Bit of British Seaside
With the Thames Path Diversion hike successfully accomplished, it was time to start planning another inn-to-inn hike and go our separate ways. Our friends headed back to their homes in the north and south of England, while Dwight and I took three trains and a bus to a seaside town on the Dorset coast for… Continue reading A Bit of British Seaside
Thames Path Diversion: Final Day
To reach our final destination, the Thames Head Inn, we planned a route that bypassed areas with substantial flooding. Along the way, we encountered glimpses of the Thames, a distant relative to the mighty river we’d seen at the Thames Barrier earlier in our trip.
Thames Leaf Dash
When it’s contained, the Thames is now quite narrow, but unusually deep, up to the arch of this bridge. When it’s not contained, entire fields are flooded. Here, children are enjoying leaf races, each dropping a leaf into the fast-flowing water from one side of the bridge and then racing to the other side to… Continue reading Thames Leaf Dash
Thames Path Diversion
We’ve all but abandoned the Thames Path, having faced impossible flooding. Instead we renamed our hike The Thames Path Diversion Hike and took a cab to the next inn on the itinerary where we dumped our backpacks. From there we hiked on dry land and in sunshine to William Morris’s country home. Back at our… Continue reading Thames Path Diversion