Thursday 10th July

I was up at 5am to grab some photos (and take advantage of the coolness) and we got up around around 7am and boiled the kettle on the Trangia for coffee for both of us.

The Trangia stove has really proved really useful this trip, not having to add additional heat to the van.

The van was facing east so we had a lot of sun first thing, I remembered that I brought a DD Hammocks campervan tarp with me which we slid into the rail of the extended awning for some additional protection from the hot sun…

Breakfast was honey mustard links split and fried and on a nice roll, very tasty and it was 21C by 9am…very hot.

We packed up and left around 10:30am and headed along to Charmouth Beach and looked around the fossil museum which is definitely worth it.

After a very nice cheese and pickle sandwich (or egg mayo) and a great date and apple flapjack we headed back to Bridport and popped into Morrisons.

We arrived at Highlands end around 1:30pm and got setup on pitch 84 (not a lot of options, it was pretty full) - after a quick stop at the Motorhome Service point to dump water and take on water.

Around 4:30pm we popped into the onsite Spar, you can order bread products for pickup in the morning, so we ordered a baguette and a maple pecan plait with an almond croissant for Friday morning.

After that we wandered over to “Martin’s Bar” and we had a couple of drinks, I had the Cornish best bitter, while Gayle picked an Old mout berries and cherries.

It was very hot, so I moved onto a Thatchers Juicy Apple cider, while Gayle went for a Coconut mojito.

After that, we headed back to the van and sat under the awning.

We’d bought a salad each from the Morrisons salad counter for dinner, supplemented by one of their baji pots for me while Gayle made herself an egg mayo sandwich, all very tasty.

I also had a fresh cream raspberry trifle which topped off my dinner nicely.

We sat out ‘til it was starting to get dark and then watched a bit of tv before bed.

Friday 11th July

It was warm overnight (unsurprisingly) I was lucky enough to have what little breeze there was coming in the window, Gayle was not so lucky and needed the fan.

We got up around 6:30 and off to the showers…they are very strong contenders for best onsite facilities, really big, temperature and pressure control and 6 hooks and a mirror!

Back out with the Peggy peg crocodiles to dry our towels, they’ve definitely been worth the money, we brought extra towels this trip because usually after a few days they start to smell because they aren’t dried properly but we didn’t need them, as they were properly dried every time.

Out with the Trangia and kettle on to boil and we had a cup of tea.

The van was east-west aligned so not much hiding from the sun and we retreated to the dark inside for a bit of respite ahead of our breakfast and brewery tour.

It was 23c at 9am…even hotter than yesterday.

Gayle picked up the baguette, almond croissant and maple plait, all were very good - the baguette was really nice and fresh then we set off for the 30 minute walk to Palmer’s brewery.

It was already a very hot sun, but we got some respite during the fantastic tour, it’s a historic brewery and a lot of their processes are using vintage kit, David who led the tour was very knowledgeable and it was fascinating - we’ve been on a few brewery tours, but this was one of the best.

We got to taste all their beers which were very good…my favourite was the cask conditioned Colmers which was a light, citrusy ale, impossible to get in Scotland, but very drinkable in Dorset.

We wandered into West Bay, and popped into The West Bay hotel for lunch - I had their Philly cheese with chips, all very good, the chips were especially good, crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.

Gayle had their chicken burger with onion rings, apparently it was ok and for dessert Gayle chose a salted caramel brownie and ice cream for dessert while I picked a very nice Baileys Panna Cotta, it was delicious.

We popped into West Bay Discovery Centre for a bit of respite from the sun, it was really interesting, covering the prehistoric and recent history of the town.

After lunch, we skulked around West Bay trying to avoid the sun, and then it was time for the walk up the hill back to the site, in 25C…and very bright sunshine

We got back to the van and gulped down a litre or so of water and relaxed…

I had a bowl of chips for dinner and a can of Campervan brewery Puffin Isles Gose which is nice… prefer their Mango Mimosa tho’.

We sat out, it was warm until around 10:30pm, reading books.

Saturday 12th

It was reasonably cool in the van and we had the last two honey mustard sausages on the remainder of yesterday’s baguette which was still fine, along with the last two rolls from the other day with fried eggs, all cooked on the Trangia.

We lounged around avoiding the hot sun all day, only punctuated by a visit to the onsite restaurant at lunchtime, but their lunch menu wasn’t on and we planned to have our last night dinner there, so across to the shop and we grabbed sandwiches

Around 5:30pm, after an invigorating pre-dinner shower we headed over to Martins bar for dinner.

I had their ham, egg and chips which was great, tasty ham and nicely cooked eggs with great chips.

Gayle struggled with her ham and pineapple pizza and chips, the pizza was great, just a lot of it.

We had Thatchers ciders all around and a Palmer’s ginger beer to wash down dinner.

Back to the van for our last night.

Packed up most of the stuff that we’d left outside the past few days, it was still 20c at 9pm

Sunday 13th

We set off just before 7am in bright sunshine, and headed back towards Taunton to fill up with diesel at Sainsbury’s (a lot cheaper than on the motorway) and sandwiches for lunch.

We joined the M5 and headed north, stopping off at Gloucester Services for breakfast at around 9am.

I had the waffles with bacon and maple syrup which were really tasty, the waffle in particular was soaked in the maple syrup and tasted great.

Gayle went for her favourite, scrambled eggs on toast, which was also great.

Fuelled up, we continued north ’til we got to the Knutsford Moto stop, and finally Tebay Services.

After that we pushed on and arrived home around 5:15pm…a long day, and it was very hot in the van all the way north.