On Friday the 11th October We drove towards Dorset from Devon and through Dorchester on our way through to Poole. There is a vast new housing development on the way to the old town which must have cost the earth but is very much in keeping with the style of the old town. It was unusual to see in this day and age.
From Dorchester we made our way to “Clouds Hill” the home of T.E Lawrence after his Arabian adventures. It is a lovely little cottage and there is much information about his life and times and very informative guides in the tiny cottage and garage. It had started sprinkling as we arrived at the caravan park near Poole so we kept dry and snug with our heating on. We had our fresh fish and zucchini for dinner and listened to the rain and wind.
In the morning the weather had cleared and we drove in bright sunshine into Poole for a coffee and saw the small inner harbour with it’s multi million dollar boats and then the vast outer harbour with hundreds of sail boats. Sandbanks on the other side of the harbour reminded us of Perth with very similar large coastal houses. We continued on to the “Rufus Stone” in the “New Forest” a vast forest and open grassy meadows with a lot of squirrels, donkeys and horses dotted around the the very large forest. It is a beautiful area.
We went on to Winchester to see the Cathedral and the Great Hall and the historic old town which was bustling with locals and tourists. It was still warmish (with our coats on) and we sat in the sunshine and had another coffee and shared a good Cornish pasty.
We left Winchester and headed north to Hitchin for a couple of days rest at the caravan sales office and to catch up with Kandy and Colin from Perth on Sunday in Dunstable.