Dorset 2023

Day 2

The site electrics

After 9 amazing hours of sleep, we are hiking into Dorchester today.  By car it is about 6 miles but if using the footpaths it is nearer 9.  The sun is shining, and we’ve eaten a scrummy breakfast so we are ready to go.

Our normal app we use for walking is Alltrails but this only works if it is a walk others have done and as we are on a farm surrounded by fields, Alltrails came up with zilch.  Therefore, I plotted the route on a different app which I would like more if it wasn’t so clunky.  Beggars can’t be choosers though, so we set off with smiles on our faces. 

The walk was lovely and could have only been made better had it not involved so many farm tracks which were hard on my knee and I prefer fields or tracks through the woods.  The situation wasn’t made any better after I realised I hadn’t packed my knee support.  I swallowed some ibuprofen and so hoped for the best.

We didn’t meet a single person until we arrived in Dorchester and enjoyed the silence, broken only by birdsong.  We saw some buzzards and pheasants but not much else – it was heaven.  We stopped for a while to eat our packed lunch and admired the huge Dorset houses.  Mel and I have discovered during our recent training that you get to see a lot of secluded houses when on a footpath – all of which, we can’t afford.

I used to live in Dorchester but it has grown a great deal – particularly Poundbury.  As we walked through the area, Mel ask me to show her the house I used to live in but thanks to my rubbish memory, I couldn’t remember the name of the road it was in and didn’t recognise anything else.  However, as we left Poundbury, into an another area I lived in, we walked passed a flat I had lived in and immediately recognised it – strange I could remember one and not the other.  When we got into the town centre, it was the same thing, I could remember some landmarks but not how to get there so I had to rely on signs and google as normal. 

Mel had been concerned that Dorchester would be too posh for charity shops and was pleasantly surprised when she found some which appeared acceptable.  As ever, I stood outside quietly, waiting until I was retrieved by Mel once she had finished and as Dorchester isn’t that big, it didn’t take long before we decided to look for a taxi to get us home.

We were lucky and found one quickly and jumped in.  The driver was amazed when we said we had walked into town and I was amazed (translate that as ‘horrified’) when he said the price was £18.  How can a 6 mile trip cost that much?  I had expected it to cost half as much.  No point in moaning through the only other choice was to walk back and we were too tired.

After a cup of tea, I headed for a shower and soon wished I hadn’t.  Whilst it was spotlessly clean and nice and spacious, I soon froze to death.  The water wouldn’t warm up fully and instead had a nasty trick of getting warm enough to lather up and then go cold again.  After the worlds shortest shower, I headed back to Ethel and Mel.

The power issue has been ongoing and every now and then we don’t have any for a few minutes.  Looking at the set up here, it is not surprising as the hook ups are being run off extension leads and we were at the end of the line.  If everyone ahead of us had their gadgets on, there wasn’t enough oomph left for us.

Shower and intermittent power means we probably wont stay on this site again.  It is in a nice setting and the owner is very helpful but I do like to be able to plug in the kettle without a drama.

Tomorrow a day of rest and total nothingness is planned so I probably won’t write anything and whilst our next trip (Dales Way walk) doesn’t involve the Ethster, I will endeavour to blog to help me in the future, but it depends if I can still walk at the end of each day – let alone type.