Are the brown sticks in the ice cream cones chocolate?
Wow, it must be hot there the beautiful greenery turned yellow, looks like California now.
Are the brown sticks in the ice cream cones chocolate?
Wow, it must be hot there the beautiful greenery turned yellow, looks like California now.
To be honest it would have been more use if you'd have posted that review before I booked the room but I'm sure it'll be OK. Some people complain about anything these days.
We were having such a good time down in Dorset I extended the holiday by a day so Wednesday was a bonus day... and it rained.
Despite the weather the day started well and just got better and better.
On Tuesday night I'd actually secured one of the few free parking spaces by the side of the hotel so I was tempted just to stay in West Bay for the day to make the most of it but then I noticed this convertible Saab parked outside and I thought we'd better get going fast. No way was I going for a day's dogging with the carpark fees in Dorset.
We were first heading to Lyme Regis where I had unfinished business and I have a confession to make here. I was planning on visiting the fossil shop to buy a nice ammonite and then pretend that I'd found it on the beach, but on the way we passed a sign saying 'The World Famous Fossil Beach at Charmouth', and I thought, 'why not'? So we followed in the footsteps of Mary Anning and went to visit Charmouth Beach.
Another beach, another parking fee. It was cold with drizzle so I promised the daughter we'd just spend one hour fossil hunting and then go elsewhere... so after coughing up £1.20 we tackled up.
It certainly wasn't beach weather and the majority of people on the beach were looking for fossils. They weren't proper geologists but just amateur twats with hammers which pissed me off somewhat.
A nice bed of limestone within the lower Jurassic mudstones.
I wasn't getting much luck and then a strange thing happened. This bladdy Cockney asked if he could borrow my hammer for 2 minutes... no more he promised. I hate to lend out tools but it seemed a bit peevish to deny him, just because he was an amatuer and a Cockney to boot, so I said Ok, so long as you're quick. The daughter went along with him to make sure he didn't try and steal me new geological hammer. That was him in the yellow T-shirt with his family.
The daughter came back with my hammer a couple of minutes later and said he'd found something but couldn't get it out of the mudstone. I thought no more about it.
We carried on searching until there was just 20 minutes left on the parking and the tide was coming in anyway so we started back to the car, empty handed. Anyway, on the way the daughter showed me this Cockney's 'find' and straight away I recognised a big ammonite embedded in the mudstone bedrock on the beach. I could see the Cockney's ineffectual hammer marks around the fossil... he obviously had no idea. I looked around and he was nowhere to be seen, so I discreetly went to work. I'm not too sure on the rules at World Heritage Sites but suffice to say I definitely didn't hack around the ammonite and eventually prize it out of the soft mudstone... and even if I had, I'd only have been accelerating the natural erosion by a few months.
Mendip always gets his fossil! That's the difference between a professional and an amateur.
This ammonite had laid embedded in that mudstone since the early Jurassic, around 200 million years ago. It had lain there throughout the age of the dinosaurs, the rise of the mammals, through the building of the pyramids, the Roman occupation of England, the Norman invasion and two world wars. But it was no match for me!
I staggered down the beach towards the car which must have been nearly a mile away. The ammonite was so bloody heavy I had to keep dropping it and having a rest. The daughter got embarrassed by the strange looks I was getting from all the plebs on the beach and walked 10 meters in front of me, the sod. I don't think she was really enjoying herself.
Eventually I had to leave her in a closer car park with the ammonite to guard while I went off to get the car. Poor kid, she had another huff on.
But what an hour... worth every penny of that £1.20! Two small ammonites and something else joined the haul.
And kids are easy to cheer up...
These were the best '99s' to date, and only cost 3 quid each. The Charmouth ice cream was yellower and more vanillery than in West Bay.
I was in a bit of a state though. My right arm had gone numb and I'd knackered my T-shirt... and we had places to go.
After Charmouth we crossed the border from Dorset into Devon. We bypassed Lyme Regis... who needs a fossil shop anyway?
Check out the weather... this was the day after the hottest day ever which we'd managed to survive.
And we went to...
A bit ironic really as all I've drunk is cider since arriving in Blighty.
Beer is a beautiful little place and another location we used to visit on our family holidays 50 years ago.
And check this out... free parking. Devon seemed to be less Gestapo-like with it's parking rules and costs.
I still remember walking up this road from the beach as a 6 or 7 year-old with a big crab shell a fisherman had given me.
Maybe I spoke too soon?
A busy working beach. There was a small shop selling fresh fish just by the car park.
It wasn't really deck chair weather. This really is the problem with holidaying at seaside resorts in the UK... one day is the hottest of the year, the next wet and quite chilly. There is very little to do on a beach with kids in bad weather but thankfully these days there are a lot of alternatives.
After a look around for 20 minutes we headed back to the car past this WWII pillbox that had defended the only easy exit from the beach in the vicinity.
And by the car... English runner beans in an allotment. These are easily my favourite vegetable, I just love them but have given up trying to grow them in Korat as every time the bloody sparrows strip off the red flowers before they can develop into fruit.
And next stop a few miles along the road... the Donkey Sanctuary at Branscombe.
StackPath
Entrance to the donkey sanctuary is free and they rely completely on donations. No charge for parking either.
Some donkey facts... although I don't know how they come to such an accurate figure for the world donkey population.
Surpisingly enough, donkeys are facing a new threat from.... China, surprisingly enough. The poor creatures are being shipped out from Africa to China where there's a new fashion to eat donkey meat in the belief it will increase their pencil dick size.
And according to the daughter this was the donkey from the Shrek movies.
The food was average but I wanted to eat there to support the charity. We left a nice donation as well. I like donkeys.
And what pride I felt... the daughter continues to impress me every day.
And another bonus... I got meself a clean T-shirt to wear!
And the last meal of the hols... a seafood risotto. It was indeed a fantastic four days in Dorset.
As a kind of footnote to our Dorset trip, when we got back to my mum's house in Somerset today I measured and weighed my ammonite.
It has a 14" diameter and weighed in at a fraction under 26kg, explaining why I nearly died carrying it back to the car. That's over 4 stone or 57 pounds in real money.
I'm sure to be so heavy it must be heavily mineralised and I think it's probably a pyrite ammonite. After spending a couple of hours cleaning it this afternoon there was a golden lustre showing through the mudstone and I need to do some research before going too far in the cleaning. I think I'll maybe try and get it cut in half. I know exactly where I can get it cut in Pak Chong but don't fancy paying the excess baggage.
I had to go out to buy a bucket big enough to soak it in, and of course every good geologist knows the old trick to clean a fossil.
And no... it's not that... it's vinegar!
I couldn't find any hydrogen peroxide so I bought a couple of bottles of Coop's finest vinegar to be going on with. I think anything acidic will help.
This will keep me busy for a while.
But it won't stop me getting my five a day in.
Last edited by Mendip; 22-07-2022 at 05:10 AM.
Pixelating yer puku. 555 Priceless.
^ You're not allowed to chisel them out of the cliffs but this one was embedded at ground level. I think this may be a grey area.
It just came off in my hands, anyway.
That lower Jurassic mudstone is so soft you can just break bits off with your hands. It's more like a clay than a consolidated rock and every tide erodes a little bit more, so my small efforts made no difference in the scheme of things.
^hey, I wasn't born in the same era as them but I know what ammonites are (but then I have a science background). They're the ancestors of present day molluscs.
@mendy - there are so many picturesque scenes of villages, etc on this thread. Seems like good inspiration/ subjects for Nigel's paintings. Btw, thanks for the pic of the description of the diff types of donkeys - I had my geek mode on and I read it. Now I know about equine Jacks & Jennys.
Reckon Dil 2022 was gonna go for it.
Just booked my penthouse in Chelsea(with hot tub), only an extra tenner a night than what Mendy's paying for that Prisoner Cell Block Travelodge over in Peckham
The nipper will hopefully sleep well, just dropped her off for the weekend, sans mobile phone which will be a huge shock to her systemnow off on the lash before the ball and chain finds me
^ Don't forget to get the chaps and cowboy hat out, its ride em cowboy time later.
^ I reckon that's his sleeping bag.
Talking of rides, think I just spotted Eddie's Ms Mbudga
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